Initial registrations for H1B visa open on March 1

Washington: The initial registrations for H1B visas for the fiscal year 2023 will open on March 1 and will go on till March 23.

In a statement, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said during this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using the online H1B registration system. H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa with many Indian takers for this visa programme.

US companies can hire Indians through this visa programme. In a financial year, which starts in October in the US, 65,000 H1B visas are issued while 20,000 visas are kept reserved for US Masters' degree holders.

Amazon, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant were the top recipients of H1B visas in the fiscal year 2021.

After the registration, the immigration department will assign a confirmation number to track registrations. This number is not for applicants to track the status of the registrations.

Prospective H1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $10 H1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.

Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (US employers and US agents, collectively known as "registrants") will use a "registrant" account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon Eastern on February 21.

The department said if enough registrations are received by March 18, then it will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users' myUSCIS online accounts.

In December 2021, the US waived the in-person interview requirement for H1B visa applicants given the pandemic situation. In 2021, the number of H1B visas dropped the most in a decade, according to analysts. US employers' preliminary applications submitted for engineering and mathematics jobs under the H1B visa programme fell 12.6% in the fiscal year ending September 2021 compared to the previous year. The drop was attributed to the slow visa processing during lockdown and also to the rising popularity of Canada visas among Indians.