As per the news coming in, recently US has implemented its H-1B electronic registration process for the 2021 cap season.
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How Did This Happen?
So the country’s immigration agency has informed that the most popular visa among the Indian IT professionals will be accepted from April 1 next year.
Yes we are talking about the H-1B visa. It is a non-immigrant visa which allows the employment of foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise for US companies.
It has a significance because most technology companies depends on it so that they can hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
How Does It Work?
on Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has announced the completion of the H-1B electronic registration process implementation for the 2021 cap season as the federal agency directs the task of approving such applications.
With the implementation of this process, companies applying for H-1B visas for foreign workers for the fiscal year 2021 will have to register online and will have to pay a processing fee of $10.
According to the reports, from 1 April, 2020, the USCIS would be commencing the acceptance for the H-1B petitions for the next fiscal year.
How Does It Help?
USCIS said “The electronic registration process will dramatically streamline processing by reducing paperwork and data exchange, and will provide overall cost savings to petitioning employers,”. (Reference)
According to this new implementation, the companies who need H-1B workers subject to the cap, or their authorised representatives, would have to complete a registration process which mostly consists of filling the basic information about the company and the required worker details.
As part of the plan, the USCIS is expected to open an initial registration period from 1 March to 20 March, 2020.
If required then H-1B random selection process will be used on those electronic registrations.
As per the reports, only those with selected registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.
What Is The Advantages Of This System?
USCIS deputy director Mark Koumans said “By streamlining the H-1B cap selection process with a new electronic registration system, USCIS is creating cost savings and efficiencies for petitioners and the agency, as only those selected will now be required to submit a full petition,”.
He added “The agency completed a successful pilot testing phase, which included sessions with industry representatives, and implementation of the registration system will further the goal of modernizing USCIS from a paper-based to an online-filing agency,”.
How Will This Process Work?
Soon USCIS is expected to post a step-by-step instructions which will help the registrants in completing the registration process on its website along with key dates and timelines as the initial registration period nears.
Apart from that the federal agency is also planning to conduct public engagements and other outreach activities to make sure that registrants and interested parties are familiar with the new registration system.
What About Registration Period?
The USCIS also informed about the registration period, they may determine if it is necessary to continue accepting registrations, or open an additional registration period.
That will depend on if it does not receive enough registrations and subsequent petitions projected to reach the numerical allocation.
According to Congress mandate, H1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year.
Out of that, first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master’s degree or higher are exempt from the cap.
Morepover, H1B workers who are petitioned for or employed at an institution of higher education or its affiliated or related nonprofit entities or a nonprofit research organisation or a government research organisation would not be considered for this numerical cap.
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