U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on March 27, 2020, that it has received enough electronic registrations during the initial period to reach the fiscal year (FY) 2021 H-1B numerical allocation (H-1B cap). USCIS plans to notify petitioners with selected registrations by March 31, 2020, that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary.

USCIS said registrants’ online accounts will now show one of the following statuses for each registration (that is, for each beneficiary registered):

  • Submitted: A registration status may continue to show “Submitted” after the initial selection process has been completed. “Submitted” registrations will remain in consideration for selection until the end of the fiscal year, at which point all registration statuses will be Selected, Not Selected, or Denied.
  • Selected: Selected to file an FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petition.
  • Denied: A duplicate registration was submitted by the same registrant for the same beneficiary, or a payment method was declined and not reconciled. If denied as a duplicate registration, all registrations submitted for the beneficiary for the fiscal year are invalid.

Only petitioners with selected registrations may file H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2021, and only for the beneficiary in the applicable selected registration notice.

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