On March 27, 2020, USCIS announced that it received enough electronic registrations during the initial registration period to reach the FY 2021 H-1B cap. A random selection (lottery) was conducted from the registrations properly submitted.
What Employers Can Expect
USCIS will notify petitioners with selected registrations no later than March 31, 2020 that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the selected registration.
Registrants’ online accounts will now be updated to show one of the following statuses for each beneficiary registered:
- Submitted: A registration status may continue to show “Submitted” after the initial selection process. These registrations will remain in consideration for selection until the end of the fiscal year, at which point all registration statuses will either be Selected, Not Selected, or Denied. If petitions are not filed for selected beneficiaries with the designated 90-day filing window, USCIS may conduct another lottery from the reserve Submitted registrations until the cap is reached.
- Selected: Indicates that the employer may file an FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary.
- Denied: Either a duplicate registration was submitted by the same registrant for the same beneficiary, or a payment method was declined and not reconciled. If the denial is due to a a duplicate registration, all registrations submitted for this beneficiary for the fiscal year are invalid.
Only petitioners with selected registrations may file H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2021 and only for the beneficiary in the applicable selected registration notice. Employers will have a 90-day window during which to file. The filing period is expected to start no later than April 1. For more information, visit the H-1B Electronic Registration Process page.
Gibney will continue to monitor the FY 2021 H-1B cap process and provide updates, and will work with employers to file H-1B petitions for selected beneficiaries during the designated filing window.
