U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services FY 2025 H-1B Cap Registration Period Opens March 6
02/29/2024U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap will open at 12 p.m. ET on March 6, 2024, and extend to 12 p.m. ET on March 22, 2024. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary for the selection process, and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration.
The electronic registration process streamlines processing by reducing paperwork and data exchange and provides overall cost savings to employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (U.S. employers and U.S. agents, collectively known as “registrants”) will use an “organizational” account (formerly known as a “registrant” account). Registrants will be able to create new organizational accounts beginning at noon Eastern on Feb. 28, 2024. Those who have an existing registrant account can easily upgrade to an organizational account instead of creating a new account. Of note, the USCIS confirmation number assigned to each registrant is used solely to track registrations and cannot be used to track the case status in Case Status Online.
Through the myUSCIS account, prospective petitioners will be able to prepare, edit, and store draft registrations beginning March 1, but must wait until March 6 to submit the registration with the $10 fee.
After the registration period is completed, USCIS will begin the H-1B cap selection “lottery” process. Petitioners will be notified of the registrants selected during this round of the lottery via selection notifications sent to their myUSCIS online accounts through March 31. An H-1B cap- subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.
We would be happy to assist with the registration and potential subsequent preparation of your/your company’s H-1B cap petition. Please feel free to contact David Jacobson, Partner and Chair of our Immigration Group, at djacobson@wbny.com for further assistance.