H-1B Cap Filing Season is Just Around the Corner: A Refresher on the H-1B Process
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H-1B Cap Filing Season: The H-1B nonimmigrant visa is one of the most highly used and sought-after temporary work visas and facilitates the employment of foreign nationals entering the United States to perform employment in “specialty occupations.” A specialty occupation has been defined as an occupation needing something like a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent to perform professional temporary duties in the United States. Originally introduced in The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The Bush administration split the visa into two categories under The Immigration Act of 1990 – the H-1A visa for nurses and H-1B for a claim to specialty occupations.
In its present structure, the H-1B visa is limited to 85,000 visa petition submissions, and employment start dates for employment happen on October 1 of every government fiscal year. H-1B visa petition submissions to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) might be filed up to 180 days in advance of the commencement of employment. Traditionally, April 1 is the first day of the year that USCIS accepts H-1B filings.
H-1B Cap Filing Season | The Pre-Registration Period
Before 2020, USCIS monitored the number of H-1B registrations it received in the initial five days of April. In any year that the mandated cap of 85,000 H-1B petition submissions was exceeded. USCIS would conduct a random lottery first selecting the first 20,000 Master’s degree H-1B filings and from there on the 65,000 Bachelor’s degree H-1B cap cases.
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In January 2020, USCIS introduced an H-1B “pre-registration period” from March 1-20th March 2020. The program was a success, and again in 2021, USCIS used the H-1B pre-registration process for March 2021 H-1B submissions. Getting around 275,000 petitions for the treasured 85,000 spots in the first year. Also, with over 300,000 petitions in 2021, the program is highly competitive. For this reason, preparing well in advance for the time frame for pre-registration is a must.
To date, USCIS has yet to announce the March 2022 filing time frame.
Moreover, the H-1B filing pre-registration period allows employers to register their individual H-1B entries online with one select foreign national candidate. Also, multiple filings by the same employer for one foreign national will result in disqualification of the submission. It is vital to take note that more than one employer might file an H-1B petition for one foreign national.
