U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) opened its initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2021 H-1B cap on March 1, which will run through noon Eastern on March 20. During this time, employers who plan to file H-1B petitions on behalf of foreign professionals have the ability to submit their registrations to USCIS.

Prospective H-1B cap-subject employers are required to use a myUSCIS online account to: (1) electronically register each beneficiary for the selection process, and (2) pay the accompanying $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration that is submitted on behalf of each prospective H-1B professional.

Employers are able to submit H-1B registrations for multiple foreign nationals in a single online session, and are able to prepare, edit, and store draft registrations through the account prior to final payment and submission of each registration.

Each registration submitted for the FY 2021 H-1B cap will be assigned a confirmation number. This number will be used to track employer H-1B registrations.

If USCIS receives enough registrations by March 20, it will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications through users’ USCIS online accounts. USCIS intends to notify account holders by March 31.

Importantly, an H-1B cap subject petition may only be filed by an employer whose registration for that beneficiary was selected in the H-1B registration process.