It is H-1B Cap season again, and USCIS has announced that it will be using the same basic registration process that was implemented last year. While there is still a chance for sweeping changes to the H-1B Cap program, those changes have been delayed for at least another year. The registration period will be from March 9 through March 25, 2021. Here is some additional information:
At the end of last week, USCIS made several announcements with regard to the upcoming H-1B cap season for FY2022:
- A notice was published today in the Federal Register which delays implementation of the Final Rule altering the H-1B cap selection process until December 31, 2021. The rule, which we summarized in our January 7 news flash, will also be open for Public Comment, so may be altered prior to implementation. This means that the existing cap lottery’s random selection rules will remain in effect for this year.
- USCIS announced on Friday that the initial registration period for the FY2022 H-1B cap will begin at noon EDT on March 9 and run through noon EDT on March 25, 2021. During that time, registrations can be submitted by petitioners via the USCIS website for any beneficiaries they seek to sponsor for an H-1B which would begin October 1, 2021. Please note that employers must first create a “registrant” account (available soon) on the myUSCIS portal. Those employer contacts who created an account last year should be able to use the existing account again this year.
- This weekend, the myUSCIS portal sent notices to remaining H-1B registrants from FY2021 that their registrations were not selected in the lottery.
The cap registration process will remain largely the same as last year. As a reminder, petitioners pay $10 for each beneficiary registration and provide some basic information about the beneficiary. Assuming USCIS receives more than 65,000 “regular cap” registrations and/or more than 20,000 “Master’s Cap” registrations (i.e., where the beneficiary earned a Master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution), all registrations will be entered into a random computerized lottery. USCIS will first select the winners of the lottery from all registrations combined, then will run a second lottery on the Master’s Cap cases to select the registrations eligible for that exemption.
USCIS intends to run the lottery and notify account holders by March 31st regarding selection. Petitioners may then file an H-1B petition for any selected beneficiary registrations within the following 90 days. USCIS will run a second lottery on non-selected petitions after the initial filing period to select additional registrations eligible to file based on unused numbers from the first selection period. Last year, this new lottery occurred in mid-August.
RSST Law Group is happy to assist our clients with the H-1B registration process. Please reach out to the attorney with whom you work for additional information.
