USCIS has announced today that a $10 non-refundable fee for each H-1B registration submitted by petitioning employers will be implemented once the electronic registration system is in place. The registration system, which is slated to go into effect for fiscal year 2021 (April 2020), requires employers have to register each individual foreign national they would like to sponsor in the H-1B lottery first. Only when the application is selected will the physical application be submitted to USCIS. In order to register, employers will file a short online form that provides basic information about the company, the job offer, and the prospective foreign employee. A separate form will have to be filed for each individual foreign employee. The registration period will likely occur before the usual April 1 opening day of cap filing. For more information about the proposed changes, please click here.
The registration fee is part of an agency-wide effort to modernize and more efficiently process applications to live or work in the United States. Unlike the filing fees for H-1B applications that are not selected, the $10 registration fee will not be returned if the application is not selected in the lottery. To learn more about the proposed changes, please click here. To learn more about the H-1B visa and your eligibility, please click here.
