FY 2023 H-1B Cap Registration Starts March 1

The initial registration period for the FY2023 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern Standard Time on March 1 and run through noon EST on March 18, 2022. During this time, prospective petitioners and legal representatives will be able to fill out the petitioner and beneficiary information and submit their registration. All prospective H-1B applicants must first be registered online on the USCIS myUSCIS website in order to be in the pool for the H-1B visa lottery. New accounts can be registered starting from noon Eastern on February 21. To learn more about the different account types, please click here. To learn more about the registration process, please click here.

Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to: 1) register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and 2) pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary. Prospective petitioners or their representatives will be able to submit registrations for multiple beneficiaries in a single online session. Through the account, they will be able to prepare, edit and store draft registrations prior to final payment and submission of each registration. USCIS will run the registration lottery on March 18 and selected account holders will be notified by March 31. Only selected beneficiaries can submit their applications.

The H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant visa suitable for individuals who have a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent and a job offer from a sponsoring employer in a specialty occupation that is related to their field of study. Currently, the H-1B visa cap stands at 85,000 visas for college graduates, 20,000 of which are allocated solely to applicants with U.S. master’s degrees. The number of applications each year significantly exceeds the number of available visas. In FY 2022, employers submitted H-1B cap registrations for 308,613 beneficiaries this year, a 12% increase over the FY 2021 filing season. To learn more about the H-1B visa and your eligibility, please click here.