Applicants for the H-1B visa program may now have an additional chance to live and work in the United States to fulfill their long-held aspirations. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has completed the procedure for conducting a second round of the lottery, aimed at selecting additional registrations for exceptional beneficiaries. This initiative is in line with the announcement made previously, to allocate the fiscal year 2025 H-1B regular cap numerical allocations.
Furthermore, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has communicated to all prospective petitioners who have been selected in this particular round of registration that they are eligible to submit an H-1B cap-subject petition on behalf of the beneficiary identified in the corresponding selected registration.
The revised H-1B visa regulations mandate that only those petitioners who have been selected for registration are required to submit H-1B cap-subject petitions for the fiscal year 2025. This requirement applies exclusively to the beneficiary named on the corresponding selected registration notice.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has completed the second phase of the regular visa application process and has not proceeded with a second selection round for the advanced degree exemption, specifically the master’s cap. This decision was made because an adequate number of registrations for the master’s cap had already been selected, and based on these registrations, it was anticipated that the number of petitions received would be sufficient to meet the numerical allocation for the master’s cap.
An H-1B cap-subject petition must be accurately submitted to the designated filing location or through the official website at my.uscis.gov, ensuring compliance with the specified filing period delineated in the pertinent selection notice. The deadline for filing an H-1B cap-subject petition is mandated to be a minimum of 90 days. Petitioners must furnish a duplicate of the relevant selection notice with the FY 2025 H-1B cap-subject petition submission.
In March, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) executed an initial random selection process for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap, encompassing registrations that met the criteria for the advanced degree exemption.
Just a heads up, the choices for registration are only about whether you can file an H-1B petition that’s under the cap. So, if you’re going to file one of these, you need to make sure you meet all the rules and requirements set by the law and the regulations.
On January 31, 2024, USCIS put out a final rule that changed the costs for most immigration applications and petitions. These new costs start on April 1, 2024. If you’re filing a petition, you’ve got to include the new fees, or USCIS won’t take it. Also, there’s a new version of Form I-129, which is for filing a petition for a nonimmigrant worker. USCIS will only take the new version of this form, which came out on April 1, 2024.
The USCIS had also announced a new rule that raised the cost for filing Form I-907, which is for asking for faster processing of your paperwork, starting February 26, 2024. If you send in a Form I-907 after February 26, 2024, and it has the wrong filing fee, the USCIS will throw it out and ask you to pay the right amount again.