USCIS announced today that it has published a proposed rule that will save US businesses more than $23 million over the next 10 years by establishing an advance H-1B registration process for U.S. employers seeking to file petitions for foreign workers under the H-1B specialty occupation category.  The proposed electronic system would minimize administrative burdens and expenses related to the H-1B petition process—including reducing the need for employers to submit petitions for which visas would not be available under the visa cap.

USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced today the opening of a 60-day comment period that will allow businesses and the general public to provide input on the proposed system in order to ensure it best meets the needs of employers that rely on H-1B visas to bring in foreign workers for specialty occupations.  Mayorkas expressed that “Improving the H-1B petition process is part of USCIS’s ongoing efforts to leverage new ideas and innovation to streamline our operations and enhance customer service.”

The employer would go through an online, electronic a process that would take an estimated 30 minutes to complete.  Before the petition filing period begins, USCIS would select the number of registrations predicted to exhaust all available visas. Employers would then file petitions only for the selected registrations. The registration system would save employers the effort and expense of filing H-1B petitions, as well as Labor Condition Applications, for workers who would be unable to obtain visas under the statutory cap.

The proposed rule, which posted to the Federal Register today for public viewing, contains complete details about the registration system and estimated cost savings. USCIS encourages formal comments on the proposed rule.  We link to the following additional information:

Fact Sheet

News Release