H-1B cap filing period opens, 275,000 registrations received

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced today that the filing period is now open for fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions.

Key points:

• Employers may begin filing H-1B petitions today on behalf of candidates whose registrations were selected in the lottery.
• The filing period will remain open for at least 90 days.
• USCIS also announced that it received nearly 275,000 registrations during the mandatory electronic registration period last month, about 46% of which were for candidates with U.S. advanced degrees.
• Employers must follow the instructions in their Selection Notices regarding the 90-day filing window and the appropriate USCIS service center for filing purposes.

Background: The agency also announced that Indian nationals represented 67.7% of registration candidates and Chinese nationals made up 13.2%. USCIS did not provide numbers for other nationals.

BAL Analysis: Employers are reminded that though the filing period will remain open until at least June 30, they should prioritize time-sensitive H-1B candidates, such as F-1 students who can benefit from cap-gap status and others whose status may expire soon. USCIS suspended premium processing of all employment-based petitions as of March 20 because of COVID-19, and has not indicated when the expedited service will become available. BAL clients can access the latest H-1B cap updates, resources and analysis by logging onto BAL’s H-1B Electronic Registration Resource Center.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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