This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh, Fredrikson Immigration Department Chair, is a member.
The initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 H-1B cap will open at noon ET on March 1, 2022, and run through noon ET on March 18, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using the USCIS online H-1B registration system, for foreign workers with an October 1, 2022, start date.
USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2023 H-1B cap. USCIS said that this number is used solely to track registrations and cannot be used to track case status in Case Status Online.
USCIS said prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives must use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary. Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (“registrants”—U.S. employers and U.S. agents) will use a “registrant” account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon ET on February 21, 2022 but must wait until March 1 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with fee.
If USCIS receives enough registrations by March 18, it will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts. The agency said it will notify selected account holders by March 31.
USCIS noted that 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.
