Immigration attorney Emily Neumann said that due to the new $100,000 fee and the current state of the job market, H-1B registrations may be lower this year when the H-1B cap first registration period begins on March 4. The registration window will be open from noon ET on March 4 to noon ET on March 19. During this time, petitioners must register each beneficiary they wish to hire and pay a registration fee of $215. The selection results will be announced before March 31. If the candidate is located outside the United States, a fee of $100,000 will be charged at the time of candidate selection.Neumann said some companies know they will have to pay $100,000, so they are continuing to register their H-1B candidates. They are prepared to wait and see if these candidates are selected. Some companies are also hoping that courts will block H-1B visa fees, as two cases are currently underway over the fees. If H-1B visa fees remain, these companies may not submit final applications even after selecting candidates. “That means we could potentially have a second lottery because if people are selected in the first round and then companies don’t submit applications to fill the cap, we could see a second lottery happening this year,” Neumann explained.
Issues with the New H-1B Registration Form
For the first time, the selection process will no longer be a random draw. It will prioritize visa allocation to high-skilled and high-wage workers. Neumann said she scanned the new registration form, which asked for the beneficiary’s name, date of birth, country, passport and whether they were submitting as a master’s or bachelor’s degree.While these are general questions that have been present on previous forms, new questions this year will ask applicants about salary levels. In this section, applicants must choose from 1, 2, 3 or 4. Another new question asked about expected areas of employment, but Neumann said no options were given, just a text box. “We don’t know what they want. Do they want a city, a state, a county, an address?.They said nothing,” the attorney explained, adding that surprisingly, the new form did not ask about salary, SOC code or position.
