USCIS Announces that the H-1B Cap for FY2024 Has Been Reached

USCIS has confirmed that they have received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated H-1B Cap (including the U.S. advanced degree exemption or “Master’s” cap) for Fiscal Year 2024.

USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B cap-exempt petitions, including:

• Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have previously been counted against the cap and who retain their cap number;

• Petitions to extend H-1B status;

• Petitions to change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;

• Petitions to allow current H-1B workers to change employers;

• Petitions to allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.

USCIS will send non-selection notices to cap-subject registrants through their online accounts over the next few days.

Please note that the above is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. For specific questions about how the FY2024 H-1B Cap may apply to your circumstances, please contact your team at D&S.

USCIS Announces Implementation of H-1B Electronic Registration Process for Fiscal Year 2022 Cap Season

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the initial registration period for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 H-1B cap will open at 12 (noon) Eastern on March 9, 2021 and run through 12 (noon) Eastern on March 25, 2021.

Under this registration process, employers or their authorized representatives will be required to complete a registration for each requested worker during the registration window, providing initial information about their company and each requested worker. Employers must also pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration. The H-1B random selection process will then be run on those electronic registrations. Only those with selected registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.

USCIS indicates the agency intends to notify account holders of the results of the selection process by March 31, 2021.

D&S will post additional guidance as it becomes available.

USCIS Announces FY2021 Electronic Registration Selection is Complete

Today the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that it has received a sufficient number of FY 2021 H-1B Cap registrations to meet the annual H-1B quota. As such, they have run the random selection process and will notify petitioners with selected registrations by March 31, 2020. By this date, petitioners and representatives will be able to log into their myUSCIS.gov accounts to see the status of the registrations they submitted. Cases that have been selected will have their status updated to “Selected” and cases that have not been selected will continue to show as “Submitted” as USCIS has indicated that it will keep all registrations available and open until the end of the fiscal year and, in the event that additional visa numbers become available (due to denials, withdrawals, failure to file after selection), USCIS may go back in and randomly select additional cases for processing, though they have not provided additional details about that process at this time.

Note that USCIS will only indicate that a registration has been “denied” in the event that it has discovered a duplicate registration was submitted by the same registrant for the same beneficiary, or a payment method was declined and not reconciled.

USCIS Announces Implementation of H-1B Electronic Registration Process for Fiscal Year 2021 Cap Season

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will be implementing the registration process in the next H-1B lottery. Employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions for the fiscal year (FY) 2021 cap, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must first electronically register with USCIS. USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020.

Under this new process, employers or their authorized representatives will be required to complete a registration for each requested worker during the registration window, providing initial information about their company and each requested worker. Employers must also pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration. The H-1B random selection process will then be run on those electronic registrations. Only those with selected registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.

USCIS indicates it will post step-by-step instructions on the registration process along with key dates and timelines as the initial registration period nears.

D&S will post additional guidance as it becomes available.

USCIS Completes the H-1B Cap Random Selection Process for FY2020

USCIS has confirmed that they have received a sufficient number of petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated H-1B Cap (including the U.S. advanced degree exemption or “Master’s” cap) for Fiscal Year 2020. USCIS previously announced on April 5 that it had received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-1B regular cap of 65,000.

USCIS received 201,011 H-1B petitions during the filing period, which began on April 1, 2019.

USCIS will begin to reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions (with the exception of fees for cases rejected as prohibited multiple filings).

USCIS Reaches FY 2020 H-1B Regular Cap

USCIS has confirmed that they have received a sufficient number of petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa “regular” or “Bachelor’s” cap for Fiscal Year 2020.

USCIS will next determine if they have also received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, the “Master’s” cap.

As a reminder, the agency recently implemented a new rule amending the regulations governing the H-1B cap. Under the new rule, USCIS runs petitions through the lottery process by first selecting all individuals through the regular cap of 65,000 visas and then selecting the projected number of petitions needed to reach the advanced degree exemption through the second lottery among only U.S. advanced degree holders who were not selected in the regular cap lottery. The agency has stated that this new order in which the lottery is run will likely increase the probability of selection for H-1B advanced degree beneficiaries.

Once both caps have been met, USCIS will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions (with the exception of fees for cases rejected as prohibited multiple filings).

USCIS To Resume Premium Processing Service for H-1B Petitions Filed on or before 12/21/2018

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that it will resume premium processing service on Tuesday, February 19, 2019 for all H-1B petitions filed on or before December 21, 2018.

As a reminder, USCIS previously announced that premium processing would resume for FY2019 cap-subject petitions beginning on January 28, 2019. Today’s announcement further expands the use of premium processing service to all other H-1B petition types filed on or before December 21, 2018.

USCIS notes that the premium processing requests must be sent to the service center currently handling the pending H-1B petition. It also states that the petitioners who have received requests for evidence (RFEs) should include the RFE response with their premium processing upgrade requests.

The announcement confirms that the previously-implemented suspension of premium processing service will remain in effect for H-1B petitions that were filed on or after December 22, 2018 until agency workloads permit premium processing service to resume for these cases.

D&S will continue to monitor the H-1B premium processing suspension and provide updates as they become available.

USCIS Announces that Data Entry for all FY2019 H-1B Cap Cases is Complete

USCIS has confirmed that data entry for all fiscal year 2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the computer-generated random selection process ("the lottery") has been completed. The Agency will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the lottery. 

USCIS has indicated that, due to the high volume of H-1B filings, the Agency cannot provide a definite time frame for returning unselected petitions but that they will issue an announcement once all the unselected petitions have been returned. 

Reminders to Students and Employers as H-1B Cap Effective Date Approaches on October 1

As October 1st is fast-approaching, individuals with H-1B petitions that were selected in this year’s H-1B cap and employers of H-1B visa holders should remain aware of some important facts:

CAP-GAP EXTENSIONS END ON SEPTEMBER 30th - For those whose H-1B is still pending and who are relying on the automatic cap-gap for F-1 students, keep in mind that that your cap-gap employment authorization ends on September 30th, even if the H-1B remains pending after this date. Therefore, employees whose H-1B visas are not approved by October 1st will have to stop working and be removed from payroll. Because of this, we recommend considering upgrading to premium processing as soon as possible in order to avoid this consequence or, at the very least, minimize the amount of time you or your employee will be unable to work.

VALID H-1B VISA STAMP REQUIRED FOR REENTRY TO U.S. - While an H-1B employee is not required to have a valid H-1B visa in his or her passport for purposes of employment, they must have a valid H-1B visa stamp for entry or reentry to the U.S. Therefore, following approval of the H-1B petition, an H-1B employee should be mindful of the fact that they will be required to apply for an H-1B visa stamp prior to returning to the U.S. the next time they travel internationally, absent certain limited exceptions, including trips of under 30 days to Canada, Mexico, or adjacent islands (note individuals should vet any such travel with immigration counsel prior to making travel plans to ensure an exception applies in their case).  

I-9 REVERIFICATION MAY BE REQUIRED - Employers should also keep in mind that for current employees with an approved H-1B “Change of Status” petition, whose current status will expire on October 1, including all F-1 students working pursuant to cap-gap employment authorization, the individual’s employment authorization will need to re-verified on Form I-9.

ALWAYS ADVISE IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY OF ANY CHANGES TO H-1B EMPLOYMENT - Finally, employers and employees should be aware that certain changes to the terms of an H-1B visa holder’s employment could impact their continued eligibility for H-1B status and/or could necessitate the filing of an H-1B amendment.  Employers are therefore encouraged to speak to immigration counsel prior to making any changes to the terms of an H-1B visa holder’s employment to ensure compliance with these requirements.