H-1B Cap Registration Begins March 1st

December 7, 2019

Yesterday, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services announced that it has completed its pilot testing phase, and will be implementing the planned registration process for the coming H-1B ‘cap’ lottery. The full USCIS announcement, which can be found here, includes the following key details:

• Brief Registration Period: USCIS will open an initial registration period of twenty days, from March 1, 2020 through March 20, 2020.
• Minimal Registration Fee: Employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions for the Fiscal Year 2021 cap allotment must first electronically register, and pay an associated $10 employer fee.

Once the initial registration period is ended, a random selection process will be run. Only those selected, individual registrations will be eligible for the filing of full, H-1B cap-subject nonimmigrant petitions. The benefit of this, per the USCIS announcement, will be the elimination of needless, full H-1B petition filings for non-selected beneficiaries, as has been the standard H-1B cap practice to-date.

How employers can begin to prepare: As we had previously shared, USCIS had provided a preview of its registration portal, for the collection of individual H-1B cap petition data. Based on this, and ongoing discussions between USCIS and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, employers are urged to gather the following information now, from planned FY2021 H-1B cap candidates, in advance of the registration period:

• Full legal name.
• Gender.
• Date of birth.
• Country of birth.
• Country of citizenship.
• Passport number.
• Does the beneficiary possess a Master’s degree from a U.S. university (Y/N)?

As all of this information can be gleaned from a candidate’s passport biographical page and education documents (diplomas and transcripts), we suggest that employers begin to compile these basic materials now, from all candidates.

USCIS has also confirmed that the agency will soon publish step-by-step instructions, for proper completion of the process, along with key dates and timelines as the initial registration period nears. USCIS will also conduct outreach activities with the legal community and employers, to ensure that registrants and interested parties are familiar with the new system.

We will provide additional updates, as they become available. Please contact me or another member of our Immigration Practice Team if you have any questions, or would otherwise like to discuss.