Author: Lisa York

This afternoon, USCIS announced that it had finished the process of notifying the winners of the H-1B Visa Lottery. All those “selected” to proceed, must file their H-1B petitions by June 30, 2024. Later in the summer, if USCIS determines that there are still H-1B visas available for this fiscal year, USCIS will initiate another round of “selections.”

USCIS’ new fees, forms and filing locations will be effective starting on Monday, April 1, 2024. On March 29, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado denied the Plaintiffs’ request to stop the new fees from going into effect, stating that the Plaintiffs’ failed to meet their burden of proof. (Moody, et. al. v. Mayorkas, et al. (Case No. 1:24-cv-00762, 3/19/24)).

The H-1B Cap Registration period closed on Monday, March 25, 2024, at 12 noon ET. USCIS has announced that it has run the lottery and notifications are being sent to myUSCIS accounts and will continue to be sent for the next few days. USCIS will make an official announcement once all the selection notices have been sent. Those that have been selected in the initial round of selections will have until June 30, 2024, to file their H-1B petitions. USCIS will then evaluate whether another round of selections will be made depending on how many of the 85,000 (65,000 for the Bachelor’s Cap and 20,000 for the U.S. Advanced Degree Cap) H-1B visas have been used. It seems like USCIS is taking a bit longer to send out all the selection notices this year, likely because of enhanced system checks for duplicate beneficiary registrations.

On March 19, 2024, the American Immigrant Investor Alliance, IT Service Alliance, and an EB-5 investor filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado challenging the legality of the new USCIS final fee rule, scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2024.  (Moody, et al. v. Mayorkas, et al., 3/19/24).  The District Court of Colorado may issue an order this week that stops the new fee rule from going into effect on April 1, 2024.  If so, USCIS would likely continue to accept the current filing fees and forms until the Court decides on the legality of the new fee rule.  Stay tuned, it’s going to be an exciting week!   

Due to technical issues and glitches with the online H-1B Cap Registration system, USCIS has extended the deadline for H-1B Cap Registration to Monday, March 25, 2024, at 12 noon ET. Once the registration period ends, USCIS will run the lottery and notify the winners that they have been selected to proceed with filing an H-1B petition by June 30, 2024. Good luck to all registrants!

USCIS has published a final rule in the Federal Register that will improve the odds of winning the H-1B Visa Lottery in 2024 and beyond!  Below is what we know about this year’s H-1B Cap Registration process and the changes that are being made.

The registration period for this year’s H-1B cap lottery will open at 10 am MT on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, and run through 10 am MT on Friday, March 22, 2024.  Once the registration period ends, USCIS will run the “lottery” and notify the “winners” who can then proceed with filing the H-1B petition within the 90-day filing period (April 1, 2024, through June 30, 2024).  The H-1B petition will be approved for a start date no earlier than October 1, 2024.  It is unclear yet whether there will be multiple rounds of “selections” and H-1B filing periods throughout 2024 like there were last year.

Here is a summary of the most significant changes to the H-1B Cap Registration Process:

1.  The H-1B Cap Registration fee will remain $10.00 per registration for this year.  However, starting next year, the H-1B Cap Registration fee will increase to $215.00 per registration.

2. Instead of selecting the H-1B Cap Lottery winners by registration, USCIS will select registrations by unique beneficiary.  Each unique beneficiary 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.  If a beneficiary is selected (i.e. wins the H-1B lottery) each registrant who submitted a registration on that beneficiary’s behalf will be notified of the beneficiary’s selection and will be eligible to file an H-1B petition on that beneficiary’s behalf during the H-1B filing period.

3. Each beneficiary must submit a valid passport or travel document ID information to register for the H-1B Cap Lottery.  Each beneficiary can only register one valid passport or travel document and it must be the passport/travel document that the beneficiary intends to use to apply for H-1B status at the U.S. Consular Office abroad.  The beneficiary will be required to provide a copy of the passport used for H-1B Cap Registration with the H-1B petition (if selected).  If a beneficiary registers more than one passport/travel document and/or the registered passport/travel document information does not match what is submitted with the H-1B petition, then USCIS may deny or revoke the H-1B petition. 

4. The H-1B start date, can now be on or after October 1, 2024.

5. For those who are selected (win the H-1B lottery), and can file an H-1B petition this year, USCIS has increased the filing fees for H-1B petitions and premium processing.  USCIS filing fees will be determined based on whether the petitioner has 25 or more full-time employees, whether the petitioner is a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, and the type of visa classification sought (i.e. H-1B). 

Stay tuned for more information about how the H-1B Cap Lottery goes this year!

Today, USCIS published a new filing fee rule in the Federal Register. In addition to the I-907 premium processing fees increasing on February 26, 2024 (prior fee of $1,500 increases to $1,685, prior fee of $1,750 increases to $1,965, and prior fee of $2,500 to $2,805), the key takeaways are:

• USCIS will distinguish between large, small, and non-profit petitioners – For I-129 petitions, the filing fee will differ depending on the visa type, the # of full-time employees, and whether the petitioner is a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity.  Large employers will pay higher filing fees, while small employers (those with 25 or fewer full-time employees), and non-profits will pay a lower filing fee.

• Asylum Program Fee – Petitioners filing Forms I-129, I-129CW, and I-140, will be subject to a new “Asylum Program Fee” of $600 ($300 for small employers (25 or fewer full-time employees) and $0 for 501(c)(3) non-profits), in addition to the USCIS filing fee and other required fees (i.e. the training and fraud prevention fee for H-1Bs).  The asylum program fee will fund USCIS implementation of the Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by Asylum Officers (Asylum Processing IFR) (87 FR 18078 Mar. 29, 2022). 

• Online v. Paper Filing – For Forms I-90, I-130, I-539, N-400, N-336, N-565. N-600, N-600K, I-765, the online filing fee is less than the paper filing fee.

• De-coupling of the I-485 from the I-765 and the I-131 – USCIS will no longer offer the I-485/I-765/I-131 bundled filing fee package which currently includes the filing fees for the initial applications and all I-765 and I-131 renewals.  On April 1, 2024, USCIS will begin charging a separate fee for the I-485 application ($1,440) plus additional fees for the I-765 ($260 if filed initially with an I-485 application or for an I-765 renewal while the I-485 application is pending, which represents a discount of half the regular I-765 filing fee), plus $630 for an I-131 Advance Parole based on a pending I-485.  Advance Parole renewals will be $630. 

• N-400 filing fee discount for those whose household income is at or below 400% of the federal poverty income guidelines.  The filing fee decreases from $760 (paper filing) to $380.

On December 12, 2023, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the annual quota of 85,000 new H-1B filings for the FY2024 H-1B cap based on the H-1B registrations submitted in March 2023.

This means that any H-1B registration that USCIS did not select in the March 2023 lottery or the July 2023 lottery will not be eligible to file an H-1B cap petition this year. The next opportunity to sponsor an individual in the H-1B cap lottery will be in March 2024 for the FY2025 H-1B cap.

USCIS will send non-selection notices to registrants through their online accounts over the next few days. When we finish sending these non-selection notifications, the status for properly submitted registrations that we did not select for the FY 2024 H-1B numerical allocations will show:

• Not Selected: Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration.

We are looking forward to the next H-1B cap Registration period in March 2024! We are also keeping our eye on a new H-1B registration rule that will hopefully address some of the problems with the current H-1B cap registration process. Stay tuned, 2024 is shaping up to be an exciting year for H-1Bs!

On October 19, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the immediate start of visa-free travel to the United States for up to 90 days for eligible Israeli citizens. Starting today, Israeli citizens can apply for authorization to travel to the U.S. through the Visa Waiver Program by obtaining an approved ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. On September 26, 2023, DHS, in consultation with the U.S. Department of State, designated Israel as a Visa Waiver Program (VWP) country. The Visa Waiver Program allows eligible travelers to travel to the United States without having to obtain a visa at a U.S. Consular Office for short periods of time for tourism or business purposes.

ESTA is an automated system that assists in determining eligibility to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program and whether such travel poses any law enforcement or security risk. Upon completion of an ESTA application, travelers are notified of their eligibility to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program. DHS uses the application data to vet travelers before granting authorization to travel to the United States. As part of this vetting process, information that identifies suspected or known violators of the law and other persons of concern will be provided to the appropriate law enforcement, national security, and/or counterterrorism agency. 

Participation in the VWP requires that any citizen seeking to enter the United States visa free be from a country that extends to U.S. citizens and nationals the privileges we would extend to their citizens and nationals.  Israel has committed in writing to the United States that all U.S. citizens traveling with a U.S. passport may seek to enter Israel without regard to national origin, religion, or ethnicity.  The United States continuously monitors implementation of program requirements by all Visa Waiver Program countries, including Israel, to ensure that they remain in good standing with all program requirements. 

USCIS is issuing advance parole documents that are valid for five years to those individuals who are eligible for five-year employment authorization documents (EADs). The advance parole documents are being issued as separate advance parole documents or as EAD/AP combo cards.