H-1B visa registration starts from March 1 for the fiscal year 2023

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has published H-1B visas registration date for the fiscal year 2023. The registration process will start from 1st March 2022 and continue till 18h March 2022 according to the USCIS.

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. It is most sought-after among Indian IT professionals.

During the registration period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to fill out petitioner and beneficiary information and submit their registrations, the USCIS said.

USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2023 H-1B cap, which can be used to track registrations. Under the new system the agency now follows, applicants will register electronically and pay a $10 registration fee. “If we receive enough registrations by March 18, we will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts. We intend to notify account holders by March 31,” it said in a statement.

As per Congressional-mandated cap, USCIS in one year can issue a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas. It can also issue another 20,000 H-1B visas to those foreign students who have completed higher studies from a US university in STEM subjects.

Indians have been among the biggest beneficiaries of this visa program, receiving about 70% of the new visas issued each year. In the last few years, the USCIS  had to conduct multiple lotteries to allocate all the visas as it did not receive enough final applications following the initial selection due to Cvid-19 pandemic induced travel restrictions.

USCIS had received 2.75 lakh registrations from sponsoring employers during the last filing season, for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021.