The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has finalized a new rule that will:
(1) starting in 2020, require employers that are seeking to file H-1B visa petitions to pre-register electronically with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in order to be considered for the H-1B lottery; and (2) for the upcoming April 2019 H-1B filing season, change the order in which petitions for all cap-subject beneficiaries versus petitions for advanced degree beneficiaries are selected in the H-1B lottery in an effort to increase the number of advanced degree holder H-1B recipients.
When DHS published the proposed rule this past December, it had expressed a desire to implement the new pre-registration requirement for the upcoming H-1B filing season, but ultimately decided to delay it for a year. Other than that change and an extension from 60 days to 90 days for a petitioner who wins the pre-registration lottery to file a full petition, the final rule mirrors the proposed rule.
A copy of the final rule, titled “Registration Requirement for Petitioners Seeking To File H-1B Petitions on Behalf of Cap-Subject Aliens,” is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.