On September 3, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require employers seeking to file H-1B cap subject petitions to pay a $10 fee for each electronic registration they submit to USCIS. The public has 30 days to submit comments on the proposed regulation.

By way of background, USCIS is planning to implement a new system for the filing of cap-subject H-1B petitions. Please see our January 31, 2019 blog post. Under the new system, employers seeking to file H-1B cap petitions will need to first electronically register sponsored workers fo r a random lottery during a designated registration period, unless USCIS temporarily suspends the registration requirement. The newly proposed rule imposes a $10 fee fo r each registered worker. When registration is required, employers will be directed to file full H-1B petitions only fo r selected registrants. This differs fro m the previous practice in which the filing of a full H-1B petition was required in order to enter each worker in the lottery. Although the rule implementing the new system took effect on April 1, 2019, USCIS suspended the registration requirement fo r the FY2020 lottery season “to complete all requisite user testing of the new H-1B registration system and otherwise ensure the system and process are operable.”

To date, little more is publicly known about the new electronic registration system. USCIS has not announced whether it intends to mandate the use of the system for the upcoming FY2021 lottery season, and it is possible that the registration requirement could again be suspended if USCIS experiences technical challenges with the new electronic system and/or the registration process, or if the system otherwise is inoperable for any reason. We will continue to monitor the implementation of the new system and provide updates as developments occur.

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