The USCIS has announced that they have completed the H-1B registration process for fiscal year (FY) 2021 and that petitioners whose employees have been selected in the lottery can now file H-1B cap visa petitions. The filing period begins April 1, 2020 and will be open for 90 days. The USCIS announcement can be found here: https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/fy-2021-h-1b-cap-petitions-may-be-filed-april-1
The USCIS states that they received approximately 275,000 unique registrations almost half of which (46%) were filed on behalf of beneficiaries who qualified under the advanced degree exception. Of the total submissions, most of the beneficiaries were from India (67%) followed by beneficiaries from China (13.2%).
USCIS will hold all other submitted registrations that were not selected until at least September 30, 2020 in case any of the selected cases are not submitted/approved. Some
Beneficiaries that were selected in the registration step may not ultimately have H-1B cap petitions filed for them or there may be cap petition denials resulting in additional selections from the registration submitted pool. What this means is that there will be a wait list for “non-selected” beneficiaries. In other words, “non-selected” beneficiaries may be selected at a later date. We will not have any update on this process for probably at least 90 days.
Please note that USCIS announced that premium processing would not be available for FY 2021 H-1B cap subject petitions at least initially. Previously USCIS stated that premium processing for FY 2021 H-1B cap subject petitions would resume in a two-phased approach during the FY 2021 cap season. The first phase, starting on May 27, 2020, will include FY 2021 cap-subject H-1B petitions requesting a change of status from F-1 nonimmigrant status. The second phase, starting no earlier than June 29, 2020, will include all other FY 2021 cap-subject petitions. However, these time lines were put in place before the Covid-19 pandemic impacted federal agencies. USCIS has since suspended premium processing for all case types. This suspension supersedes the prior time frames. Beneficiaries and employers should anticipate that premium processing may not be available beyond the announced dates.
We are in the process of notifying our clients of whether they were selected in the initial registration lottery or not. Those who were selected and their employers are proceeding with filing will then be contacted to start the finalization of the H-1B cap petitions to submit to USCIS.
As background, each employer created a USCIS online account under which H-1B cap registrations were submitted. Now that the registration period has concluded and USCIS has updated cases, each registration case shows one of the four following statuses for each individual registration:
- Submitted: A registration status may continue to show “Submitted” after the initial selection process has been completed. “Submitted” registrations will remain in consideration for selection until the end of the fiscal year, at which point all registration statuses will be Selected, Not Selected or Denied.
- Selected: Selected to file an FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petition.
- Not Selected: Not selected for this fiscal year.
****Please note that a registration will not reflect a status of Not Selected until the conclusion of the fiscal year. In the event that USCIS determines that it needs to increase the number of registrations projected to meet the H-1B regular cap or the advanced degree exemption allocation, USCIS will select from registrations held in reserve to meet the H-1B regular cap or advanced degree exemption allocation.
- Denied: The same registrant or representative submitted more than one registration on the beneficiary’s behalf for the same fiscal year. All registrations the registrant or representative submitted on behalf of the same beneficiary for the same fiscal year are invalid.
H-1B cap-subject beneficiaries, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must have a “Selected” registration notification in order for a registrant or representative to be eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for FY 2021. Registrants and representatives will not be notified until the end of the fiscal year if they are not selected. The status of registrations not selected as part of any initial random selection process and not denied will remain as “Submitted.”
While any registration still reflects that it is at the “Submitted” stage, we will not know 100% for sure that the individual was not selected in the lottery. It is only once the account changes to show “Not Selected” at the end of the fiscal year that we will know with certainty. That said, individuals not selected in the first round should make plans under the assumption that they will not be selected.
Jackson & Hertogs will provide further updates as they become available.
