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Last Updated On: February 7, 2024 | Published On: January 31, 2024
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced a final rule to reduce potential fraud in the H-1B cap registration and random lottery process for U.S. Federal Fiscal Year 2024-2025 which begins on October 1st, 2024.
The initial registration period for the H-1B lottery 2024 timeline will begin at noon Eastern on March 6, 2024, and run through noon Eastern on March 22, 2024. USCIS intends to notify successful selection notifications by March 31. Important highlights about these H-1B lottery changes are outlined below. You can find the full text of the final rule on the Federal Register website.
Under the beneficiary-centric process, registrations will be selected by one (1) unique beneficiary rather than by registrations, which in the past was based on each separate job opportunity and employer.
USCIS will require beneficiary registrants to provide valid passport information or valid travel that will be linked to the H-1B filing. Each beneficiary must only be registered under one passport or travel document. USCIS prohibits a beneficiary from being registered under more than one travel document or passport.
The rule allows a beneficiary to enter the selection process with multiple registrations (i.e. employer job offers) but the selection will be limited to the unique beneficiary. USCIS will also permit related employers to file multiple registrations for the same beneficiary. However, this will not increase chances for selection and this ability may not be available in the future.
If a beneficiary is selected, each employer registrant who submitted a registration on their behalf will be notified of the selection and can file a petition on that beneficiary’s behalf.
Learn about the H-1B prevailing wage determination.
USCIS will be increasing government filing fees however, the change will not go into effect before the H-1B FY 2024-25 cap registration period, thus the registration fee starting in March 2024, will remain $10. After the H-1B visa lottery 2025 date, the registration fee will go up to $215.
USCIS Fees (if selected for FY2025 H1B Lottery):
Important: These fees reflect the government increases effective April 1st
· (INCREASED) $780 H-1B filing fee ($460 for companies with 25 or less employees)
· (No Change)$1,500 ACWIA training fee ($750 for companies with 25 or less employees)
· (No Change) $500 USCIS anti-fraud fee
· (INCREASED) $2,805 premium processing fee (+$175 legal administrative fee)
· (INCREASED) $470 USCIS fee
Asylum Program Fee – This is a new fee that will be assessed on all Form I-129 and I-140 petitions to help cover the costs of asylum adjudications. This fee should also help free up SCOPS and FOD resources that have been diverted from EB adjudications to asylum adjudications.
On Feb. 28, 2024, USCIS will launch the previously announced new organizational accounts in the USCIS online account that will allow multiple people within an organization and their legal representatives to collaborate on and prepare H-1B visa lottery 2025 registrations, H-1B petitions and any associated Form I-907 Premium Processing Requests.
Petitioners will continue to have the option of filing a paper Form I-129 H-1B petition and any associated Form I-907 if they prefer. However, during the initial launch of organizational accounts, users cannot link paper-filed Forms I-129 and I-907 to their online accounts.
A new edition of Form I-129 will soon be available to preview on uscis.gov (edition date 04/01/24). Starting on April 1, 2024, only the 04/01/24 edition of Form I-129 will be accepted.
USCIS recently announced an increase on the filing fee for Form I-907, to adjust for inflation, effective Feb. 26, 2024. These will apply to all related case types, including FY2025 H-1B cap cases.
DHS is clarifying the requirements regarding the requested employment start date on H-1B 2024 cap-subject petitions to permit filing with requested start dates that are AFTER October 1, 2024.
The final rule clarifies that if a beneficiary attempts two entries into the selection process in any way, USCIS may find their registrations invalid and deny or revoke the approval of any H-1B lottery 2025 petition. An example would be submitting both a passport and a travel document.
Also, if an employer submits more than one registration per beneficiary, then all of the registrations submitted by the employer for the beneficiary will be considered invalid and USCIS may deny or revoke the approval of any petition filed for the beneficiary based on those invalid registrations.
Finally, USCIS re-affirms its ability to deny H-1B petitioners or revoke an approved petition where there is a change in the beneficiary’s identifying information from the identifying information as stated in the registration to the information as stated in the petition; the underlying registration contained a false attestation or was otherwise invalid; the registration fee was invalid; or where the H-1B cap-subject petition was not based on a valid registration.
Check out these H-1B Visa Frequently Asked Questions!
The H-1B Registration final rule makes final some provisions proposed in the Oct. 23, 2023, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). DHS and USCIS intend to publish a separate final rule to address the remaining provisions contained in the NPRM. Stay tuned for upcoming changes.
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Tags: H-1B cap, H-1B Lottery, H-1B Rules
