On January 30, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the pre-registration filing period for the 2025 Fiscal Year H-1B cap submissions will take place from March 6, 2024, at noon ET to noon ET on March 22, 2024. To reduce fraud that was endemic in the filing period in 2023, USCIS has reconfigured the pre-registration process by making the process beneficiary-centric with the requirement that unique identifiers in the form of passport identification or other travel documents specific to the foreign national be utilized for purpose of the pre-registration process.

Further, USCIS has introduced a new online organizational account system that can be utilized by U.S. employers with filings for many prospective employees. Employers may create new accounts in the system and current account holders may upgrade existing accounts commencing February 28, 2024.

The new system, centered on the potential foreign hire, will allow U.S. employers to be notified that they have been selected in the ‘lottery’ and are eligible to file an H-1B cap petition. USCIS hopes that there will be a reduction in the gaming of the H-1B ‘lottery’ multiple submissions that occurred in the past.

Only one passport or travel document will be permitted to be utilized by the foreign national for all registrations submitted on their behalf. Travel documents are permitted to be utilized in lieu of passports if the foreign national is unable to be issued a passport. This situation might arise in the case of refugees or other stateless individuals who cannot secure passports.

If a foreign national is selected in the pre-registration system, the same passport or travel document identifier must be utilized in the H-1B petition submission.

For this year, the filing fee for the H-1B pre-registration process remains $10. For future filing periods commencing in March 2025 or later, the fee for pre-registration will rise to $215, a 2050% increase.

Further, the H-1B modernization provisions, proposed by USCIS to redefine the employer-employee relationship, professional occupations, cap-gap protection, and other issues, were not included in these rules, which are scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2024.

Significant Increase in USCIS Filing Fees
For many years, USCIS endeavored to increase its filing fees since it does not receive a separate budget line from Congress and is therefore self-funded.

Significant increases in filing fees are noted in the following instances and are slated to go into effect on April 1:

• I129 Form for H-1B petitions: Increasing from $460 to $780, for a 70% increase
• I129 Form for L1A and L1B petitions: Increasing from $460 to $1,385, for a 201% increase
• I129 Form for L1A and L1B (smaller employers with less than 25 employees): Increasing from $460 to $695, for a 51% increase
• I129 E1, E2 E3, TN, H3 P Q R Classifications: Increasing from $460 to $1,015, for a $121% increase
• Citizenship applications – Online and paper filings: Increasing from $640 to $710 and $760, respectively
• EB-5 – I526 filing fee: Increasing from $3,675 to over $11,000 per filing
• I140 immigrant petition fees will also increase significantly

Note as well that for each I129 and I140 petition submission, USCIS will levy an additional fee of $600 assigned to its “Asylum Program Fee.” Smaller companies with less than 25 employees and some nonprofit organizations will be required to remit a $300 additional filing fee. This additional fee is expected to be used to fund part of the federal government’s administration of the asylum program.

Premium Processing Update
USCIS is expected to extend the premium processing adjudication time from 15 calendar days to at least 15 business days, which could lengthen the processing time by a week or more. Premium processing filing fees, applicable to I129 and I140 filings, will increase to $2,805, to take effect on April 1.

A full listing of increased filing fees may be found here.

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