Washington, D.C. – February 21, 2020: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is using a new online registration system to allocate new H-1B visas.

This is the first time that USCIS has adopted an online tool for employers to register and participate in the annual H-1B visa lottery for new visas.

Prospective petitioners seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those filing for beneficiaries eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must first electronically register with USCIS.

Create an Online Account

Submitting an H-1B registration requires a USCIS online account. The appropriate type depends on the submitter’s role:

• Representatives will use the same type of representative account that is already available and may use an existing account.
• Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (U.S. employers and U.S. agents, collectively known as “registrants”) will use a new “registrant” account that will be available beginning Feb. 24

Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 1 at noon Eastern to enter beneficiary information, submit registrations and pay the $10 non-refundable registration fee for each beneficiary.

Registration Period Starts March 1

The initial registration period will run from noon Eastern March 1 through noon Eastern March 20, 2020. Account creation and registration will remain available throughout this period; selections will take place after the initial registration period closes, so there is no requirement to register on March 1.

If USCIS receives enough registrations by March 20, we will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users’ USCIS online accounts. We intend to notify account holders by March 31, 2020.

An H-1B cap-subject petition may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for that beneficiary was selected in the H-1B registration process.

Donoso & Associates, a leading immigration law firm based in Washington, D.C., will continue to report on developments regarding the immigration law and policy through our news section of donosolaw.com.