As discussed in our previous blog posts, USCIS is taking steps to implement an electronic registration to be used in the upcoming H-1B cap lottery for Fiscal Year 2021. A few further implementation details have now been released in a Federal Register posting dated January 9, 2020, and in a press release dated January 10, 2020. USCIS noted the following details:
The initial registration period will open from March 1 through March 20, 2020.
H-1B cap-subject petitioners, including those seeking Master’s cap H-1Bs, will be required to first register electronically with USCIS and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each submission.
Prospective petitioners or their authorized representatives must electronically submit a separate registration naming each foreign national for whom they seek to file an H-1B cap-subject petition.
Duplicate registrations are prohibited. Per the released guidance, a petitioner may only submit one registration per beneficiary in any fiscal year. If a petitioner submits more than one registration per beneficiary in the same fiscal year, all registrations filed by that petitioner relating to that beneficiary for that fiscal year will be considered invalid.
If more than a sufficient number of registrations are received, USCIS will randomly select (via a computer-run lottery) the number of registrations projected as needed to reach the FY 2021 H-1B numerical allocations after the initial registration period closes.
Registrants with selected registrations will be notified no later than March 31, 2020.
Prospective petitioners with selected registrations will be eligible to file a FY 2021 cap-subject petition only for the foreign national named in the registration and within the filing period indicated on the eligibility notice. The filing periods have not been announced.
USCIS will not consider a cap-subject H-1B petition to be properly filed unless it is based on a valid, selected registration for the same beneficiary and the appropriate fiscal year, unless the registration requirement is suspended.
Details on the registration system itself are limited, but the Federal Register states that representatives will be able to create accounts, that multiple beneficiaries may be registered in a single online session, and that the system will allow for the preparation, editing, and storing of information prior to payment and submission. As previously noted there will be a $10 registration fee per application/beneficiary; instructions related to payment (which will be via Pay.gov) have not been released.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2020