The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has revealed that the registration period for fiscal year (FY) 2025 will commence on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at noon ET, and conclude at noon ET on Friday, March 22, 2024. USCIS will introduce a new beneficiary-centric system to ensure equal opportunity for all beneficiaries. Furthermore, USCIS has affirmed that the H-1B registration fee for FY 2025 will not escalate to the proposed $215 but will remain at $10.

2025 H-1B Registration Quick Hits

• The registration window for the FY 2025 H-1B cap will open at noon ET on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, and close at noon ET on Friday, March 22, 2024.
• The registration fee for FY 2025 H-1B remains fixed at $10 per registration.
• A beneficiary-centric system has been established to ensure equal opportunity for each beneficiary, irrespective of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf.

FY 2025 H-1B Registration Period

USCIS has announced the opening of the registration period for the FY 2025 H-1B cap lottery selection process, starting on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at noon ET, and ending on Friday, March 22, 2024, at noon ET.

During this period, employers or their representatives can register potential H-1B beneficiaries through a myUSCIS online account. It is expected that USCIS will receive a satisfactory number of registrations by March 22 to facilitate the random selection of 65,000 H-1B beneficiaries under the regular cap, in addition to 20,000 H-1B beneficiaries with advanced degrees from accredited U.S. public or nonprofit institutions, as has been the case in previous years.

Registration Fee Will Remain $10

USCIS has affirmed that the implementation of the final rule, which raises the registration fee to $215, will be postponed until after the FY 2025 registration period. Consequently, the registration fee for FY 2025 H-1B will stay at $10.

New Beneficiary-Centric System

As outlined in the final rule, titled “Enhancing the H-1B Registration Selection Process and Promoting Program Integrity,” a novel beneficiary-centric system will transition the selection process from choosing among groups of registrations to selecting from groups of beneficiaries. This modification aims to fortify the integrity of and diminish the potential for fraud within the H-1B registration procedure. This alteration is a response to the considerable rise in beneficiaries with multiple registrations in preceding fiscal years.

For example, USCIS received a total of 780,884 registrations for FY 2024, among which 408,891 registrations were submitted for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations. Beneficiaries with multiple registrations filed on their behalf would hypothetically possess a higher selection likelihood. Although current regulations do not forbid multiple registrations by distinct employers for a single beneficiary, there were apprehensions that the surge in multiple registrations suggested misuse of the registration system.

USCIS expressed its intent to enhance the system “by diminishing the potential for exploiting the registration system and ensuring each beneficiary would have an equal chance of selection, irrespective of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf.” By necessitating a valid passport or travel document for each beneficiary, the selection process will concentrate on each individual beneficiary rather than each registration. Each beneficiary may only be registered under one passport or travel document.

Passport or Travel Document Requirement

The registration system will persist in mandating a passport or travel document number. The system will no longer permit registrants to circumvent the passport requirement by asserting that a beneficiary lacks a passport. USCIS argues that the passport or travel document used for registration should align with the document the beneficiary intends to utilize to enter the United States if chosen in the H-1B registration process and granted an H-1B visa.

The final rule provides some flexibility, enabling USCIS to deem a change in identifying information acceptable under certain circumstances on a discretionary basis. The final rule states that such circumstances “could encompass, among other things, a legal name change due to marriage, alteration in gender identity, or a change in passport number or expiration date due to renewal or replacement of a lost passport, between the time of registration and petition filing.”

If the utilization of a different passport or travel document is deemed impermissible, USCIS possesses the authority to reject or annul any H-1B petitions if it concludes that multiple registrations were submitted for the same beneficiary utilizing varying passport or travel document information.

Key Takeaways

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially presented a proposal in October 2023 aimed at modernizing the H-1B program, concluding the public comment period by December 2023. DHS specified that it could “issue one or more final rules to formalize the proposed provisions” following the review of public feedback.

With the completion of the inaugural final rule, USCIS has swiftly proceeded to enact adjustments to the H-1B cap registration process for FY 2025. If the modifications are effectively put into practice, each individual beneficiary will enjoy an equal chance of selection upon submission during the FY 2025 H-1B cap registration period from March 6 to March 22, 2024.

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