H-1B registrations for 2024 to open from March 1

The initial registration period for the 2024 H-1B visas for skilled professionals will open from March 1 to March 17, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced.

Prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using the online H-1B registration system during this period.

The USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2024 H-1B cap, which can be used to track registrations. The number, however, cannot be used to track one's case status in Case Status Online, the USCIS said in a release.

All prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process.

They also need to pay a $10 fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.

Registrants, i.e., U.S. employers and agents will use a registrant account and they will be able to create new accounts from February 21.

"Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 1 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $10 fee," the USCIS statement read.

It further said that prospective petitioners or their representatives will be able to submit registrations for multiple beneficiaries in a single online session. Through the account, they will be able to prepare, edit, and store draft registrations prior to final payment and submission of each registration.

The USCIS will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users' myUSCIS online accounts if they receive enough registrations by March 17.

In case it does not receive enough registrations, the USCIS said: "All registrations that were properly submitted in the initial registration period will be selected. We intend to notify account holders by March 31".

The U.S. Department of Treasury has approved a temporary increase in the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $39,999.99 per day for the FY 2024 H-1B cap season. This temporary increase is in response to the volume of previous H-1B registrations that exceeded the daily credit card limit, the USCIS said, adding that additional information will be provided before the start of the initial H-1B registration period.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in fields such as IT, finance, engineering, etc.

In fiscal 2021, Indians bagged the highest number of H1B visas - over 74 per cent of the allotments.

Out of 4.07 lakh H-1B visas approved by the USCIS, 3.01 lakh were allotted to Indians whereas, 50,000 Chinese received the visas.