The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Office of Public Engagement on February 24, 2022 held a webinar on the FY 2023 H-1B Electronic Registration Process. This is the third year that USCIS has utilized the registration process for the purpose of selecting by prospective beneficiaries for whom employers might later submit petitions. The webinar reminded employers or their representatives of the requirements and best practices for creating the online registration account as well as submitting the registrations. In addition, USCIS unveiled new a new duplicate checker feature and a certification requirement to prevent fraud.
Dates to Remember
- February 22, Noon EST: First day for prospective petitioners to create online registration account
- March 1, Noon EST: Registration Portal Opens: new registrations can be created/submitted at my.uscis.gov
- March 18, Noon EST: Registration Portal Closes: no additional registrations can be submitted
- March 31: USCIS intends to issue selection notifications by this date via the online accounts
- April 1: Earliest Date FY 2023 cap-subject H-1B Visa petitions can be submitted. Selection Notifications will include the deadline to submit.
Helpful Tips from the Webinar
The following tips and reminders should assist with the FY 2023 H-1B visa lottery process.
- There are two types of accounts: employer and representative (e.g., lawyer). Employers whose representatives submit registrations must also have online accounts to review and approve each registration.
- Employers and/or representatives can use online accounts established in previous years unless the person submitting the registrations has changed, e.g., a new HR director is now responsible for submitting or reviewing registrations.
- There is no fee to create an online account.
- The fee per registrant (prospective beneficiary) is $10; up to 250 registrations may be included in one submission.
- NEW: The online registration account now includes a duplicate checker.
- The duplicate checker only checks draft submissions with previously paid registrations. Registrants are responsible for deleting duplicates prior to March 18, noon EST. If USCIS finds duplicates after March 18, the duplicate beneficiary will be deleted and no longer eligible for selection. Fees paid for duplicate entries are not refundable.
- NEW: Prospective petitioners must attest that to the information submitted about the prospective beneficiary and to the legitimacy of the job offer. It is possible that multiple companies may submit a registration for the same potential beneficiary—assuming each registration is for a legitimate job offer. Companies that work with other companies to submit duplicate registrations are subject to beneficiary deletions, fines, and other penalties.
- USCIS promised to post the full slide deck and perhaps the webinar recording. That information is not yet available as of today (February 25, 2022). TechServe will update this article with the links to the USCIS website when available.
Source: USCIS
