new h1b visa lottery registration proocess
H1B Visa

11 FAQ’s About H1B Visa Lottery Registration Tool (with a Solution to Stop Multiple Filings)

An end of H1B Visa era!

New H1B Visa Registration Tool will be used to avoid the H1B Visa lottery madness from March 2020 (for H1B Visa Fiscal Year 2021).

On December 6, 2019, USCIS announced that it is implementing an electronic registration requirement for employers applying for H1B cap-subject petitions.

The Background:

  • Employer apply for H1B Visa on April 1st of every year
  • Before submitting the application, a ton of paperwork and documentation is required
  • Total H1B Visa available per year – 85,000 (65,000 + 20,000)
  • Number of Petitions Received – 192,918 (5 years average)
  • That’s over 100,000 of unused paperwork & wasted man-hours

Just look at the following picture of a typical H1B Visa Application supporting documentation.

With this H1B Visa Registration tool, this paperwork and craziness that comes with preparing and filing the application will be eliminated.

Hello, H1B Visa Registration Tool

Employers filing H1B Visa 2021 cap-subject petitions, Advanced degree cap, and Regular cap,

  1. Register using the H1B Visa Registration tool (online)
  2. Pay $10 fee for each electronic registration
  3. Submit the Registration to USCIS

It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to submit an entry or use the batch submission process.

If you may recall, USCIS proposed this rule in Jan 2019. It included two significant changes:

  1. Reversal of Lottery Order (Regular and then Advanced Cap Cap)
  2. New H1B Visa Pre-Registration tool

Read –  H1B Registration and Lottery Order Reversal Rule.

1. Who can use the H1B Visa Registration Tool?

Employers applying for cap-subject H1B visa for their employees, or their authorized representatives, should complete a registration process.

2. What Information is Required to Complete the Registration?

H1B Visa Registration tool requires only necessary information about the company and each requested worker.

About Registrant:

  • Legal Name of the Prospective Petitioning Company
  • What is the Doing Business name of the Employer?
  • Employer Identification Number
  • The Primary U.S. Office Address

Authorized Signatory:

  • Full Name
  • Title of authorized signatory
  • Contact Information

Beneficiary Information:

  • Name (First, Middle and Last)
  • Gender
  • Does the beneficiary have an Advanced Degree from the U.S? Yes/No
  • Date of Birth
  • Country of Birth
  • Country of Citizenship

Related:

  1. Sneak Peek into H1B Visa Registration Tool with Screenshots
  2. H1B Visa 2021 – Process, Timeline, and Lottery

3. When will the Registration Period Open?

USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020.

USCIS will then run a random selection process on those electronic registrations.

Only those with selected via H1B Visa registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.

USCIS will post step-by-step instructions on how to complete the registration process, along with key dates and timelines, on its website as the initial registration period nears.

 

4. Is it possible to register multiple times by the same employer?

  • Is it Allowed: No
  • Will the Tool Issue an aert: We don’t know yet!

It would be possible to prevent multiple registrations by the same employer before submission.

We don’t if USCIS implemented a duplicate checks in the H1B Visa Registration tool.

For instance, if an Attorney is registering about 400 beneficiaries for an employer.

There is a possibility  (by mistake) to submit the same application name twice.

We have to see (or an attorney should tell us) if the H1B Visa Registration tool would alert and issue a warning about the duplicate H1B Visa registration.

Since the tool collects EIN for the employer and Passport Number with Date of Birth for the beneficiary, they could check existing submissions and current lists for duplicates.

 

5. Can Multiple Employer’s Complete Registration for the same beneficiary?

Yes! It’s very much possible.

We don’t know what checks and balances are implemented by USCIS to prevent this.

Quoting Attorney Jack Sung:

The first thing I worry about after seeing this is that multiple employers (staffing agencies) may be submitting duplicate H-1B lottery entries for the same beneficiary.

I am not sure how USCIS will be able to determine duplicate without collecting sufficient information from the “basic lottery entries”. This means that we should expect a very high amount of entries, which will drive down the winning chance across the board.

I’m sure you will also agree with Attorney Sung’s comments.

Give me a virtual nod if you agree.

Additional discussions on the same issue.

h1b visa pre-registration tool duplicate filings allowed

 

Reread this sentence:

 However, if you have 3 related employers (such as staffing agencies under the same corporate umbrella or the same “owner”) file 3 separate petitions for one beneficiary, I don’t see how this “basic information lottery” will be able to discern petitioner’s relationship.

So, for the same reason, the number of H1B Visa Registrations could double or triple in number this upcoming H1B Visa 2021 season!

 

6. How to prevent multiple H1B Visa Lottery registrations from the same applications via multiple staffing companies. [Solution]

We don’t know how USCIS will process and handle multiple petitions. But, we could have some fun discussing solutions.

That’s what engineers do – solving problems and finding solutions.

Here’s one solution.

 

solution for multiple h1b visa filings in pre registration system 1 of 2

solution for multiple h1b visa filings in pre registration system 2 of 2

7. Why is the Social Security Number not required under Beneficiary Information?

SSN is only issued to U.S. persons. H1B Visa petitions are applying for beneficiaries living outside the USA.

h1b visa registration duplicate multiple filings

Plus, Passport Number with DOB  and Full Name would be good enough to find the duplicate submissions.

 

8. When does this New H1B Visa Lottery (Registration) system go into effect?

USCIS published the rule in Jan 2019. But, they did not have the time to implement the Electronic Registration system for April 2019 (FY 2020) H1B Season.

Now, the H1B Registration tool is developed, tested, and ready to rock and roll.

Cap-Subject H1B Visa applicants applying for H1B Visa for FY 2020 (Oct 1, 2019, to Sep 30, 2020) season will have to use this system.

 

9. Would $10 H1B Visa Lottery Pre-Registration fee prevent duplicate filings?

Here’s the actual reply from USCIS  about the $10 H1B Visa lottery registration fee.

As stated in the proposed rule, the purpose of the registration fee is to recover the costs of the registration system and process; however, the fee may have an added benefit of deterring frivolous registrations.

USCIS will monitor the system for potential fraud and abuse (e.g. monitoring the system to determine if employers are submitting many registrations but filing petitions based on selected registrations at a significantly lower rate, which could reflect gaming of the system to unfairly improve their odds of being selected).

Further, DHS will require registrants to attest that they intend to file an H–1B petition for the beneficiary in the position for which the registration is filed. This attestation is intended to ensure that each registration is connected with a bona fide job offer and, if selected, will result in the filing of an H–1B petition.

So, a $10 fee wouldn’t prevent fraudulent cases, but it will help USCIS maintain the Registration Tool (development, maintenance, security, and feature improvements).

USCIS also stated that a $10 fee might change based on the actual registrations and cost to maintain the tool.

10. Wouldn’t it take forever to register and pay for a firm applying 100’s of H1B petitions?

Yes, it can take a long time for an employer or attorney’s staff to complete the registration and payment.

But, worry not. USCIS allows batch H1B Visa registrations and payments.

Here’s the replay from USCIS:

The registration system will allow for batch payments to pay the fee for multiple registrations submitted simultaneously.

For example, one registrant may submit five registrations at one time and make one payment of $50 for the cost of the five registrations. There is no limit to the number of registrations that can be submitted at one time.

Registrants would be able to submit as many registrations in as many batches as they see fit during the registration period.

For example, a registrant could submit five registrations and pay a $50 fee on March 2, a batch of five registrations on March 5 and pay another $50 fee, and a batch of eight registrations with an $80 fee on March 15.

Registrants will not be required to enter their corporate information for each potential beneficiary. Corporate and payment information will only need to be entered one time for each batch of registrations and associated payments. However, the corporate and payment information will not carry over between subsequent batches of registrations and fees.

So, this should lower the time required to enter the company info and payment details for applicants. Right?

 

11. Can the H1B Visa applicant self-register?

As per USCIS, only the Employer or an authorized representative can submit the registration.

Did you know that several employers apply for H1B Visa without using an Immigration Attorney?

Summary of New H1B Pre-Registration Tool

  • Pre-Registration would stop the H1B madness and ton of paperwork
  • It would certainly impact the income of Immigration attorney’s
  • H1B Pre-Registration tool will be used for H1B Visa FY 2020 (from March 2020)
  • USCIS doesn’t prevent multiple filings by the same applicant via multiple employers
  • USCIS could punish the employers not submitting the petitions after selected in the lottery

H1B Visa Lottery Registration Tool – Do you have questions?

Now, you should have a better idea about this New H1B Visa lottery registration process works and how the tool works.

But, I’m sure you have plenty of unanswered questions. 

Maybe, you have a different scenario that was not discussed above.

Leave your questions, new algorithms, solutions, or scenarios about the use of the H1B Visa Lottery Registration tool.

Let’s find an answer to your questions.

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5 Comments

  1. Hi,

    I am looking for genuine answere, Once my name appears or get selected in lottery by 31st March 2020, then what will be the next step?
    Will my application will again go under somekind of lottery?

  2. So I am working for A company which is client. I have an employer B who’s doing H1B registration. Now my client company A has offered to register H1B, so can I do multiple registrations? Client and my employer is not related as there is a vendor company C in between them. I am confused how to proceed
    Anyone has same situation what are the odds if we do multiple registrations they are asking the passport number in registration

  3. Please explain!
    (USCIS could punish the employers not submitting the petitions after selected in the lottery).

  4. I want to know how the stop gap option works in this changed scenario? Can a student be eligible for extension if the OPT expires in Mid-march?

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