U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Friday that the initial registration period for fiscal year 2023 H-1B cap numbers will open at noon Eastern on March 1 and run through noon Eastern on March 18, 2022. In a statement, USCIS outlined:

“During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using our online H-1B registration system.

USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2023 H-1B cap. This number is used solely to track registrations; you cannot use this number to track your case status in Case Status Online.

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 and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary. Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (U.S. employers and U.S. agents, collectively known as “registrants”) will use a “registrant” account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon Eastern on Feb. 21.

Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 1 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $10 fee. Prospective petitioners or their representatives will be able to submit registrations for multiple beneficiaries in a single online session. Through the account, they will be able to prepare, edit, and store draft registrations prior to final payment and submission of each registration.

If we receive enough registrations by March 18, we will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts. We intend to notify account holders by March 31.” It is important to note there is an annual fiscal-year limit of 65,000 on the number of new H-1B “slots” available. This is commonly known as the “H-1B cap.” The law provides an additional 20,000 H-1B slots for foreign professionals who have earned a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education. Certain employers and foreign nationals are exempt from the cap and do not have to pre-register for the H-1B cap. These include:

• Foreign national professionals employed at an institution of higher education;
• Nonprofit entities related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education;
• Nonprofit research organizations; 
• Governmental research organizations; and
• Foreign nationals now in H-1B status who were already counted towards the cap (e.g., petitions to extend the H-1B stay, to amend the H-1B petition, etc.).