US H-1B Visa Registrations For FY 2023
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 H1B visa.
1 March 2022 marks the beginning of the race for obtaining an H1B visa before the quota or “cap” is reached. The registration will run until 18 March 2022. During this window, prospective H1B petitioners and representatives will be able to submit their registrations using the USCIS, online H1B registration system.
A USCIS statement said:
“USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each H1B visa registration submitted for the FY 2023 cap. This number is used solely to track registrations; you cannot use this number to track your case status in Case Status Online.”
According to the USCIS, prospective H1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives must use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $10 H1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.
H-1B Visas Issued Annually
Every year, USCIS issues 65,000 H1B visas, while a further 20,000 are reserved for US Masters’ degree holders.
In recent years, USCIS has had to conduct multiple lotteries to allocate all the visas, including a historic third lottery in 2021, after having fewer final applications following the initial selection. The lack of final applications has been attributed to several factors, including reduced travel and mobility amid the coronavirus pandemic.
If the US administration receives enough registrations by 18 March, they will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications. The results will be announced by 31 March.
H-1B Petitions Approval Rates
The H-1B program allows companies and other employers in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialised knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent.
H-1B specialty occupations may include fields such as architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, business specialties, accounting, law, theology, and the arts.
In fiscal year 2021, Amazon had the most approved H1B petitions for initial employment with 6,182 approvals, followed by Infosys (5,256), TCS (3,063), Wipro (2,121) Cognizant (1,481), Google (1,453), IBM (1,402), HCL America (1,299) and Microsoft (1,240).
The overall refusal rate for H1B visas dropped to 4% in 2021 after USCIS made changes to the way that it adjudicates applications for workers employed at third-party sites.
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