United States: H-1B Cap Lottery Registration Deadline Is Approaching

This article is about the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year 2024 (registration is in the first half of March 2023 for a potential start date of October 1, 2023).

USCIS announced that the initial registration period for the H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 1, 2023. The registration period will end at noon Eastern on March 17, 2023. During this period, employers will be able to submit registrations for prospective H-1B employees using the online H-1B registration system. USCIS requires a $10 registration fee to complete the process.

As in all recent years, we expect this year’s registrations to exceed the 85,000 available slots for new H-1B spots. If so, USCIS will conduct a computer-generated lottery to select 85,000. USCIS will then notify the employers and immigration attorneys for selected employees by March 31. Employers with selected registrations will be eligible to file the full H-1B petition for that employee with USCIS. Approved petitions will have an H-1B start date of October 1, 2023, which is the first day of the government’s fiscal year.

In January 2023, USCIS proposed significant fee increases for H-1B filing fees. Even the H-1B cap registration fee was proposed to increase from $10 to $215. However, this proposed increase will not affect this year’s H-1B cap registration process.

Last year, FY2023, USCIS received 483,927 H-1B registrations during the initial registration period. USCIS selected 127,600 registrations, which it projected was needed to meet the 85,000 spots due to a history of low filings following registration selection. In FY2022, USCIS received 308,613 registrations initially and selected 87,500. That same year, they conducted a second selection in July and a third selection in November before reaching sufficient petitions to meet the cap.