U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the H1-B cap for the fiscal year 2023 will open at 12:00 Eastern Time/22:30 Indian Time on March 1st and will close on March 18, 2022, at 12:00 Eastern Time/22:30 Indian Time.
H1-B prospective petitioners and their authorized representatives (U.S. employers and U.S. agents), who are seeking to employ H1-B workers, collectively known as registrants, can file their petition through USCIS’s website using a “registrant” account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at 12:00 Eastern Time/22:30 Indian Time on Feb 21, 2022.
The USCIS Press Release said that if enough registrations are received by March 18, they will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications through users’ myUSCIS online accounts by March 31.
USCIS opens an initial registration period for a minimum of 14 calendar days each fiscal year. The registration process is entirely electronic and only those with selected registration will be eligible for the H1-B petition.
Registrants or their representatives will be able to submit H1-B registrations for multiple beneficiaries in a single online session. Through the registered account, all applicants will be able to prepare, edit, and store draft registrations prior to each registration’s final payment and submission.
Step-By-Step Instructions To H1-B Registration
If you are a H1-B applicant working with a legal representative, do not click “File a registration.” Your legal representative will give you a passcode that you can use to review your application details.
If you are the registrant, here is the step-by-step guide to H1-B registration process:
Step 1: Go to www.USCIS.com and create a USCIS H1-B account
Step 2: Fill out the details of the sponsoring company and the authorized signatory under the “Registrant” page
Step 3: Fill out the details of H1-B applicants under “Beneficiary”
Step 4: Review and confirm your details by signing electronically
Step 5: The registrant will be redirect to pay a non-refundable H1-B registration fee of $10 to pay.gov.
Step 6: Get the confirmation of H1-B registration.
USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2023 H1-B cap. The confirmation number is used solely to track registrations and cannot be used to track case status on Case Status Online.
Information Required For H1-B Registration
- Legal name of the H1B applicant
- Gender of the applicant
- Date of Birth
- Country of Birth
- Country of Citizenship
- Passport Number
- Legal Name of the company/sponsor
- Doing Business As details
- Employer identification Number/SSN or ITIN
- Primary office address of the company/sponsor in the United States
Keep in mind that H1-B registration fee does not include other fees related to filing for an H1-B. H1-B filing fees come at a steep cost to the employer, ranging anywhere from $1,700 to $ 8,000. The employer should pay all fees, except for premium processing fees of $2500, which is an optional fee to speed up the petition adjudication.
Important Dates And Timeline For H1-B Visa 2023 Registration
- H1-B Registrant Account Creation: Opens on Feb 21st, 2022. 12:00 Eastern Time/22:30 Indian Time.
- H1-B Registration Start Date: March 1st, 2022. 12:00 Eastern Time/22:30 Indian Time.
- H1-B Registration End Date: March 18th, 2022. 12:00 Eastern Time/22:30 Indian Time.
H1-B Lottery Results: March 31st, 2022
Remember that the selection process takes place after the registration process closes, so there is no need to register on March 1, 2022. However, it is always recommended that you apply early.
H1-B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. The US issues 65000 H1-B visas each fiscal year and another 20,000 reserved for US masters’ degree holders.
Many technology companies depend on H1-B hires from countries like India and China. Amazon, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Cognizant were the top recipients of H1-B visas in the fiscal year 2021. Indians are among the program’s biggest beneficiaries, receiving about 70 percent of new visas issued each year.
For FY 2022, USCIS received 308,613 H1-B registrations and initially selected 87,500 registrations. The second selection of an additional 27,717 registrations in July and the third selection of an additional 16,753 in November resulted in a total of 131,970 selected registrations for the year 2022.
An H1-B cap-subject petition, including a petition for registrants eligible for US masters’ degree exemption, can only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H1-B petition was selected in the H1-B registration process.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security had authorized an in-person interview waiver for H1-B applicants through December of 2022. There is no update for such exemption for 2023 yet. Follow us on Twitter for more updates.
