On Friday, December 6, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a requirement for employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions (master's quota and regular quota) to first electronically register and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee before filing a petition for the fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap.
USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020. During this initial registration period, prospective petitioners or their authorized representatives must electronically submit a separate registration naming each alien for whom they seek to file an H-1B cap-subject petition.
If a sufficient number of registrations are received, USCIS will randomly select the number of registrations projected as needed to reach the H-1B numerical allocations after the initial registration period closes and no later than March 31, 2020.
Prospective petitioners with selected registrations will be eligible to file a cap-subject petition only for the aliens named in the selected registrations.
No news yet on what the online registration process will actually entail or when H-1B petitions for those selected in the lottery must be filed with the USCIS.
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