H-1B Cap Registration: Overview of the Submission Process

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will open the H-1B cap registration period on Sunday, March 1, 2020 at noon ET and from that time our firm will be able to draft and submit cap registrations for FY 2021.  The registration period will be open until March 20, 2020 at noon ET and all registrations for the FY 2021 cap must be submitted by this date and time. Late registrations will not be accepted.

Prospective employers must create a myUSCIS registrant account in order to submit an H-1B cap registration. Our firm will be providing our current clients with more detailed Step-by-Step Guidance of the H-1B cap registration process as soon as possible. However, in order to learn of any unforeseen glitches or system issues, we will first be testing the system on March 1. Below is an overview of reviewing, approving, and signing the G-28 and H-1B registration. 

Overview of How to Review, Approve and Sign the G-28 and H-1B Registration

If all goes well as planned, USCIS has instructed that the following steps will be necessary to successfully submit an H-1B registration:

1. Each time our firm finishes drafting a registration for your organization, USCIS will generate a unique passcode that you can use to review, approve and electronically sign the G-28 and registration document. We will send this passcode to you. 
2. Once you receive the passcode, and are ready to review the draft registration, you must log into your myUSCIS account, which will bring you to the H-1B Registrations Home Page. Click on “Enter representative passcode” and input the passcode in the field provided. 
3. You will first be directed to review the electronic Form G-28, which involves confirming your attorney representative, checking the appropriate boxes to inform USCIS where notices related to the case will be sent, attesting to a statement confirming that your organization is represented by the attorney listed on the G-28, and providing your electronic signature. You must then click “submit” to file the G-28.
4. Once you have completed the Form G-28, you will be directed to the draft registration.
   1. Here, you must confirm that the information about your organization and the beneficiaries is accurate.
   2. If any corrections need to be made, you should decline the registration, which will revert the draft registration back to the attorney for corrections.
   3. Where all information contained within is accurate, you will accept the registration and be directed to the electronic signature pages.
   4. Upon signing, you will click “Finish and Send,” which will return the registration to the attorney for submission.
   5. Once the registration is returned to the attorney, we will then make the payment for the H-1B cap registration($10 per beneficiary), and submit the registration.  We expect (although not confirmed by USCIS) that there will be a submission confirmation page after submitting the registration. 
5.  Our firm will notify you once the registration is complete. You may also receive a separate notification from USCIS confirming the completion of the registration (although USCIS has yet to confirm this).
6. If the registration is selected, you will be notified via email or SMS.
7. All registration will be designated with any of the following 3 Status:  “Submitted”, “Selected” or “Denied”.  If H-1B numbers become available later in the year, USCIS will continue to select until the end of the fiscal year.  In other words, you could be receiving notification of selection until Sept. 30, 2020.
8. On Oct. 1, 2020, for all non-selected registrations status will change to “Not Selected”.

Once the registration opens on March 1, 2020 and our firm completes a test run, we will provide further guidance as necessary (including the Step-by-Step Guidance with screen shots) to our current clients to register H-1B applicants for the FY 2021 cap season.