On April 1, 2024, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced they had received enough initial electronic registrations for unique individuals for the fiscal year 2025 (“FY25”) H-1B cap, as well as the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap) and have randomly selected enough properly submitted registrations. The Service has completed the notifications to all employers who submitted online registrations. Those with selected registrations may begin filing H-1B cap subject petitions for FY2025 as of the first of April and have been given until June 30 to file their petition with the service either on paper at the correct filing location or online at my.uscis.gov within the filing period that is indicated on the selection notice.
Read moreFY2025 H-1B Lottery Kick Off
It’s time for the newly updated H-1B Visa Lottery! Upon introducing the final rule which initiated many changes to the fiscal year 2025 (“FY25”) H-1B Lottery, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced the initial registration period for the FY25 H-1B cap will begin at 12pm ET on March 6, 2024, and run through 12pm ET on March 22, 2024. During this registration period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to submit their H-1B registrations using online accounts and pay the required $10 fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.
Read moreChanges to H-1B Visa Lottery Registration Finalized by USCIS
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced its intent to strengthen the integrity of the H-1B registration process by introducing changes to the current electronic registration system. The final rule published on February 2, 2024, aims to ensure that regardless of how many H-1B registrations are submitted on behalf of a foreign national, the odds of that person being selected in the H-1B lottery will not increase. The new rule implements a “beneficiary-centered selection process for H-1B registrations”, which means that instead of selecting by registration, which has been the norm since 2020, USCIS will select registrations by the unique beneficiary.
Read moreElectronic Registration for FY 2023 H-1B Cap is Complete
On March 29, 2022, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that the Service had received enough initial electronic registrations for the fiscal year 2023 (“FY23”) H-1B cap, including the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap). Consequently, the Service has notified all prospective petitioners whose registrations were randomly selected that they are eligible to file cap-subject H-1B petitions for the named beneficiary in the selected registration.
Read moreH-1B Salary Based Selection Process Final Rule is Officially Withdrawn
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that the January 2021 final rule modifying the H-1B selection process has officially been withdrawn by The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). This rule would have eliminated the random selection process known as the H-1B visa lottery, and replaced it with a process prioritizing those foreign nationals who are offered the highest salaries relative to their occupation and geographic area according to the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) prevailing wage system.
Read moreAILA files Lawsuit Challenging H-1B Wage-Based Selection Process
On Monday, May 17, 2021 under the representation of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), five nonprofit organizations and businesses filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s administration challenging the move from an H-1B lottery system to a wage-based selection process.
The suit addresses the implementation of a Trump administration regulation that replaced the H-1B random, computerized H-1B lottery with a system that allocates H-1B visa numbers according to the Department of Labor’s four-level wage system. The final rule which was made effective as of March 9, 2021, and later delayed by the Biden administration to December 31, 2021, gives priority in the H-1B selection process to foreign nationals whose offered salary falls within the highest level of their occupation, continuing on to select cases in descending order from OES wage levels III, II and I.
Read moreUSCIS: Delayed Data Entry and Receipt Notice Generation for FY 2021 H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced this week that petitioners should expect a delay in data entry and receipt notice generation for fiscal year (FY) 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions until at least May 1, 2020, because of delays related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. From the first day of filing, April 1, 2020, USCIS has not been able to immediately enter data for FY 2021 cap-subject petitions due to required health and safety protocols related to COVID-19. The agency states that data entry and notice generation will be delayed until at least May 1, 2020.
Read moreFY 2021 H-1B Cap Petitions May Be Filed as of April 1
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that H-1B cap-subject petitions for fiscal year (FY) 2021, including advanced degree cases, may now be filed with USCIS as of April 1, 2020, if based on a valid selected registration. Petitioners are only eligible to file a FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petition if they electronically registered the beneficiary in the H-1B registration process and USCIS selected the registration for the beneficiary in the random lottery.
The H-1B cap-subject petition must be properly filed within the period indicated on the relevant registration selection notice. The period for filing the H-1B cap-subject petition will be at least ninety days. Since online filing is not available for H-1B petitions, petitioners must file H-1B petitions by paper and should include a printed copy of the applicable registration selection notice along with the supporting evidence and documents establishing eligibility for the H-1B.
According to USCIS, the H-1B electronic registration process was well-received by users, who provided a high satisfaction score with the system. The agency indicated that nearly 275,000 unique registrations were submitted during the initial registration period and roughly forty-six percent of all registrations were for prospective beneficiaries with US advanced degrees. More than 40,000 registration accounts were created in total.
“The new H-1B electronic registration system has been an overall success,” Joseph Edlow, USCIS Deputy Director for Policy, said in a statement. “The positive feedback received by users of the H-1B registration system, the limited amount of technical issues experienced during the registration period, and the ability to immediately respond to questions from registrants was the result of a comprehensive effort developed over the course of more than a year. This new registration system is one of many ways USCIS is improving the H-1B program.”
USCIS Announces Temporary Suspension of Premium Processing for FY 2021 Cap-Subject Petitions
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) this week announced the temporary suspension of premium processing for fiscal year (FY) 2021 cap-subject H-1B petitions. When USCIS begins accepting cap-subject petitions on April 1 (for cases selected in the lottery), petitioners filing these FY 2021 cap-subject H-1B petitions will not be able to request premium processing. USCIS will reject any Form I-907 concurrently filed with a cap-subject H-1B Form I-129 until the premium processing service resumes for FY 2021 cap-subject H-1B petitions.
Similar to previous years, premium processing for cap cases will resume in a two-phased approach:
The first phase will include FY 2021 cap-subject H-1B petitions, including master’s cap cases, requesting a change of status from F-1 nonimmigrant status. USCIS will resume premium processing for these cases no later than May 27, 2020. To be eligible to file a case via premium processing as part of this first group, petitioners must select response “b” for Item 4 in Part 2 of Form I-129, and indicate “F-1” for Item 5, “Current Nonimmigrant Status” in Part 3 of Form I-129;
The second phase includes all other FY 2021 cap-subject petitions. Premium processing will be available for these cases on June 29, 2020, at the earliest.
USCIS claims that the temporary suspension will help them “reduce overall H-1B processing times,” and the agency will notify the public with a confirmed date for both phases for resuming premium processing for the FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions.
Please note that this suspension only applies to FY 2021 cap cases. At this time, premium processing is available for H-1B petitions that are exempt from the cap, including extension of stay requests, as well as other types of visa petitions.
Bloomberg Law: “High-Stakes Lottery for H-1B Visas May Become Simpler Next Year”
L. Francis Cissna, director of US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), has announced that the agency is making plans to simplify the H-1B visa lottery program beginning in 2019 for the 2020 fiscal year. These changes would potentially include an employer’s ability to preregister electronically for the H-1B lottery and, if selected in the lottery, file the H-1B petition with USCIS, instead of submitting full petitions before the lottery is completed. Cissna tells Bloomberg Law that he hopes that the agency will implement changes in time for when H-1B cases can be filed in April 2019, although the agency may not have sufficient time to do so. "[Y]ou don’t have to file and go through the hassle and effort and cost of preparing a full-blast petition,” Cissa says, touting the benefit of preregistration. “I think that’s a lot easier than the current situation.”
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