Beginning on March 9, employer-petitioners will be able to begin the H-1B cap-subject petition registration process for FY2022. Such employers must electronically register and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee per beneficiary before filing a petition for H-1B visa status for a beneficiary. If approved, the visa would become available on October 1, 2021. The registration period is from March 9 to March 25, 2021. USCIS has announced that if they receive enough registrants by March 25, USCIS will randomly select registrants and send notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts by March 31. After the petitioner is notified that the registration has been selected, he or she will have at least 90 days to submit a completed H-1B petition with supporting documentation. Any H-1B registration that was submitted last year but was not selected can be reused this year.

Like last year, prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process. While employers can set up their account now, they cannot enter their H-1B required data until March 2. Because each registration is beneficiary-specific, basic information about the beneficiary is also required.

USCIS will not consider a cap-subject petition properly filed unless it is based on a valid registration selection for the same beneficiary and in the appropriate fiscal year. Although petitioner-employers can register multiple foreign nationals during a single online submission, duplicate registrations for the same beneficiary in the same fiscal year will be denied during the registration process.