By: David Nachman, Esq., Michael Phulwani, Esq. and Ludka Zimovcak, Esq., – Immigration Lawyers at the NPZ Law Group, P.C. (New Jersey, New York, Indiana, and Affiliated offices in Canada & India)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Dec 6, 2019, announced a requirement for employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, to first electronically register and pay the associated $10.00 H-1B registration fee before filing a petition for the fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap. USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020.
During this initial registration period, prospective petitioners or their authorized representatives must electronically submit a separate registration naming each alien for whom they seek to file an H-1B cap-subject petition.
If a sufficient number of registrations are received, USCIS will randomly select the number of registrations projected as needed to reach the H-1B numerical allocations after the initial registration period closes and no later than March 31, 2020. Prospective petitioners with selected registrations will be eligible to file a cap-subject petition only for the alien named in the registration.
USCIS 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 aliens during a single online submission, duplicate registrations for the same beneficiary in the same fiscal year will be discarded.
What does this mean for the immigration practitioners, professionals, and prospective H-1B employers and employees? To better prepare for the H-1B cap season, this article endeavors to summarize a few practice pointers that every prospective H-1B employer and employee needs to know.
Limited Numbers: Not 65,000; There Are Only 58,200 Regular H-1B Visas.
The current annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000. However, all H-1B nonimmigrant visas are not subject to this annual cap. Up to 6,800 visas are set aside from the cap of 65,000 during each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program designed specifically for the Nationals of Chile and Singapore. Unused numbers in the H-1B1 pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year. Thus, in effect, only 58,200 H-1B visas are granted each year with the exception of the 20,000 additional H-1B visas which are reserved for individuals who have received a master’s or higher degrees from a U.S. college or university. In an upcoming article, we will discuss, in detail, whether or not every master’s degree from a U.S. academic institution qualifies an individual for the H-1B master’s cap.
Because of the limited number of H-1B visas, employers should identify individuals who would need H-1B sponsorship. This will allow sufficient time for petition preparation, including the time required to file and receive certification of the Labor Condition Application (LCA), Form ETA 9035. Thus, formulating a strategy for an H-1B petition is key to hiring an H-1B employee for the next USCIS fiscal year which begins on October 1st, 2019.
How Long Will USCIS Accept H-1B Petitions?
With the new H-1B Online registration period starting from March 1, 2020, if a sufficient number of registrations are received, USCIS will randomly select the number of registrations projected as needed to reach the H-1B numerical allocations after the initial registration period closes and no later than March 31, 2020. USCIS will provide guidance on how to use the registration system and prepare registrations bef