Further to our recent Client Alert, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed through its announcement on December 6th, that employers seeking to file H-1B cap subject petitions must first electronically register the company and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee per H-1B candidate before filing a petition for the fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap.
According to the announcement, USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020.
* During this initial registration period, prospective employers or their authorized representatives must electronically submit a separate registration naming each employee for whom they seek to file an H-1B cap-subject petition.
* USCIS will then randomly select the number of registrations needed to reach the H-1B numerical allocations after the initial registration period closes, but no later than March 31, 2020.
* Prospective petitioners with lottery-selected registrations will be eligible to file a cap-subject petition only for the employee named in the selected registration.
Once the H-1B registration system has been implemented, and when registration is required, the agency will not consider a cap-subject petition properly filed unless it is based on a valid registration selection for the same beneficiary, and the appropriate fiscal year. Additionally, although petitioners can register multiple employees during a single online submission, duplicate registrations by an employer for the same beneficiary in the same fiscal year will be discarded. USCIS claims it will conduct outreach and training prior to the initial implementation of the registration system to allow the public the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the electronic registration process. USCIS will also provide guidance on how to use the registration system and prepare registrations before opening the registration system for the initial registration period.
DHS intends to publish a notice in the Federal Register in the coming weeks to formally announce implementation of the H-1B registration process.
For more information on the H-1B registration system, please do not hesitate to contact Anthony F. Siliato or Scott R. Malyk.