United States completes implementation of H-1B electronic registration process for 2021 season

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United States has completed the implementation of H-1B electronic registration process for the 2021 cap season. The country’s immigration agency has announced, the petitions for the most sought after work visa among Indian IT professionals will be accepted from 1st of April next year.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows the US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency mandated with the task of approving such applications announced yesterday that it had completed the process to implement the H-1B electronic registration process for the 2021 cap season. The companies applying for H-1B visas for foreign workers for the fiscal year 2021 would have to register on-line and pay a processing fee of 10 US Dollars. The USCIS would start accepting the H-1B petitions from 1st of April 2020 for the next fiscal year.

Under this new process, employers seeking H-1B workers subject to the cap, or their authorized representatives, will complete a registration process that requires only basic information about their company and each requested worker.

The USCIS will open an initial registration period from 1st to 20th March next year. The H-1B random selection process, if needed, will then be run on those electronic registrations. According to a media report, only those with selected registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The federal agency will also conduct public engagements and other outreach activities to ensure registrants and interested parties are familiar with the new registration system.

The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US Master’s degree or higher are exempt from the cap.