H-1B Lottery Registration Opens March 9
There are only 65,000 available each year with an additional 20,000 allotted to foreign nationals with U.S. earned master degrees. In recent years, there have been well more than 200,000 H-1B petitions filed, causing USCIS to conduct a lottery to determine which cases would be accepted for processing.
Following the new process implemented last year, USCIS will be using an electronic registration system to administer the H-1B lottery. Here’s some important information about the upcoming lottery::
- Benefit to employers: Employers no longer need to submit complete H-1B packets to be considered in the H-1B lottery, thereby substantially reducing legal fees employers would incur for cases that do not get through the lottery.
- Fee: Employers are required to pay $10 for each registration. Payments can be made via Pay.gov using a bank account, credit card or debit card.
- Registration Period: March 9 to March 25.
- Notification: USCIS intends to notify registrants if they have been selected in the lottery no later than March 31, 2021.
- Filing Period: For cases selected in the lottery, employers will have 90 days to file their H-1B petitions from the date they are notified of their selection.
- Information Required for Electronic Registration: The following information will be required:
- Employer Information: legal name of petitioning company or organization; DBAs; FEIN; Primary U.S. office address; Authorized signatory legal name, job title and contact information (daytime phone number and e-mail address)
- Beneficiary Information: Legal name, gender, DOB, country of birth, country of citizenship, passport number, and whether Beneficiary has a master or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education
- Information Required on Offered Position: No information about the actual offered position is required in order to register.
- Wait list: There will be a wait list for registrations that are not selected in the lottery. If more registrants are needed to meet the regular cap and/or advanced degree exemption, USCIS will select from the wait list (or reopen the registration if needed). Last year, USCIS conducted a second round of selections in August, so many employers whose registrations were not initially selected in March were still able to submit their H-1B petitions.
The H-1B visa allows employers to hire foreign nationals with, at a minimum, a bachelor degree in a specific specialty who will be filing a position that requires at least bachelor degree in that specific specialty.
Please feel free to contact our office with any questions regarding H-1B visas or any other U.S. immigration matters.