The U.S. allows certain H-1B visa seekers to re-apply

Recently, in a News Release, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] announced that it will be allowing the resubmission of certain H-1B cap-subject petitions – for the Fiscal Year [FY] 2021 – that had been “rejected or administratively closed” only because the requested start date was after October 1, 2020.

The H-1B is the most sought-after non-immigration visa for the U.S., especially among the Indian IT professionals.

If the FY 2021 H-1B petition had been rejected or administratively closed – due to the petition being based on a registration submitted during the initial registration period, but a start date after October 1, 2020 requested – might re-submit their previously filed application.

Such petitions have to be re-submitted before October 1, 2021. If submitted properly, USCIS will be considering the petition “to have been filed on the original receipt date”.

The FY 2021 H-1B cap registration selection notice will also have to be included with the re-submitted application.

If received, a rejection or administrative closure notice for the original FY 2021 H-1B cap petition will also have to be included.

For ensuring review upon receipt, USCIS encourages the use of a “brightly colored coversheet” that clearly states the reason behind the re-filing of the application.

In 2020, USCIS had adopted an electronic registration process for the H-1B cap-subject applications.

A prospective petitioner, seeking to file a H-1B cap-subject petition on behalf of a foreign worker, is required to first register electronically for the same.

The electronic H-1B registration process has streamlined the processing with the reduction of the paperwork involved in the process.

The H-1B initial registration period for Financial Year 2022 had opened on March 9, 2021 and ran through March 25, 2021.

On March 30, 2021, USCIS announced that the H-1B initial electronic registration selection process had been completed for the Fiscal Year [FY] 2022.

Why were these H-1B petitions rejected earlier and now being re-considered by USCIS?

For FY 2021, the number of H-1B petitions received by USCIS was below the projected number required for reaching the numerical allocation. This discrepancy can be linked with the main factors of – [1] the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and [2] the fact that FY 2021 was the first year following the implementation of the electronic registration process. In August 2020, USCIS selected additional registrations that had been held in reserve. The filing period for registrations that were selected in August 2020 ended on November 16, 2020. Hence, USCIS rejected or administratively closed petitions based on registrations submitted during the initial registration period but indicated a start date after October 1, 2020. According to USCIS, “Upon reconsideration, we no longer believe that the regulations required us to reject or administratively close those petitions.”

Indians remain the biggest recipients of the H-1B visas for the U.S. H-1B workers are much in demand among employers in the U.S.

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