H-1B Registration
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that the initial registration period for Fiscal Year 2023 (“FY 2023”) H-1B cap will open on March 1, 2022 at noon EST and run through noon EST on March 18, 2022. USCIS intends to notify registrants by March 31st whether their H-1B registration was selected, and those that were selected will be able to file their H-1B petition within USCIS’s indicated filing window.
Representatives and petitioners may begin creating new myUSCIS accounts on February 21st at noon EST, but must wait until March 1st to enter beneficiary information and submit H-1B cap registrations. There will be a $10 registration fee for each beneficiary and registrations for multiple beneficiaries may be submitted in a single session. Consult with immigration counsel to begin planning for the upcoming H-1B registration period.
Additional STEM Fields Added By the Department of Homeland Security
The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has added twenty-two new fields of study to the list of science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”) fields for the Optional Practical Training (“OPT”) program for international students. OPT allows international students to be temporarily employed in the United States in an area that is directly related to their field of study. Foreign students that do not hold a degree in a STEM field are limited to 12 months of employment before or after graduation while foreign students in qualifying STEM fields of study may remain in the United States for up to 36 months (an additional 24 months) to work in their field of study. Foreign students in newly classified STEM fields of study should discuss their next immigration steps with their respective employers and schools.