USCIS Completes Inaugural H-1B Cap Electronic Pre-Registration Process and Now Accepting Petitions

Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) completed the electronic pre-registration process for this year’s H-1B cap season, inaugurating a new system for selecting cap cases for review that the agency first announced in December 2018. As detailed in prior posts, The Department of Homeland Security Proposes New Pre-Registration Procedure and Alterations to Lottery Selection Process for H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions and DHS Publishes Final Rule Amending the H-1B Cap Filing Process, the new system for cap filings required employers to complete an online basic registration for each beneficiary for whom they hoped to submit a full H-1B filing. Since demand for the H-1B visa outweighs the 65,000 slots available through the H-1B cap system each year, USCIS then completed a lottery to select which of the pre-registered cases could move forward with submitting a full H-1B filing for review and approval.  In prior years, USCIS completed the lottery after employers submitted full petitions. The new process sought to create a more streamlined process where employers would know which cases would be reviewed up front instead of having to draft full filings only to hear the case was not selected in the lottery for review.

Read the full article on our immigration blog, Knowing Immigration Law.