Another new requirement of electronic pre-registration of H-1B applications is likely to take effect from April 2020 for the next H-1B visa filing season. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received all necessary approvals to implement the rule.
USCIS will open the window for filing the H-1B cap applications in the first few days of April 2020. Usually the annual quota of 85,000 (including reserved quota of 20,000 for Master’s degree holders) is met within few days of opening the applications window.
The new rule of electronic pre-registration was announced in January 2019 but it was not implemented for this year’s H-1B visa applications season. The new process will require sponsoring employers to first electronically register with the USCIS within the pre-announced registration period. Only the approved employers will be eligible to sponsor the H-1B visa petition for prospective foreign skilled employees, a large part of which are Indian techies.
A group of 15 associations comprising of large tech firms and American Immigration Lawyer’s association has sought clarity on the timeline of the new process. The letter sent by them reads, “USCIS should publicly confirm by September 15 if, and when, the electronic registration system will be rolled out for the H-1B cap filing season for fiscal 2021 (which refers to applications to be filed in April 2020)”
The group expects that USCIS will allow maximum employers to participate in the testing phase and the feedback will be taken seriously. Their demand is that it is important to ensure the proper technical functioning of the online registration tool and it should be thoroughly tested before USCIS mandates its use.
USCIS believes that the electronic registration process will help employers to save the hassle of filing extensive documentation just for being eligible for the lottery process. The US administration estimates that employers will be able to save upwards of $47 million with the new system.
