USCIS makes an important announcement on accepting H1B petitions

In the latest buzz in the US immigration circles, the USCIS made an important announcement on June 23, 2021. The announcement said that it will accept H1B cap-subject petitions that were re-submitted in the fiscal year 2021 that met with rejection or were closed administratively just because the requested start date happened to be after October 1, 2020.

Has your FY 2021 petition been rejected or closed administratively just because your petition was made on the basis of a registration put in during the initial registration period, but your request had a start date that fell beyond October 1, 2020? Now, you may re-submit that petition filed previously. It can be done with all fees applicable, at the assigned addresses.

Petitions of this nature must be re-submitted prior to October 1, 2021. upon proper re-submission, USCIS will treat the petition as it has been filed on the date of original receipt.

At the time of resubmission of the petition, you must include your notice of selection for FY 2021 H1B cap registration. If you got a rejection or notice for administrative closure for the original H1B cap petition of FY 2021, you should include that too.

The USCIS also encourages you to use a brightly colored cover sheet. There must be the indication that you are refiling an H1B cap case of FY 2021 that was originally rejected or closed administratively only because the petition was made on the basis of a registration put in during the initial period of the registration period, but you made a request for a start date beyond October 1, 2020. This will be helpful in ensuring that it’s reviewed when received.

A glance at the background

 The USCIS implemented an electronic registration process in 2020 for the H1B cap. When it goes digital, US immigration processes work much better.

Now, you could be a prospective petitioner trying to file a cap-subject petition for H1B. Such a petition could include beneficiaries eligible for the exemption of the advanced degree.

You must in that case first register electronically and pay $10 as a registration fee for H1B for each beneficiary. The process of electronic registration has been streamlined. This has been achieved by cutting down paperwork as well as data exchange. An overall saving on cost has been provided to employers trying to file H1B petitions subject to a cap.

The number of petitions filed in the initial filing period for FY 2021 was below what was projected. This was required to reach the allocations by numbers.

This discrepancy was possibly related to many factors. Those included the political, economic, and public health uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, there’s the fact that FY 2021 was the first year in which the USCIS implemented the electronic process of registration.

So, in August 2020, the USCIS selected registrations additionally that were held in reserve. The period of filing for registrations selected in August exhausted on November 16, 2020. Few petitioners indicated a start date after October 1, 2020.

The USCIS rejected or closed those petitions administratively. This happened because they were on the basis of registrations submitted during the initial period of registration but indicated a start date beyond October 1, 2020.

Upon reconsideration, the USCIS doesn’t believe anymore that the regulations made them reject or close those petitions administratively.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to USA, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

If you found this blog engaging, you may also like…

Latest info is out on COVID vaccination certificate for Germany travel

Note:

USCIS - US Citizenship and Immigration Services