U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has announced that it will be implementing its new electronic system for registering H-1B visa applications for the upcoming Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 H-1B lottery. The FY 2021 electronic registration period will begin on March 1, 2020, and end on March 20, 2020.
In a directly related development, USCIS has also issued a new rule that will require employers that want to petition for H-1B visas to pay a $10 non-refundable fee for each H-1B registration submitted through the new electronic system.
These latest developments are consistent with the Trump Administration’s expressed intent to reform the legal immigration process to minimize the potential for abuse at the expense of qualified U.S. workers.
A copy of the USCIS announcement regarding implementation of electronic registration for the FY 2021 H-1B lottery is available online. A copy of the rule assessing the $10 registration fee is also available online.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.