USCIS has announced the registration period for FY2025. It will run from noon ET on March 6, 2024 to noon ET on March 22, 2024.
In addition, a final regulation has been introduced that will change the H-1B cap registration selection process to ‘selection by beneficiary’ rather than ‘selection by registration’ and looks to enhance H-1B fraud prevention measures.
This final rule introduces several changes and will be in place before the FY 2025 H-1B cap registration system opens.
Below are some highlights from the new rule.
SELECTION:
Each unique person who has a registration submitted on their behalf will be entered into the selection process once, regardless of how many registrations are submitted on their behalf by different companies.
Each company can only submit a beneficiary into the registration once.
If a beneficiary is selected, each company that submitted a registration on the beneficiary’s behalf will be notified of the selection and will be eligible to file a petition on the beneficiary’s behalf during the applicable petition filing period.
If the beneficiary has multiple companies entering them into the registration, they must make sure there is a valid job offer being made.
More specifically, the companies must sign off on the three points below when submitting an HCAP registration. The really important element for all submissions is that the company can honestly confirm and attest to all three points:
- All of the information contained in the registration submission is complete, true, and correct;
- The registration(s) reflect a legitimate job offer; and
- The registrant, or the organization on whose behalf the registration(s) is being submitted, has not worked with, or agreed to work with, another registrant, petitioner, agent, or other individual or entity to submit a registration to unfairly increase chances of selection for the beneficiary or beneficiaries in this submission.
PASSPORTS:
USCIS is instituting a rule which requires that the beneficiary can only be registered under one passport or travel document.
In addition, the passport or travel document used in the registration must be the same passport or travel document that the beneficiary intends to use to enter the United States whether they are abroad at time of registration or in the United States at the time of registration and will subsequently depart to obtain an H-1B visa and return to the United States to request admission as an H-1B nonimmigrant.
In its discretion, USCIS may find that a change in identifying information in some circumstances would be permissible. Such circumstances could include, but are not limited to, a legal name change due to marriage, change in gender identity, or a change in passport number or expiration date due to renewal or replacement of a stolen passport, in between the time of registration and filing the petition. USCIS may deny or revoke an H-1B petition that does not meet these requirements.
