In a new final rule, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has changed the H-1B registration selection process. The new approach will be “beneficiary-centered” and aims to discourage employers from sending in multiple registrations for the same individual without intending in advance to make legitimate job offers. The rule will go into effect in 2024, within 30 days of publication and before the H-1B registration process for the FY 2025 H-1B cap starts on March 6, 2024. (USCIS also finalized a rule that would significantly increase the fees employers pay to submit petitions for workers and sponsor employees for permanent residence.)
USCIS has taken steps to prevent employers from “flooding” the system in an attempt to gain a higher likelihood of selection. Since there is only $10 registration fee to submit an entry and since this submission is simpler/less expensive than previous years, there were concerns that the demand for H-1B cap petitions may actually be dramatically higher compared to prior years. These fears turned out to be absolutely correct over the past years — below is the number of registrations submitted over the last few years.
| Cap Fiscal Year | Total Registrations | Eligible Registrations* | Eligible Registrations for Beneficiaries with No Other Eligible Registrations | Eligible Registrations for Beneficiaries with Multiple Eligible Registrations | Selections** |
| 2021 | 274,237 | 269,424 | 241,299 | 28,125 | 124,415 |
| 2022 | 308,613 | 301,447 | 211,304 | 90,143 | 131,924 |
| 2023 | 483,927 | 474,421 | 309,241 | 165,180 | 127,600 |
| 2024 | 780,884 | 758,994 | 350,103 | 408,891 | 110,791 |
USCIS (and all of is who are deeply involved in the process) is mostly concerned by the sharp increase by registrations for the same candidate by multiple employers and the possibility of fraud involved in submitting multiple registrations for the same candidate by different affiliated employers.
Beneficiary-Centric Selection Process Introduced This Year
Starting this H-1B cap year, USCIS will change the selection process to a beneficiary-centric selection approach. What that means is that each H-1B employee will be counted only once for H-1B cap registration lottery selection purposes regardless of how many (legitimate) H-1B cap registrations they have from multiple employers. USCIS is not strictly prohibiting multiple registrations for the same candidate by multiple employers; however, the candidate will have only one lottery entry and, if selected, all H-1B employer registrants will be notified of selection.
As a result, USCIS is removing the incentive of filing multiple registrations by multiple employers in order to increase the chances of selection. A candidate who has multiple registrations and is selected will now be able to file H-1B petition from any or all of the registrant employers.
Read full details:
Source: USCIS and Capital Immigration Law Group
