On Friday, January 28, 2022, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the online registration period for H-1B quota selection for the upcoming fiscal year will begin on March 1 at 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern Standard Time and run through 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern Standard Time on March 18. The FY2023 H-1B quota is for H-1B registrations and petitions filed to USCIS in the spring of 2022, with a start date of October 1, 2022 or later.

The registration system for this year is similar to last year’s H-1B registration. Registrations will be submitted electronically and will require a non-refundable $10 registration fee. Assuming that USCIS receives more registrations than the allotted number of 85,000 available H-1B petitions, USCIS will conduct a computer-generated lottery among all registrations. Employers with selected cases will then be eligible to file an H-1B petition within a designated 90-day period following registration selection. As mentioned above, approved H-1B petitions will be effective on October 1, 2022 or later — the start of the government’s 2023 fiscal year.

Mintz will also provide detailed instructions to our clients on accessing an existing account or creating a new employer account for H-1B registration. Employers will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon Eastern time on February 21. However, employers and their attorneys or representatives must wait until March 1 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $10 fee.