Key Deadlines Approaching for H-1B CAP Electronic Registration Process
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Employers seeking to sponsor applicants for starting H-1B sponsorship (regularly known as “H-1B CAP“) should start preparing for the H-1B electronic registration process. Although the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has not declared the exact dates for electronic registration, past registration periods have opened for three weeks during March, with employers notified of their selections shortly after the registration period has closed.
Here is a non-exhaustive summary of the H-1B CAP registration process:
- During the open registration period, employer registrants should create an online account with USCIS and register both the employer’s corporate data (if not finished previously) as well as data of the employee for whom the employer will sponsor.
- USCIS will assign every worker a unique registration number.
- USCIS requires a $10 non-refundable fee for every employee registration submitted, with payment available only through https://www.pay.gov/public/home.
- For every employee to be sponsored, employers should give the employee’s legitimate name, gender, date of birth, the nation of birth and citizenship, and passport number, and should state whether the beneficiary has a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education (making the beneficiary eligible for the advanced degree exception).
- At the time the electronic registration is submitted, the employer’s authorized signatory should certify, under the punishment of prevarication, that the data given in the registration is accurate and complete, and that the employer intends to file an H-1B petition on behalf of the named employee is selected.
- Although the dates of the electronic registration have not yet been announced, the registration will be open for at least 14 days in March. During this period, employers might submit registrations for any employees they wish to sponsor. USCIS will announce the actual date of the registration period on its site based on the number of registrations that it has gotten. Last year, the initial registration period was open from 9th March 2021, to 25th March 2021.
H-1B CAP Electronic Registration Process
- At the end of March, only days after the registration period closes, USCIS will conduct a random selection process. From all properly submitted electronic registrations and will notify employers (and their designated representatives). By e-mail or text message of their selected registrations. Employers’ online accounts will be updated with a selection notice for each employee registration selected. So the employer can file an H-1B CAP-subject petition on behalf of the individual named in the notification. Petitions must be filed as per the filing period expressed on the notification.
- If USCIS gets more than enough registrations to meet the regular and advanced degree H-1B CAP allotment. All registrations that were not selected in the lottery will stay on a waitlist, indicating a status of “submitted”. USCIS will choose from those registrations that are on the waitlist to meet the numerical allotment only if necessary.
- Employers with chosen registrations might start filing H-1B CAP petitions on 1st April 2022. And will be given at least 90 days from the date of a registration selection to file the H-1B CAP petition. USCIS will adjudicate petitions in the order in which they are gotten.
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- USCIS won’t consider a cap‐subject H‐1B petition to be properly filed unless it is based on a valid. Selected registration for the same employee and the appropriate fiscal year except if the registration requirement is suspended.
- Lawyers might submit registrations on behalf of employees given a Form G-28 is submitted on behalf of the employer.
- A Labor Condition Application (LCA) isn’t needed to be completed before the electronic registration process,
- however, if the employee’s registration is chosen, the employer should include a certified LCA with the H-1B petition filing.
- USCIS has not yet declared whether premium processing will be available for H-1B CAP petitions.
Conclusion
USCIS will post step-by-step instructions on how to complete the registration process. Along with key dates and timelines, on its site as the initial registration period nears.
