2023 H-1B Professional Visa “Cap Season” Details

 

Now is the Time to Get Ready!

All 2023 H-1B Cap participants must complete a Pre-Registration process for inclusion.

E&M Mayock’s Pre-Registration Program includes attorney review and filing with USCIS Citizenship & Immigration Services.  The all-inclusive fee for this first step is $500.

Please complete our H-1B Inquiry Form if you would like us to move forward with H-1B Cap Pre-Registration.

In 2020, USCIS launched an innovative Pre-Registration program to allow employers to participate in the H-1B lottery – without filing expensive H-1B Visa Petitions.   We gleaned important tips from previous USCIS H-1B Pre-Registration seasons.

What We Learned:

  • Pre-Registration requires tight coordination between employers and attorneys to navigate the cumbersome USCIS Pre-Registration system
  • Employers need attorney assistance with the “simple” registration process, now more than ever, to avoid disqualification through errors in the Pre-Registration process

E&M Mayock’s H-1B Pre-Registration Program

E&M Mayock has now begun accepting H-1B Cap Pre-Registration cases for submission in March 2023.

Initial Attorney Review and Registration: $500

Employers and H-1B Cap Prospect Employees will fill out basic online questionnaires to provide the information required for H-1B Cap Pre-Registration.  If, after Attorney Review, there are no apparent legal issues, the case will be prepared for Pre-Registration submission.  USCIS $10 fee included.

Full H-1B Visa Petition Preparation:  $3,500 (Standard E&M Fee)

Once a candidate has been selected, the employer will have 3 months to file an H-1B visa petition with USCIS, usually by 30 June 2023.  E&M is prepared to do this for our standard fee of $3,500 [plus costs].  Most petitions will be decided by the first possible start date – 1 October 2023.  But others will languish.  PP Premium Processing [$2,500 additional and optional] may be available; USCIS has yet to announce.

Getting Started with Pre-Registration

Please complete our H-1B Inquiry Form if you would like us to move forward with H-1B Cap Pre-Registration.

Once we receive this information from you we will send instructions to start the case and send a link for payment of the $500 Pre-Registration fee.

** Important Note for F-1 Foreign Student H-1B Candidates – Saving on Taxes **

Employers should avoid withholding FICA for any F-1 OPT employee without getting advice from an accountant.  Most F-1s and their employers are exempt from paying FICA.  6.5% of compensation x 2 [Employer AND Employee each avoid payment] can be significant savings.  For those on STEM OPT, 3 years of FICA savings can pay for a significant portion of both visa and green card expenses.

2023 H-1B Cap Season Details

Luck-based Selection Lottery

USCIS will randomly select the projected number of registrations needed to reach the H-1B numerical allocations. Initial selection results are usually made public before April 1st.  No fooling!

Prospective Petitioner Employers with selected registrations will be eligible to file a cap-subject petition ONLY for the selected foreign national Candidate NAMED in the registration.

Although Petitioners can register multiple foreign nationals during a single online submission, duplicate registrations by the same Petitioner for the same Beneficiary in the same fiscal year will be discarded.

Beneficiary Candidates are permitted to have multiple registrations – as long as none of the Employers are related to each other by common ownership.

In the past few years, the annual quota of 85,000 new H-1B visas was exhausted by the end of the filing window.  During the 2022 lottery, 483,927 registrations were submitted.  More are expected for 2023.

The annual quota includes 20,000 H-1B visas set-aside for foreign workers who have completed a Masters degree [or higher] at a U.S. non-profit university.  Based on previous H-1B cap experience, we predict these graduates will have a significantly better chance of selection in the lottery.

Getting Started with Pre-Registration

Please complete our H-1B Inquiry Form if you would like us to move forward with H-1B Cap Pre-Registration.