USCIS Announces Registration Schedule for FY 2023 H-1B Cap Season

The FY 2023 cap registration period will open at noon ET on March 1, 2022 and will close at noon ET on March 18, 2022. All cap registrations must be drafted and submitted online during this period. Prospective H-1B cap employers may use their existing “registrant” myUSCIS accounts for FY 2023 cap registration. Employers setting up new “registrant” accounts may do so beginning Monday, February 21 at noon ET and continuing through the registration period. After registration closes, USCIS will conduct the FY 2023 H-1B cap selection and notify sponsoring employers of selected entries by March 31, 2022. Employers may submit petitions for selected registrations starting April 1, 2022. The petition filing period will close no earlier than June 30, 2022.

The issue

Sponsoring employers may submit registrations for the FY 2023 H-1B cap between noon ET on March 1, 2022, and noon ET on March 18, 2022, according to USCIS. As in past years, USCIS will use a random computerized lottery to select the registrations for which an H-1B cap petition may be submitted.

Prospective H-1B employers that do not yet have a “Registrant” account in the myUSCIS system – the required account type for H-1B registrations – may begin creating accounts at noon ET on February 21. Account creation can continue through the end of the registration period on March 18.

Registering for the FY 2023 H-1B cap

USCIS will once again use an online registration system to conduct the H-1B cap selection.

Your organization must have a myUSCIS account for each Employer Identification Number (EIN) entity that will sponsor beneficiaries for the FY 2023 cap season. An employer account is necessary whether your organization will work with immigration counsel to submit registrations or will submit registrations on its own behalf. Your organization’s accounts must be maintained by an employee authorized to sign immigration benefit requests for your organization. While more than one authorized signatory is permitted, each signatory must have a separate account. 

As noted above, myUSCIS has not yet enabled the creation of new employer “registrant” accounts for the FY 2023 H-1B cap season. New accounts may be created starting on February 21. Your organization and its representatives must therefore refrain from creating a new myUSCIS account for H-1B registration until February 21. Inadvertently creating the wrong account type will block the user’s email address from creating a registrant account at a later date.

If your organization will be represented by immigration counsel during the registration process, you will be able to associate your organization’s account with its attorneys’ accounts after you create your own.

Cap registration opens March 1, 2022

USCIS will open the cap registration period on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at noon ET. Employers and their immigration counsel can begin to draft and submit cap registrations at this time. The USCIS system will not accept drafts or registrations before March 1.

The registration period will close on Friday, March 18, 2022 at noon ET. All registrations for the FY 2023 cap must be submitted by this time. Late registrations will not be accepted.

Employers will be able to include up to 250 beneficiaries in a single registration submission. There is no limit on the number of registrations an employer can submit.

The H-1B cap selection

As in past years, USCIS is expected to receive far more H-1B cap registrations than needed to meet the annual quota of 85,000. 

USCIS will conduct two lotteries to select enough beneficiaries to meet the 85,000 annual cap. The first lottery will include all registered beneficiaries and will select enough registrations to meet the regular cap of 65,000. The second lottery would include registered U.S. advanced-degree holders who were not chosen in the first lottery, and would select enough registrations to meet the advanced-degree cap exemption of 20,000.

The petition filing period

USCIS will begin to accept cap petitions for selected beneficiaries on April 1, 2022. The petition filing period will close no earlier than June 30, 2022. 

Employers can file their petitions at any time during the filing period, but some cases might need to be filed early in the period. For example, an F-1 student with an optional practical training (OPT) employment authorization document (EAD) that expires before June 30 must have their cap petition filed before the OPT EAD expiration date to ensure cap-gap work authorization benefits through the October 1 start date of their H-1B cap petition. Your organization should work with your immigration counsel to identify beneficiaries whose petitions must be filed by a specific date within the registration period.