On June 23, 2021, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will accept refiled fiscal year 2021 (FY2021) H-1B cap-subject petitions that were initially rejected or administratively closed because their requested start date was after October 1, 2020.

An electronic registration process for the H-1B cap was implemented in 2020 to streamline processing. For FY2021, since the number of petitions filed during the initial filing period was less than projected to reach the numerical allocations, USCIS selected additional reserve registrations in August 2020 with a filing period ending on November 16, 2020.

The agency rejected or administratively closed some of these petitions because they were submitted during the initial registration period but indicated a start date after October 1, 2020. Now, after reconsideration, USCIS no longer believes that it was required by regulation to reject or close those petitions, so it is accepting the petitions if properly resubmitted.

Petitioners or their counsel that believe they are impacted by this program should review and follow USCIS instructions to refile their FY2021 H-1B cap petitions.