H-1B Cap Update – Employers May Now Create New Cap Registration Accounts
Employers can now set up new accounts in USCIS’s online H-1B cap registration system. If your organization wishes to sponsor foreign workers for H-1B cap employment in FY 2023, it must have a registration account. Existing registration accounts may continue to be used for the FY 2023 registration period. H-1B cap registration opens at noon ET on March 1, 2022 and closes at noon ET on March 18, 2022. All beneficiaries must be registered during this period to be entered in the FY 2023 H-1B cap selection lotteries.
The issue
USCIS’s online system for H-1B cap registration has opened for new employer account creation at noon on February 21, 2022. If an organization plans to sponsor foreign nationals for H-1B cap employment in FY 2023, it must have an active registration account in the USCIS system and provide its immigration counsel with all necessary beneficiary information. Planning ahead will help ensure that your organization can complete the required registration steps by noon ET on March 18, 2022, when the FY 2023 cap registration period will close.
USCIS will open the cap registration period on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at noon ET. Immigration counsel can begin to draft and submit cap registrations at this time; the USCIS system will not permit the drafting or filing of registrations before March 1.
The registration period will close on 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.
The agency will run two cap lotteries between March 18 at 12:01PM ET and March 31, 2022.
The first lottery will contain all registered H-1B beneficiaries. USCIS will use this lottery to select enough registrations to meet the regular H-1B cap of 65,000.
The second lottery will contain all registered advanced-degree cap beneficiaries who were not selected in the first lottery. USCIS will use this lottery to select enough registrations to meet the H-1B cap exemption of 20,000 for holders of U.S. advanced degrees.
Subsequent lotteries are possible if the number of H-1B petitions received as a result of the initial lotteries is insufficient to meet the FY 2023 quota.
USCIS plans to notify employers and immigration counsel of the lottery results by March 31, 2022. For each cap registration, USCIS will send an email to the employer’s authorized signatory and immigration counsel. The email will notify the recipient that there has been a change in the status of a cap registration.
The petition filing period begins on April 1, 2022 and will end no earlier than June 30, 2022. All FY 2023 H-1B cap petitions must be submitted during the prescribed period. USCIS will not accept late filings.