The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap will begin at noon Eastern on March 7, 2025, and close at noon Eastern on March 24, 2025. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives must register each beneficiary electronically through a USCIS online account and pay the associated $215 registration fee per Beneficiary.
Key Registration Requirements
- USCIS Online Account Requirement: Employers must have a USCIS online account to submit registrations. If you previously created an H-1B registrant account but did not use it last year (for FY 2025), your account will be converted into an organizational account upon your next login. First-time registrants can create an account at any time.
- Registration Process: Employer and representative accounts can be linked at any time, but both representatives and employers must wait until March 7 to enter Beneficiary details and submit registrations. As a reminder, selections occur after the registration period closes, there is no advantage to registering on the first day.
Beneficiary-Centric Selection Process
This year’s cap will continue using the Beneficiary-centric selection process introduced last year, for FY2025. Under this system, selections are based on unique Beneficiaries rather than individual registrations. If USCIS receives enough registrations by March 24, unique Beneficiaries will be selected randomly, and notifications will be sent through USCIS online accounts. If there are fewer registrations than available slots, all properly submitted registrations will be selected. Notifications are expected to be sent by March 31, 2025.
Payment and Credit Card Transaction Limits
To accommodate high transaction volumes, the U.S. Department of Treasury has temporarily increased the daily credit card transaction limit to $99,999.99 per day for the CAP season. Payments exceeding this limit can be made via Automated Clearing House (ACH). For those employers paying via ACH, be sure to notify your banks in advance to prevent transaction blocks.
Enhancements to Organizational Accounts
USCIS has introduced several improvements to employer and representative accounts to streamline the H-1B filing process:
- Pre-Filled Form I-129 Fields: Certain fields in Form I-129 will now be automatically pre-populated using selected H-1B registration data to improve efficiency.
- Bulk Data Upload: Employers can prepare a spreadsheet of H-1B beneficiary information and upload it to automatically populate registration fields, reducing manual entry.
These enhancements aim to simplify and expedite the registration and filing process and will be live before the start of the initial registration period.
Next Steps for Employers
As the H-1B registration period approaches, employers should take the following steps to ensure a smooth process:
- Confirm that they have an active USCIS online account or create one if needed.
- Familiarize themselves with the new organizational account enhancements.
- Prepare Beneficiary information in advance for efficient registration.
Timely and accurate registration is crucial to avoid delays or complications in the selection process. If you have any questions or need assistance with the H-1B registration process, please contact me at cprescott@patellegal.com or 972-650-6848.