Starting with the Fiscal Year 2021 H-1B Lottery AILA practitioners have been using the USCIS electronic registration system for employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The sixth season of the H-1B electronic registration process opened at noon (ET) on March 7, 2025, with the “beneficiary-centric” selection process and the myUSCIS enterprise account system. The following practice pointer addresses the most frequently asked questions regarding the electronic H-1B registration process based on information available to date.
FY2026 USCIS Organizational Account Enhancements For FY2026, USCIS has made multiple enhancements for organizational and representative accounts for H-1B filing. While the details of these enhancements are still being learned, it is known that enhancements include the following:
The ability for paralegals to work with more than one legal representative: A paralegal will now be able to accept invitations from multiple legal representative accounts, allowing them to prepare H-1B registrations, Form I-129 H-1B petitions, and Form I-907 requests for premium processing for different attorneys, all within one paralegal account.
An easier way for legal representatives to add paralegals to company clients.
Pre-population of certain Form I-129 fields from selected H-1B registrations.
The ability to prepare a spreadsheet of H-1B beneficiary data and upload the information to pre-populate data in H-1B registrations.
These enhancements went live on March 7, 2025.
Electronic Registration Process
1. On what website or platform will USCIS host the electronic H-1B registration process?
USCIS uses the myUSCIS online portal to conduct the electronic H-1B registration process. The myUSCIS online portal was updated during the FY2025 filing season to allow for new account types, H-1B registration, and online filing of H-1B forms. This practice pointer was prepared prior to the USCIS launch of new enhancements for the enterprise accounts. For users who created a myUSCIS account before February 2024 and log into their account for the first time after the enhancements of the enterprise account system were added, the user will be required to choose the new account type (legal representative). Companies with existing myUSCIS accounts will have to choose (organizational account) and designate an administrator for that organizational account. For more information on how to create a myUSCIS account, please see How to Create a USCIS Online Account | USCIS.
2. Do lawyers need to create a myUSCIS account for each client, or can an attorney register one account to manage and file applications for all clients?
One attorney or accredited representative should have a single “Representative” account and should be able to manage multiple clients under that account.
3. How do attorneys or law firms submit electronic registrations on behalf of clients?
USCIS unveiled the organizational account structure in January 2024 with a streamlined digital handshake between the attorney and company accounts. Once the company representative has created a myUSCIS company group, it can invite attorneys to join its group to submit H-1B registrations on its behalf. To do so, a company representative will need to go to their “my representatives” tab and enter the attorney’s name and email address to invite an attorney to collaborate on immigration filings in the account.
Conversely, attorneys can set up a company group and invite company administrators to join the company group. To do so, the attorney will need to enter the following:
– Company name,
– Company doing business as (DBA), if applicable,
– Company identification number (EIN, SSN, or ITIN),
– Company address,
– Company administrator’s full name, email address, and phone number.
It is very important that attorneys meet with company clients to determine whether the company or attorney will create the company group. Once created, company groups cannot be deleted.
Once either the company or attorney has created the company group linked to the other party, the attorney may invite a paralegal(s) and initiate a form/filing on behalf of companies. Paralegals may create, edit, and delete drafts of forms. They may not submit forms/filings or pay the associated fees on behalf of companies.
With the organizational account feature, attorneys have the option to pre-populate Form G-28 with the information stored in their online accounts. To use pre-populated information, the attorney will need to review the saved information and submit the Form G-28. Additionally, paralegals and attorneys will be able to create an H-1B registration form (H-1BR). Once the Forms G-28 and H-1BR forms are complete, attorneys may submit and notify the company administrators that the draft forms are awaiting their review and signature.
If the registration is accepted, the registrant’s authorized signatory will provide their electronic signature by typing their full legal name into a designated box, as well as checking a box stating that they understand English and the information in the form. After the registrant electronically confirms the registration and Form G-28 information, they will need to notify the attorney that the forms have been accepted and are ready to submit.
If the registration is rejected by the client (i.e., due to incorrect registration information), the attorney or paralegal must edit the information in the form, and the attorney must notify the client to review the Forms G-28 and H-1B registration again.
For more information regarding the Form G-28 process, please see the USCIS Frequently Asked Questions at Organizational Account FAQ and for more information on how to upgrade your existing account to a legal representative account and add or invite clients, see the Legal Representative Accounts Instructions.
4. Can an attorney submitting registrations through their online account be signed in from multiple computers/IP addresses at the same time?
An attorney may be signed into their myUSCIS account from more than one computer and IP address but can use only one email address per account, and no email address may be used more than once to set up different accounts.
5. Can multiple accounts be created under a single attorney’s name, in case of system malfunctions or an account getting locked out?
Yes, but each account will need its own unique email address.
6. Can a petitioner/employer/registrant use the same email for two different myUSCIS account types?
No, a petitioner/employer/registrant cannot use the same email address for two different myUSCIS account types (Organizational Admin account/Organizational User). A petitioner/employer/registrant must have separate email addresses for each account and account type. To participate in the H-1B electronic registration process, they must have at least one organizational account with a designated company user as the “administrator.”
7. If a company has multiple entities (e.g., subsidiary, affiliate, and parent), can each entity submit a registration if they have a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)?
The H-1B registration regulation and the recently published final H-1B Modernization Rule declined to finalize a proposal that would significantly restrict the ability of related entities within a corporate family to submit separate registrations for the same beneficiary. As long as there is a legitimate business need for each petition/petitioner and there are two (or more) real and separate job opportunities, then each entity can submit a registration for the same beneficiary. Each petitioner must be able to establish the legitimate business need. If not, USCIS may deny or revoke approvals for all the cap-subject petitions filed by the “related entities” for the same beneficiary.
Previously, in response to a stakeholder question, USCIS indicated that an organization with multiple entities/employers may designate one user to act as the authorized signatory for multiple entities/employers, although a unique email address and a separate myUSCIS account is required for each entity/employer.
8. What information is required for the electronic registration process?
The electronic registration form requests basic information about the prospective petitioning company or organization and employee, including the following:
Registrant Information:
Legal name of the prospective petitioning company or organization.
The Doing Business As name(s) of the prospective petitioning company or organization, if applicable.
Employer identification number (EIN) of the prospective petitioning company or organization.
Primary U.S. office mailing address of the prospective petitioning company or organization.
Legal name (first, last, and middle names), title, and contact information (daytime phone number and email address) of the authorized signatory.
Beneficiary Information:
– Beneficiary’s legal name.
– Beneficiary’s gender.
– Beneficiary’s date of birth.
Whether consideration under the INA 214(g)(5)(C) advanced degree exemption is requested because the beneficiary has earned, or will earn prior to the filing of the petition, a master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education.
– Beneficiary’s country of birth.
– Beneficiary’s country of citizenship.
– Beneficiary’s passport or travel document number.
– Beneficiary’s passport expiration date (Passport MUST be valid at the time of H-1B registration) NO EXCEPTIONS.
The registration system will not let you re-use beneficiary information from previous years and/or registrations. It will also time out after 15 minutes, but it should save the information you have entered until that time.
The DHS regulations stipulate that the passport used at registration must be the same passport listed on the H-1B petition. In its discretion, USCIS may find that a change in identifying information would be permissible in limited circumstances, including a legal name change due to marriage, change in gender identity, or a change in passport number or expiration date due to renewal or replacement of a stolen passport in between the time of registration and filing the petition.
9. Will any information regarding the offered position need to be provided as part of the electronic H-1B registration process?
No information regarding the offered position is currently required as part of the electronic registration process, such as the job title or the minimum job requirements. Nevertheless, some members believe it is a best practice to evaluate the offered position and the credentials of the beneficiary in advance of submitting an electronic registration to assess whether the registration is bona fide and non-frivolous and to raise any questions about the approvability of the H-1B petition with the corporate client before registration.
10. What can legal representatives do to prepare in advance of the lottery?
There are many steps legal representatives can take to prepare themselves and their clients for these changes. AILA recommends the following:
Check the passports of lottery beneficiaries to ensure that their passports are valid and will continue to be valid during the H-1B registration period. Beneficiaries with expired passports may not be registered.
Ensure that lottery beneficiaries do not have passports from more than one country, or, if they have passports from more than one country, that they use only one country’s passports. USCIS will view entries using different passport numbers as “duplicates” and USCIS could deny or revoke all entries and subsequent selections and petitions.
New filing fees went into effect on April 1, 2024. If clients are going to send you company checks to cover H-1B filing fees, make sure they know what the new fees are that apply to them (and if they qualify under the rule as a nonprofit or small business fees). See question 42 below.
A new Form I-129 went into effect on January 17, 2025. Prior editions will not be accepted. It is important that members check the form edition prior to submission, as USCIS is in the process of updating a number of forms to comply with recent executive orders and may not always provide a grace period.
11. Will an attestation be required as part of the electronic registration process?
Yes, at the time of submitting the electronic registration, the authorized signatory will be required to certify, under penalty of perjury, that they have reviewed the registration and that all of the information contained in the registration is complete, true, and correct and that the authorized signatory, or the organization on whose behalf the registration is being submitted, intends to file an H-1B petition on behalf of the beneficiary named in the registration if the registration is selected. The authorized signatory is required to provide their electronic signature confirming they have read and agree to the statement by typing their full legal name into a box provided. In addition, the authorized signatory is required to confirm they can read and understand English and that they have read and understand every question and instruction on the registration.
For FY2024, the attestation added the following: “I further certify that this registration (or these registrations) reflects a legitimate job offer and that I, or the organization on whose behalf this registration … is being submitted, have not worked with, or agreed to work with, another registrant, petitioner, agent, or other individual or entity to submit a registration to unfairly increase chances of selection for the beneficiary or beneficiaries in this submission.” If USCIS discovers that the registrant did work with another filer to unfairly increase chances of selection, they will find the registration was not properly submitted and no petition may be filed. USCIS can also revoke a petition after the fact and refer the registrant for prosecution.
In addition, a petitioner may only submit one registration per beneficiary per fiscal year. Once the initial registration period has closed, if the prospective petitioner has more than one registration submitted for the same beneficiary, USCIS will invalidate all registrations submitted for that beneficiary by that prospective petitioner or their authorized representative. USCIS has provided a duplicate checker function for the electronic registration process that allows a user to check if the employer-registrant named in the draft registration previously submitted a registration for any of the beneficiaries included in that draft for the same fiscal year. While using this check does not guarantee that an employer will not submit a duplicate, it does compare the beneficiaries listed in the draft with any registrations previously submitted during the current registration period. The duplicate checker function will not check for duplicates within that draft or between drafts. It only checks submitted (and paid) registrations for duplicates. USCIS also advises that it will check for duplicates even if they are submitted by different users.
Ultimately, the burden remains on the employer and their authorized representative to ensure that no duplicate registrations are submitted. To that end, USCIS also provides a tool to download a .csv file and search for duplicate entries.
If a duplicate is discovered while the registration period is still open, the attorney can go into the account and delete the extra submission(s) until there is only one registration for the beneficiary (screenshot example below)
12. Will a Labor Condition Application (LCA) be required as part of the electronic registration process?
No, an LCA is not required to be completed prior to the electronic registration process. Some legal representatives, however, choose to prepare and submit LCAs for beneficiaries in advance of the electronic registration process or shortly after the acceptance of the registration, as a certified LCA must be included with the H-1B petition filing. Members should strategize with their clients on whether or not to file LCAs for H-1B cap-subject beneficiaries in advance of the selection process (in order to file the H-1B petition promptly upon selection) versus after the registration is selected (in order to maximize the time on the LCA), keeping in mind that obtaining a certified LCA in advance of the H-1B selection process is important to preserve cap-gap benefits where a beneficiary’s OPT expires shortly after the 90-day filing period opens.
In addition, even if no LCA is filed in advance of the selection process, members should consider conducting a wage analysis for the proffered position prior to submitting the electronic registration. Failure to consider whether the petitioner is paying the required wage could result in USCIS selecting a registration that ultimately cannot be filed. As discussed in Question 33 below, registrations that are selected but ultimately not filed may be flagged by USCIS for a potential fraud investigation.
13. What date will the registration process open?
USCIS will open the initial registration period on March 7, 2025, at noon (ET).
14. How long will the registration filing window remain open?
The FY2026 registration period will open on March 7, 2025, at noon (ET) and run through noon (ET) on March 24, 2025. USCIS indicated that all registrations submitted during the registration period will be included in the lottery regardless of whether a registration was submitted on March 7 or March 24, even if USCIS determines it has received more than enough registrations to meet the numerical limitations prior to this date. However, it is strongly recommended that practitioners not wait until the last minute to submit a registration. Please note that USCIS has confirmed that a possible government shutdown will not affect the registration period or pay.gov.
15. Is there an option to draft the registration earlier than the start of the registration period to allow for attorney or client review?
Representatives and registrants must wait until March 7 to draft and submit any H-1B cap registrations.
16. May I edit a registration after it has been submitted?
No. During the registration period, USCIS will permit users to review and edit the registrations of beneficiaries as many times as needed before the registration is submitted. Once a registration has been submitted, it cannot be edited. However, the system permits a registration of an individual beneficiary to be deleted, if needed, without impacting the registrations of other beneficiaries in the registration batch. Registrants can delete the registration of an individual beneficiary before the system closes on March 24 by clicking a “delete” button next to each beneficiary’s name (see screenshot below).
17. Once you submit a registration, can you later add more beneficiaries if still within the registration period?
During the registration period, USCIS permits registrants to continue to submit registrations for additional beneficiaries.
18. Is there a limit on the total number of beneficiaries that a prospective petitioner may register?
USCIS places no limit on the total number of beneficiaries that a prospective petitioner may register for the H-1B visa lottery; however, each registration batch can only include up to 250 beneficiaries at a time. Additional beneficiaries can be added to subsequent registration batches for the same petitioner.
19. If an employer submits multiple beneficiaries, let’s say ten names, per registration, and later identifies that the employer needs to withdraw one of those ten names, does the system force the employer to withdraw all ten names that had been submitted in that registration, thereby requiring the employer to resubmit the nine names that it did not desire to withdraw from the registration system?
Upon submission of the registration and payment of the registration fee, a prospective petitioner will be able to see a list of all beneficiaries they have registered. Each beneficiary will be assigned a 19-digit confirmation number. Prospective petitioners have the option to delete a specific beneficiary from the registration, if needed, by clicking “delete” without impacting the other beneficiaries that the prospective petitioner has registered. After a registration is submitted, USCIS will not refund the fee paid for a deleted beneficiary.
Registration Fee Payment
20. Is a registration fee required?
Yes, beginning in the FY 2026 H-1B registration period, USCIS will require a 215non−refundablefeeperbeneficiaryforeachregistrationsubmitted.Thisfeeincreasedfrom10 per registration to $215 per registration pursuant to the January 31, 2024 final rule adjusting the fee schedule.
For employers/H-1B registrants with multiple beneficiaries, the U.S. Department of Treasury has approved a temporary increase in the daily credit card transaction limit from 24,999.99to99,999.99 per day for the FY 2026 H-1B cap season. This temporary increase is in response to the volume of H-1B registrations and petitions that exceeded the daily credit card limit in prior years.
21. What payment method will USCIS accept for the $215 registration fee?
USCIS allows payment of the registration fee using the Pay.gov portal. The registration system will permit payments to be made from a bank account (checking or savings), a credit card, or debit card. No Automated Clearing House (ACH) fee will be charged. The registration fee cannot be made using cash, a certified bank check, or money order. Neither attorneys nor employers need to create a pay.gov account to pay the fee. If payment fails, the submitter should receive a notice, but the notice may not be issued for at least two to three days. Therefore, the best practice is not to wait until the last few days of the registration period to submit payment.
22. If an employer is registering multiple beneficiaries, can the employer pay for all of their registrations at one time?
Yes, the registration system allows for batch fee payments for up to 250 registrations to be submitted simultaneously. Corporate and payment information must only be entered one time for each batch of registrations. However, the corporate and payment information does not carry over to subsequent registrations. The daily credit card transaction limit of $99,999.99 still applies.
23. Who can pay the 215registrationfee(e.g.,theemployer,thelegalrepresentative)?Willbeneficiariesbeallowedtopaythe215 registration fee?
Only the employer registrants or Form G-28 representatives may pay the registration fee via the Pay.gov portal. In the registration fee final rule, it is noted that “the fee paid for the registration is a responsibility of the petitioning employer, not the foreign worker.” Note that if the Form G-28 representative submits the registration, the Form G-28 representative must submit the fee payment. The system does not allow for an employer to pay the fee and then have the Form G-28 representative submit the registration. Given the significant increase in the registration fee, practitioners may wish to obtain pre-payment of the fee from their clients to avoid advancing significant amounts of money on behalf of their clients.
Registration Selection Process
24. When will USCIS select the H-1B registrants on whose behalf Petitioners may submit H-1B petitions?
USCIS will run the H-1B selection process after the registration period closes and no later than March 31, 2025. USCIS will notify the employer or employers if the beneficiary for whom they submitted a registration was selected by March 31, 2025. After an employer registrant receives notification that a beneficiary has been selected, the employer may submit an online or paper H-1B petition during the 90-day submission period beginning April 1, 2025.
25. How does USCIS notify attorneys and employers of selection in the lottery?
After the initial registration period closes, USCIS will conduct the initial selection process. The employer registrant that submitted the selected registration will receive a notification from USCIS via email or text message (depending on the preferred method of communication the account holder selected at the time of creating their myUSCIS account) stating that there is activity in their myUSCIS account and that they will need to log in to their myUSCIS account to review the details.
The account holder’s myUSCIS online account will show one of the following indications for each beneficiary registered:
- Selected: Selected to file an FY 2026 H-1B cap-subject petition.
- Submitted: A registration status is “Submitted” after the initial selection process has been completed, or unless subsequently invalidated. “Submitted” registrations will remain in consideration for selection until either USCIS determines it has received a sufficient number of petitions to allocate all H-1B visas for the fiscal year or the end of the fiscal year, whichever occurs earlier. At that point in time, registrations will no longer be listed as “Submitted” and will indicate a status of either Selected, Not Selected, or Denied.
- Not Selected: Not selected for this fiscal year. A registration will not reflect a status of “Not Selected” until either USCIS determines that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to allocate all H-1B visas for the fiscal year or the conclusion of the fiscal year. In the event that USCIS determines that it needs to select additional registrations to meet the H-1B regular cap or the advanced degree exemption allocation, USCIS will select the additional registrations from the “Submitted” registrations to meet the H-1B regular cap or advanced degree exemption allocation.
- Denied: USCIS will indicate “Denied” in situations where the same registrant or representative submitted more than one registration on the beneficiary’s behalf for the same fiscal year. All registrations denied as a duplicate will be deemed invalid. A finding of a duplicate registration may not be appealed.
- Invalidated Failed Payment: A submitted registration whose payment method was declined, not reconciled, disputed or otherwise invalid.
26. What happens to registrations not selected in the initial lottery selection in March?
If USCIS receives more than enough registrations than needed to meet the regular H-1B cap and advanced degree exemption, all registrations that were not selected in the lottery will remain in “Submitted” status until USCIS determines that it has received sufficient petitions for the applicable fiscal year. A registration will reflect a status of “Submitted” until that time, at which point, the registration status will be changed to “Not Selected” and a non-selection notice will be added to the myUSCIS account. In the event that USCIS determines that it needs to increase the number of selected registrations in order to meet the H-1B regular cap or the advanced degree exemption allocation, USCIS will select from the remaining “Submitted” registrations to meet the H-1B regular cap or advanced degree exemption allocation, or re-open the registration period if additional registrations are needed, pursuant to 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(7).
27. Will USCIS notify employer registrants if the selected beneficiary has multiple employer registrations?
No. In the final rule, USCIS clarified that where a beneficiary with multiple employer registrants is selected in the H-1B lottery, all employer registrants will be notified of the selection, but the selection notice will not indicate that there were multiple employer registrants. In this situation, all employer registrants may file an H-1B petition for the selected beneficiary during the designated 90-day filing period.
28. Will USCIS provide a notice to employer registrants for beneficiaries who are not selected?
As described above, beneficiaries who are not selected in the H-1B lottery will show the status “Submitted” until USCIS determines that it has received and selected sufficient registrations to meet the numbers for the fiscal year. At that time, when USCIS has determined that it has the registration will receive a notification stating that there is activity in their myUSCIS account. When they log in to their myUSCIS account, they will see a “non-selection notice” for each beneficiary not selected in the lottery. Please also see Question 25 above.
H-1B Petition Filing Issues
29. When will Petitioners be able to file petitions for selected registrants? How long will they have to file the petition once selected?
Registrations selected in the initial round of selections will have a 90-day filing window from April 1 to June 30 in which the Petitioner must file the H-1B cap-subject petition, and any accompanying Form I-907 request for premium processing, either online through an organizational account or a paper filing to the USCIS service center identified on the selection notice.
Registrations selected in any subsequent round(s) of selections would be issued selection notices indicating the designated filing period, which should also be for a period of 90 days from the initial filing date indicated on the notice.
USCIS states that petitions will be adjudicated by USCIS in the order in which they are received. Note: Because USCIS will only select enough registrations necessary to meet the applicable numerical limitations, as long as a petition is properly filed during the petition filing window, it will be adjudicated.
30. At the time of filing the H-1B petition with USCIS, how will selected registrants indicate to USCIS that they have been selected in the H-1B lottery?
For registrants who have been selected, USCIS provides a selection notice made available in the account holder’s myUSCIS account. The selection notice will identify the filing window of at least 90 days and designate the location where the petitioner must file the H-1B petition if using paper filing. If the petitioner elects to file a paper Form I-129, the petition must be filed at the designated Service Center identified in the selection notice and must include a copy of the selection notice with the H-1B filing as well as include the beneficiary’s confirmation number on the H Classification Supplement. See Item 31 below.
31. How is the selection of the registration indicated on the Form I-129?
The 01/17/2025 edition of Form I-129 contains a question on the H Classification Supplement form requesting information about the beneficiary’s confirmation number from the H-1B registration selection notice and information about the beneficiary’s passport/travel document. Below please find a screenshot of the question on the current version of the H Supplement form provided below:
32. What happens if a petitioner discovers that a typographical error was made in the registration?
If typographical errors were made during the registration process, those will be reflected on the selection notice. While in the past typographical errors would not be fatal to an H-1B petition where the petitioner could demonstrate through documentation that the beneficiary listed on the Form I-129 was, in fact, the individual listed on the selection notice, now under the new beneficiary-centric system, USCIS has the authority to deny H-1B registrations and petitions where the passport number is incorrect, except in very limited circumstances as explained in Question 9 above.
33. Will petitioners be able to request premium processing of H-1B cap subject petitions?
Since the FY2022 H-1B cap filing season, premium processing has been available for H-1B cap subject petitions. Practitioners are advised to check the USCIS website to verify the availability of premium processing and confirm the correct fee: How Do I Request Premium Processing? | USCIS. The I-907 form will be available to file electronically if the petitioner and their legal representative elects to concurrently file the H-1B cap petition electronically.
34. May I submit a pre-paid mailer to USCIS with my paper filed cap-subject H-1B petition for faster mailing of the H-1B approval notice?
During past H-1B filing seasons, USCIS announced that it would not permit the use of pre-paid mailers to send any communication or final notices for any cases filed with premium processing and instead will use first-class mail to send cap-subject H-1B petition approval notices. However, that announcement has yet to be made for FY 2026. This section will be updated once any announcement on this issue is made. However, keep in mind that submitting a pre-paid mailer may not be possible for electronically filed H-1B cap petitions. All communication and updates from USCIS (including RFEs) will be electronically transmitted.
35. The regulations seem to indicate that selected registrations for which H-1B petitions are not filed will be flagged for a potential fraud review, but is there a mechanism to deal with situations where employers have legitimate reasons for not filing H-1B petitions for selected beneficiaries?
DHS has not indicated the process through which fraudulent cases will be investigated or identified any method of redress. However, in the preamble to the H-1B registration final rule, DHS notes that cases that demonstrate a pattern and practice of potential abuse of the registration system will involve a case-by-case review of the facts involved, including any mitigating facts or circumstances. It further notes that registrants that have been found to engage in a pattern and practice of submitting registrations for which they do not file a petition following selection could be subject to monetary fines or criminal penalties pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 1001(a)(3) for making false statements and misrepresentations.
36. How should a registrant with a selected registration notify USCIS if they do not intend to file a petition?
USCIS has advised that, because no H-1B petition will be filed, it will have no paper file that it can use to match the notification with the registration. USCIS suggested that the employer should keep documentation of the reason for not filing, so that the employer would be able to show the documentation to USCIS upon request.
37. If a registrant is selected and has a bona fide reason for a delay in filing past the 90 days, what mechanism can be used to communicate the reasons for the delay?
The H-1B registration final rule codifies that the filing period for H-1B cap petitions will be at least 90 days, and if petitioners do not meet that timeframe, “USCIS may deny or reject the H-1B cap-subject petition.”
H-1B Registrations Selected in a Second (or More) Round of Selections
38. If there is a second round of registration selections, what should I keep in mind when submitting the H-1B petition?
As stated on the USCIS website, and codified in the February 2024 final H-1B Modernization Rule, “[y]ou must indicate a start date of Oct. 1 or later (of the applicable fiscal year, and 6 months or less from the receipt date of the petition) on your petition or your petition will be rejected or denied.”
USCIS has indicated that it would not reject petitions filed after October 1 of a given filing year, even if the accompanying LCA had a start date after October 1 of that year.
F-1 Student Issues
39. What effect will the H-1B cap registration process have on H-1B petitions for beneficiaries who are seeking cap-gap protection?
H-1B cap-gap benefits only attach upon filing the H-1B cap petition, not upon filing the H-1B registration. Therefore, only those individuals selected through the H-1B registration process who have an H-1B cap petition, requesting an October 1 or later start date within the current fiscal year, timely-filed on their behalf will have their duration of status, and any applicable employment authorization, automatically extended until April 1 of the next year, unless the petition has been rejected, denied, revoked or withdrawn prior to that date. The F-1 student must stop working on April 1 of the next year if the H-1B cap-subject petition has yet to be adjudicated.
Degree Issues
40. Is a beneficiary required to have completed the qualifying degree requirement at the time of electronic registration or at the time of filing the H-1B petition?
The degree must be obtained by the time of filing the H-1B petition. The degree does not need to be obtained by the time of electronic registration. USCIS states multiple times in the preamble to the H-1B registration final rule that establishing eligibility is not a requirement for registration and that it is simply an “antecedent procedural requirement to properly file the petition.” This would also be consistent with 8 CFR §. 103.2(b)(1) which requires that eligibility must be established at the time of filing the benefit request.
Importantly, the question in the H-1B registration tool regarding the H-1B master’s cap exemption reads “Are you requesting consideration under the INA 214(g)(5)(C) advanced degree exemption because the beneficiary has earned, or will earn prior to the filing of the petition, a master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education” (emphasis added).
41. Can a registration be changed to the regular cap if the beneficiary has not yet graduated with the necessary degree?
On the USCIS website regarding the H-1B Electronic Registration Process, USCIS notes that: “If the beneficiary is selected under the advance degree cap and has not earned a qualifying master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education at the time the petition is filed, the petition will be denied or rejected.”
Specifically, USCIS addresses this fact pattern in its Q&A section as follows:
Q. If you are registering for the master’s cap based on the expectation that the beneficiary will earn a qualifying advanced degree, and you are actually selected under the master’s cap, but, the beneficiary does not obtain their qualifying advanced degree, is there a risk that the cap-subject H-1B petition for that beneficiary will be denied?
A: If a registration is submitted requesting consideration under the INA 214(g)(5)(C) advanced degree exemption because the beneficiary has earned, or will earn prior to the filing of the petition, a master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education, and the registration is selected under the advanced degree exemption, the beneficiary must be eligible for the advanced degree exemption at the time of filing the I-129 petition. If the beneficiary is selected under the advance degree cap and has not earned a qualifying master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education at the time the petition is filed, the petition will be denied or rejected.
H-1B Fees
42. What fees apply to H-1B petitions filed for this lottery period?
On January 31, 2024, USCIS published a final rule updating filing fees for petitions and applications, effective April 1, 2024. All H-1B petitions filed pursuant to a selected registration will need to include the increased fees. For example, the Form I-129 fee for a petitioner with 26 or more employees will increase from 460to780. Additionally, petitioners with 26 or more employees will need to pay a new 600AsylumProgramFee.TheFormI−129feeforpetitionerswith25orfeweremployeesandnon−profitsremainsunchangedat460. Small employers will pay a $300 Asylum Program Fee and non-profits will not pay an Asylum Program Fee. The Fraud Fee and ACWIA Education and Retraining Fee remain unchanged. For further instructions, please review the USCIS FAQ on the Fee Rule or the AILA Practice Pointer on the Fee Rule.
Technical Issues
42. If we encounter technical issues with completing and submitting the registration form online, who can we contact to address the issue?
USCIS allows stakeholders encountering technical issues during the H-1B registration process to call the USCIS Contact Center at 1-800-375-5283 for assistance. No separate phone line for the H-1B registration process has been created. However, for myUSCIS issues, including problems with registration or e-filing, technical support and password resets assistance is available via the Need Help form: https://my.uscis.gov/account/needhelp
43. If we encounter technical issues with completing and submitting the registration form online, who can we contact to address the issue?
In previous years, USCIS has indicated that if there are technical issues that prevent electronic submission of registrations, USCIS will notify the public of the issue via the USCIS website and provide guidance pertaining to filing applications.
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