USCIS Now Accepting Fiscal Year 2021 H-1B Petitions for Those Selected in Lottery

April 1, 2020 

The USCIS is now accepting cap-subject H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2021 (FY 2021). Only employers whose registrations were selected may file H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2021, and only for the selected beneficiary in the registration notice. Selected registrants will have at least 90 days from selection (as indicted on the selection notice) in which to finalize and file those petitions. As we previously reported, premium processing has been suspended.  

Since additional registrations will remain in consideration for selection until September 30, 2020, no one will be notified that they were Not Selected until that date. 

Each employer’s online account will now show one of the following statuses for each beneficiary registered: 

• Submitted: A registration status may continue to show “Submitted” after the initial selection process has been completed. “Submitted” registrations will remain in consideration for selection until the end of the fiscal year(September 30, 2020).
• Selected: Selected to file a FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petition.
• Denied: A duplicate registration was submitted by the same registrant for the same beneficiary, or a payment method was declined and not reconciled. 

According to the USCIS, “The H-1B electronic registration process was well-received by users, who provided a high satisfaction score with the system. Nearly 275,000 unique registrations were submitted during the initial registration period. Roughly 46% of all registrations were for prospective beneficiaries with U.S. advanced degrees. There were more than 40,000 registration accounts created, and nearly 81% of submitted registrations were for potential beneficiaries from India (67.7%) and China (13.2%). “ 

For more information, visit the H-1B Electronic Registration Process page.