Search results for: h-1b cap

On Dec. 2, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it received enough H-1B petitions to meet the 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2025. 

USCIS will send non-selection notices to registrants through their petitioners’ online accounts over the next few days. Upon completion of the non-selection notifications, the status for properly submitted registrations that were not selected for the FY 2025 H-1B numerical allocations will show: 

  • Not Selected: Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration. 

USCIS will continue to accept and process the following types of H-1B petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap:

  • Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; 
  • Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; 
  • Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and 
  • Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions. 

On July 30, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would select additional H-1B cap “lottery” registrations to reach its fiscal year (FY) 2025 numerical quota. This second selection round will include registrations that indicated eligibility for the H-1B master’s cap, as well as those registrations that indicated eligibility for the regular H-1B cap. USCIS will not conduct a second selection round for the master’s cap, as sufficient registrations were selected and received to meet the FY 2025 master’s cap numerical allocation.

Annual availability of new H-1B petitions is limited to 85,000 per FY. If USCIS receives more H-1B registrations than available, the agency conducts a random lottery and the petitioners for those selected registrations may proceed to file an H-1B petition within 90 days. Beneficiaries who have earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher may be eligible for the advanced degree exemption called the master’s cap, which sets aside 20,000 registrations for the initial lottery selection. USCIS received 470,342 eligible registrations and selected 120,603 during its FY 2025 H-1B cap registration period in March 2024 and petitions were due by June 30. Once USCIS completes its second selection round and meets the H-1B cap allocation, petitioners will have 90 days to file H-1B petitions for selected registrations.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced April 1, 2024, that they had received enough electronic registrations for unique beneficiaries during the initial registration period to reach the fiscal year (FY) 2025 H-1B quota of 65,0000 regular H-1B cap petitions along with 20,000 petitions allotted for the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap).

USCIS has randomly selected enough properly submitted registrations for unique beneficiaries estimated as needed to reach the H-1B cap and has notified all prospective petitioners with selected beneficiaries that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for such beneficiaries.

Registrants’ online accounts will now show either Submitted or Selected for each valid registration:

  • Submitted: The registration has been submitted and is eligible for selection. Even though the initial selection process has been completed, this registration remains eligible for selection in any subsequent selections in the 2025 fiscal year.
  • Selected: Selected to file an H-1B cap petition during the 90-day window of April 1, 2024, through June 30, 2024.

The USCIS announcement also provides reminders of the new form editions, filing fees, and filing locations which took effect April 1, 2024, and which are discussed in our March 29 blog post.

The registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2025 H-1B cap petitions opened at noon ET March 6, 2024, and will continue to run through noon ET March 22, 2024. Employers seeking to file an H-1B cap-subject petition must electronically register during this period using a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) online account. The registration process includes basic information about the prospective petitioner and each beneficiary along with a $10 registration fee for each beneficiary. The registration process for FY 2025 is governed by the final rule published Feb. 2, 2024, which took effect March 4, 2024.

The final rule includes a new beneficiary-centric selection process to ensure all beneficiaries have an equal chance of selection. Under the new process, registrations will be selected by unique beneficiary rather than by registration. As part of the registration process this year, each beneficiary must provide a valid passport that matches the registration details. See our February 2024 blog post for additional information on the new passport expiration requirements.

As with prior years, it is expected that USCIS will receive enough registrations during the registration period to meet the 65,000 H-1B cap, with an additional 20,000 visas available for those who possess a U.S. master’s degree or higher from an accredited U.S. institution. If the cap is reached, USCIS will conduct a random lottery of the registrations it receives following the close of the registration period. Petitioners will receive an electronic notification if their registration has been selected and can move forward with filing the H-1B petition for only those beneficiaries named on the selection notice. 

H-1B cap-subject petitions for those registrations that are selected in the initial drawing can be filed between April 1, 2024, and June 30, 2024. USCIS clarifies in the final rule that requesting an H-1B cap employment start date after Oct. 1 of the relevant fiscal year is permissible. Petitioners that have received H-1B selections will be able to use their USCIS organizational account to electronically file any H-1B petitions that were selected in the process, or they can file a traditional paper filing of the H-1B petition that is sent to USCIS by mail or courier.

On Jan. 30, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a final rule regarding the H-1B cap electronic registration process for fiscal year (FY) 2025. The announcement also included the initial registration period dates for the FY 2025 cap and the launch of an online filing option for H-1B petitioners. The new rule, effective March 4, 2024, is intended to “strengthen the integrity of and reduce the potential for fraud in the H-1B registration process.”

The final rule creates a beneficiary-specific H-1B cap registration selection process. Under this new process, H-1B cap registrations will be selected by beneficiary rather than by company registration, as was the case previously. This is designed to reduce the possibility of a beneficiary gaining an unfair advantage by having multiple employers submit H-1B cap registrations on their behalf. According to USCIS, the new process is aimed to ensure each beneficiary has the same chance of being selected, regardless of the number of registrations that are submitted by employers for the same beneficiary. Beginning with the FY 2025 H-1B cap registration period, employers will be required to provide valid passport information or valid travel document information for each beneficiary. The passport provided must be the one the beneficiary intends to use to enter the United States if issued an H-1B visa while abroad. Each beneficiary may only be registered under one passport or travel document. The H-1B final rule also codifies USCIS’ ability to deny or revoke H-1B petitions where the underlying registration contains a false attestation or is otherwise invalid.

Further, USCIS announced on Jan. 30, 2024, that the initial registration period for the FY 2025 H-1B cap will open at noon EST March 6, 2024, and will run through noon EST March 22, 2024. During this registration period, employers and their representatives must use a USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the $10 registration fee for each beneficiary.

In addition, in the new rule, USCIS clarifies that requesting an H-1B cap employment start date after Oct. 1 of the relevant fiscal year is permissible.

USCIS also issued a fee schedule final rule to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees for the first time since 2016. This rule with go into effect after this year’s H-1B cap registration period.

Please join Greenberg Traurig Shareholders Kate Kalmykov and Nataliya Rymer for the next lunch-and-learn. The program will discuss the new H-1B lottery registration process, along with the latest changes implemented by USCIS for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 lottery. The program will provide a timeline for employers by which they may structure planning for the H-1B cap process, suggestions for how to appropriately select a workforce for inclusion in the lottery, and alternative visa considerations.

Location:

The lunch-and-learn program will take place in-person at Greenberg Traurig’s NYC office in One Vanderbilt on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 12 – 2:00 p.m. ET.

RSVP:

To RSVP for the Jan. 9 program, please click here.

This event is part of a series on emerging trends impacting investors and employers. To RSVP to future scheduled Lunch-and-Learn programs, please click here.

Key Points: The new selections were taken from H-1B registrations submitted in March 2023. Employers with selected registrations are eligible to move ahead with filing H-1B petitions between Aug. 2, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2023.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has completed the second round of H-1B cap lottery selections it previously announced late last month (USCIS to Conduct Second Random Selection from Previously Submitted FY2024 H-1B Cap Registrations | Inside Business Immigration (gtlaw-insidebusinessimmigration.com)).

FY 2024 H-1B Cap Lottery

USCIS received more than 780,000 (H-1B Electronic Registration Process | USCIS) H-1B registrations in March 2023 and more than half of eligible registrations were duplicate registrations naming beneficiaries with multiple employers submitting a registration on their behalf. USCIS completed its initial random selection of H-1B cap-subject registrations in March and the filing window for registrations selected in the first lottery was from April 1 to June 30.

USCIS investigated allegations of fraud in the H-1B registration process (USCIS Releases Numbers for H-1B Cap Registration; Includes Allegations of Misconduct | Inside Business Immigration (gtlaw-insidebusinessimmigration.com)) based on a high number of duplicate registrations. This second lottery selection therefore was anticipated to meet the FY2024 cap. USCIS confirmed on July 27, 2023 that a second H-1B registration lottery selection would take place (USCIS to Conduct Second Random Selection from Previously Submitted FY2024 H-1B Cap Registrations | Inside Business Immigration (gtlaw-insidebusinessimmigration.com)). On Aug. 1, 2023, USCIS announced that it completed the second lottery selection and notified employers that they are eligible to file H-1B petitions for selected beneficiaries.

As of now, USCIS has not provided any information regarding the number of H-1B visas selected in the second round. However, at GT, we observed that candidates with U.S. master’s degrees performed better than those under the regular cap. A third lottery remains a possibility, although uncertain. If it were to occur, additional selections likely would continue to be taken from the H-1B registrations submitted in March 2023.

In March 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducted its annual random selection process for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 H-1B cap. USCIS announced today that a second round of random selection will take place – due to the need to fulfill the FY 2024 numerical allocations.

According to USCIS, additional registrations will be selected from that initial March pool of submitted electronic registrations. Once the second selection ends, all prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this round will be notified of their eligibility to file an H-1B cap-subject petition on behalf of the named beneficiary in the selected registration.

The initial filing period for the March selections ran from April 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023. USCIS has not announced the exact date of when this second random selection process will start and end, however.

Petitioners with selected registrations will receive updates on their myUSCIS accounts, which will include a selection notice providing details about when and where they can file their petitions. Only petitioners with newly selected registrations for FY 2024 are eligible to proceed with filing H-1B cap-subject petitions for the second round.

On April 28, 2023, USCIS released the highly anticipated numbers relating to this year’s H-1B cap registration held in March. Considering the low acceptance rate reported by most employers, it was expected that USCIS received many more registrations this year than last. However, it was not expected that USCIS would include within its announcement allegations of potential misconduct on behalf of some companies submitting H-1B lottery registrations.

Specifically, USCIS received 780,884 total H-1B lottery registrations for FY 2024, compared to 483,927 for FY 2023. Of the total registrations, 408,891 (more than half) were eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations, compared to last year’s 165,180. USCIS attributes the significant increase in registrations to several dozen small technology companies that submitted multiple registrations for the same 96,000 individuals, an act USCIS has asserted was inappropriate collusion between the companies: “Based on evidence from the FY 2023 and FY 2024 H-1B cap seasons, USCIS has already undertaken extensive fraud investigations, denied and revoked petitions accordingly, and is in the process of initiating law enforcement referrals for criminal prosecution.” USCIS continued, “USCIS is committed to implementing the law and helping meet the ever-changing needs of the U.S. labor market. We are working on an upcoming H-1B modernization rule that will propose, among other improvements, bolstering the H-1B registration process to reduce the possibility of misuse and fraud in the H-1B registration system.”

The electronic H-1B cap registration program was initially implemented for FY 2021 as a solution to the countless hours and money that employers and their agents spent preparing voluminous filings increasingly only accepted by USCIS within a work-week window. For at least five years prior to FY 2021, the H-1B cap was reached within the first five business days of April, leaving employers and their attorneys spending the months of January, February, and March in a mad dash to ensure their filings were ready for filing on April 1; filings that had significant potential of being returned after not being selected in USCIS’ paper-based lottery system.

Given this most recent outcome, Congress should note that another USCIS program has significant flaws and act to reform U.S. immigration laws. Without change, the United States may well find itself lacking qualified, willing workers in many industries. 

Greenberg Traurig Immigration & Compliance Practice Shareholders Dillon R. Colucci and Agnes Cha Rudinsky will present a webinar on the recently-concluded H-1B visa cap season May 4 at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT.

The H-1B visa petition cycle is a period for employers seeking to hire specialized foreign workers and other targeted immigrant labor. This year’s cycle featured fewer approvals than anticipated, leaving many U.S. employers, as well as would-be employees around the world, wondering what changed this year, why, and what other options exist to unite qualified global talent with interested U.S. enterprises.

This webinar will dive into these questions, exploring factors that impacted this past H-1B cap season and offering insights on what may lie ahead for employers and employees – including other legal roads to connect with global talent.

Jason Rogers, Vice President of Senior Global Immigration Counsel at Newland Chase, will join as a guest presenter.

Click here to register.