The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2023 H-1B cap will open at noon EST on March 1, and run through noon EST on March 18, 2022. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives can complete and submit their registrations using the online H-1B registration system.
USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2023 H-1B cap. This number is used solely to track registrations. It cannot be used to track case status on USCIS’s website “Case Status Online.”
Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary. Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (U.S. employers and U.S. agents, collectively known as “registrants”) will use a “registrant” account. Registrants can create new accounts beginning noon EST on Feb. 21.
Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 1, to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $10 fee. Prospective petitioners or their representatives will be able to submit registrations for multiple beneficiaries in a single online session. Through the account, they can prepare, edit, and store draft registrations prior to final payment and submission of each registration.
If USCIS receives enough registrations by March 18, it will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts. USCIS intends to notify account holders by March 31.
An H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.
If an employer wishes to employ a qualified foreign national in H-1B visa status for a professional position requiring at minimum a bachelor’s in a field related to the occupation, it must timely complete the H-1B registration process. If an employer wishes to employ multiple foreign nationals in H-1B visa status, it must timely submit H-1B registrations for each individual between noon EST on March 1, and noon EST on March 18.
If your company wishes to participate in the annual H-1B visa registration lottery, please send an email as soon as possible to our firm’s immigration attorney Jacob Muklewicz at jmuklewicz@parsonsbehle.com.
