H-1B Cap (“H-1B Lottery”) Registration Dates For Fiscal Year 2024 Announced

H-1B CAP (“H-1B LOTTERY”) REGISTRATION DATES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024 ANNOUNCED

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the registration for this year’s H-1B lottery (fiscal year 2024) will be conducted between noon EST on March 1, 2023 through noon EST on March 17, 2023.

• Each fiscal year, the U.S. government releases 65,000 H-1B visa numbers to allow employers to petition for highly skilled foreign professional to work in “specialty occupations” that require at least a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. This is referred to as the Regular Cap. An additional 20,000 H-1Bs are available for foreign professionals who have graduated with a master’s degree or doctorate from a U.S. institution of higher education. This is referred to as the Advanced Degree Cap.

• During the registration period (March 1-17), prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners* or their representatives (e.g. attorneys) may register each beneficiary electronically using a properly created myUSCIS online account. There is a $10 fee per registration.

• Employers can submit only one registration per beneficiary in any fiscal year.

• If USCIS receives enough registrations by March 17, it will randomly select registrations and send notifications via users’ my USCIS online account. If USCIS does not receive enough registrations, then all properly submitted registrations will be selected.

• USCIS expects to conduct the random selection and notify employers of selected registrations by March 31, 2023.

• If a beneficiary is selected, the employer (petitioner) will have a 90-day window during which to file the H-1B cap petition for that beneficiary. The petition filing period is expected to start no later than April 3, 2023.

• If USCIS does not receive enough properly filed or approvable H-1B petitions by the end of the 90-day filing window, USCIs may conduct another lottery from the registrations submitted between March 1-17, 2023.

• An employer may not substitute a different beneficiary for the one named in the registration and, similarly, the beneficiary may not use the selected registration to apply for an H-1B for employment with a different employer.

• Please note that nationals of Chile and Singapore are subject to a different, country-specific cap, which is referred to as the Chile-Singapore Cap, or H-1B1 Cap. The annual cap for citizens of these nations is 5,400 and 1,400 (respectively), for a total of 6,800 between the two nations. Historically, this cap has never been reached.

*A cap-subject petitioner must register prospective H-1B employees in the H-1B lottery. However, certain employers are cap-exempt and may file petitions for prospective H-1B employees at any time of the year with regard to the quota. These employers include:

1. Institutions of higher education;
2. Non-profit entities which are “related to” or “affiliated with” institutions of higher education;
3. Non-profit research organizations;
4. Government research organizations.

Existing clients, please contact your attorney at McCown + Evans for more information.

New clients, please contact us at 415-432-5300 or by email to info@mccownevans.com