On January 28, 2022, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that the registration dates for this year’s H-1B visa process will be March 1 – March 18. As with the past few years, employers who desire to sponsor a worker for a new H-1B visa must register that worker with USCIS during this period of time. If more registrations are submitted than the number of new H-1B visas available (which is likely to be the case), USCIS will then conduct a purely random lottery on March 31. USCIS will then notify the winners of the lottery and the employer will then have 90 days in which to file the full H-1B petition with USCIS.

There are a total of 65,000 new H-1B visas available every year with an additional 20,000 new H-1B visas available and reserved for individuals who graduated from a U.S. institution of higher education with a master’s degree or higher. If you have questions regarding the H-1B process or other employment-based immigration options, please contact one of the immigration specialists in Koley Jessen’s Employment, Labor and Benefits group.

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