USCIS Publishes Notice of Implementation of the H-1B Cap Registration Process

On January 9, 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) published a notice in the Federal Registrar formally announcing its implementation of the H-1B registration process for the FY 2021 H-1B cap lottery. The notice follows the USCIS announcement on December 6, 2019.

Per the notice in the Federal Registrar, the initial registration period will begin on March 1, 2020. The USCIS will announce on its website the date that employers and their representatives may start setting up their registration accounts on its website. During the initial registration period, employers must electronically submit a separate registration naming each beneficiary for whom they seek to file an H-1B cap-subject petition. If an employer submits more than one registration for the same beneficiary in the same fiscal year, USCIS will consider all registrations filed by that employer for that beneficiary invalid for that fiscal year.

USCIS intends to close the initial registration on March 20, 2020 and will announce the actual end date of the initial registration period on its website. If USCIS determines at the end of the initial registration period that an insufficient number of registrations have been received, USCIS will determine the final registration date once it has received the number of registrations projected as needed to reach the numerical allocations. If USCIS determines that it is necessary to re-open the registration period, USCIS will announce the start of the re-opened registration period on its website. Once the registration period is closed, the USCIS will conduct the random selection process (“the lottery”). USCIS intends to send notices electronically to all registrants with selected registrations that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition no later than March 31, 2020.

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