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USCIS Announces FY2022 H-1B Cap Selection Process Is Completed
Practical Law Legal Update w-030-4047 (Approx. 4 pages)
USCIS Announces FY2022 H-1B Cap Selection Process Is Completed
by Practical Law Labor & Employment
| Law stated as of 28 Feb 2022 • USA (National/Federal) |
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) H-1B petition caps have been reached after completing the registration selection process.
On March 30, 2021, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced that it has:
- Completed the registration selection process for fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) cap-subject H-1B petitions.
- Received sufficient registrations to reach both the regular and master's degree caps.
H-1B registration records in the myUSCIS system will show one of the following statuses:
- Selected, if the H-1B registration has been selected to file an H-1B petition under one of the caps. Employers will be provided with at least a 90-day window to file the petition, beginning April 1, 2021. The selection notice must be included in the H-1B petition filing.
- Denied, if USCIS received duplicate registrations by the same employer for the same foreign worker.
- Submitted, if the registration was neither selected nor denied. Registrations marked "submitted" will remain in the system and will be available through the end of FY2022 for another selection process if additional H-1B cap numbers become available.
- Invalid-Failed Payment, if payment for the registration was declined, not reconciled, or otherwise invalid.
Premium processing remains available for selected FY2022 H-1B cap petitions. The premium processing fee was increased to $2,500 for most requests, including those for H-1B classification, on October 19, 2020 (see Legal Update, USCIS Increases Premium Processing Fees Effective October 19th and Immigration Filing Fees Chart).
For more information on H-1B petitions generally, including what is required to prepare and file them, see Practice Note, The H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification and The H-1B Visa Classification Toolkit. See also USCIS's H-1B FY 2022 Cap Season page.
For more information on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts preparing and filing Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) and H-1B petitions, see Article, Expert Q&A: COVID-19 and Immigration.
Employers with unselected registrations may consider whether other immigration options are available for those foreign workers (see Employer Options When H-1B Visas Are Unavailable Checklist).
UPDATE
On July 29, 2021, USCIS announced that to reach the FY2022 numerical allocation, it selected previously submitted electronic FY 2022 H-1B Cap registrations using a random selection process. The petition filing period will begin on August 2, 2021 and close on November 3, 2021.
UPDATE
On November 19, 2021, USCIS announced that, to reach FY 2022 H-1B numerical allocations, it has conducted a third random selection from previously-submitted FY 2022 H-1B Cap registrations. The petition filing period based on registrations selected on November 19 will begin on November 22, 2021 and will close on February 23, 2022.
UPDATE
On February 28, 2022, USCIS announced it had reached the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa US advanced degree exemption for fiscal year 2022.