Last Updated on February 23, 2023
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Friday, March 27, 2020, that it has received enough electronic registrations during the initial period (March 1-20, 2020) to reach the FY 2021 H-1B cap.
What happened?
USCIS has received enough electronic registrations to reach the FY 2021 H-1B cap, and they intend to notify those petitioners who were selected no later than March 31, 2020. According to USCIS, a registrant’s online account will show one of the following statuses for each registration that was submitted.
- Submitted: You may continue to see a status of “Submitted” after the initial selection process is completed by USCIS. These petitioners will remain in consideration for selection until the end of the fiscal year (I.e. 09/30/2020).
- Selected: This status means the beneficiary was selected to file an FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petition.
- Denied: This status indicates that a duplicate registration was submitted by the same registrant for the same beneficiary, or there was an issue with the payment method. If the registration was denied because it was a duplicate, all registrations submitted for the beneficiary for the fiscal year are invalid.
Who does this impact?
This impacts all employers who submitted electronic registrations for their foreign national employees for the FY 2021 H-1B cap.
How are Envoy and GIA responding?
Global Immigration Associates is actively reviewing the USCIS online portal every day to check for updates on registrations. GIA will work with Envoy to notify clients as soon as we know if their registration was selected in the lottery.
What do I need to do next?
In the event you are notified that your case is selected in the lottery, please notify your Envoy Customer Relationship Manager immediately so the employee’s petition can move forward as soon as possible.
Global Immigration Associates has also advised that if an employee’s registration is not selected by March 31, 2020, employers will not know if the registration was rejected in the lottery up until September 30, 2020. USCIS has indicated that they will be allotting unused selections to other H-1B applicants who were not selected in the first round of the lottery. Therefore, if an employee’s registration was not selected in the lottery by March 31, 2020, GIA will not be notifying you until they have final confirmation that the case was rejected or selected in the lottery.
Envoy is pleased to provide you this information, which was prepared in collaboration with Ryan Bay, who is a Partner at Global Immigration Associates, P.C. (www.giafirm.com), Envoy’s affiliated law firm.
Content in this publication is not intended as legal advice, nor should it be relied on as such. For additional information on the issues discussed, consult an Envoy-affiliated attorney or another qualified professional.
