The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has approved and implemented a new H-1B lottery electronic registration process and fee for the fiscal year 2021 H-1B lottery. The process requires employers to preregister online before they file their petition to apply for visas for highly-skilled foreign workers:
Employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions for the fiscal year 2021 cap, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must first electronically register and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee.
The registration period will open from March 1 – March 20, 2020. This goal of the new H-1B registration process is to streamline and reduce paper waste, and instead have the employer or their authorized representatives complete a registration process that will only need basic information about the company and the employee. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule to establish a $10 H-1B registration fee on November 8, 2019, which became effective on Dec. 9, 2019. The new registration rule and fee apply to all registrations submitted during the initial and future registration periods.
H-1B visas allow holders to live and work in the United States for up to 3 years. The new H-1B visa filing fee will apply to the filing period likely to take place in March for petitions with an effective date of October 1, 2020. With an anticipated fiscal year 2021 cap of 85,000, there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of H-1B visas by the Trump administration.
Immigration law is U.S. federal law. A visa attorney may also work with individuals from around the world to help them obtain work visas or green cards. If you have a question about an H-1B visa, contact the Mario Godoy and the immigration attorneys at Godoy Law Office in Chicago, Illinois, 855-554-6369.
