Greenspoon Marder Immigration Alert: It Is That Time of the Year Again: H-1B Cap Season for FY 2023 Has Begun

Once again, it is time to start preparing for the H-1B Cap season. USCIS is expected to continue to use its electronic registration process for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 season. The registration period will run in March 2022 for a minimum of 14 calendar days. We encourage clients to begin preparing now as we expect the number of registration to greatly exceed the number of cap-subject H-1B visas available.

Although USCIS has yet to issue an update on this year’s H-1B cap season, we do not expect any major changes and the selection process to remain unchanged.  Here is an overview of the registration process:

• H-1B Employers must create an on-line account with USCIS to process the registration. We highly recommend that this process is completed in February.
• H-1B employers intending to sponsor cap subject H-1B workers will first electronically register through the on-line account for each intended employee during the registration period.
• All registrations require a $10 non-refundable registration fee.
• An employer may only submit one registration per intended beneficiary in any fiscal year. If an employer registers a beneficiary more than once in the same fiscal year, all registrations submitted by that employer for that beneficiary will be invalidated.
• If the number of registrations exceeds the number of H-1B visas available under the annual quota, USCIS will randomly select a sufficient number of registrants projected to reach the FY2023 H-1B cap.
• After the first round of selection, Employers will have 90 days during which to file H-1B cap petitions for the selected registrants. The petition filing period is expected to start no later than April 1, 2022.
• If by the end of the first filing period, USCIS has not received enough petitions to reach the annual cap, they may have subsequent filing periods until all the visa numbers are allocated.

Please reach out to your Greenspoon Marder LLP Immigration & Naturalization Practice Group attorney for any questions or concerns. Click here to stay updated on our weekly alerts.