The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) released data for FY2022 H-1B submissions. Using the electronic registration process, now in its second year, the USCIS streamlines the entire process for employers and registrants as well as providing meaningful insights sooner.
The FY2022 H-1B selections are complete with notices released in March 2021. However, many employers are eagerly waiting to see if the total registrations received for FY2022 will fulfill the 85,000 available visas. If not reached, an additional allotment of selections may be triggered for later in the year.
The USCIS announced they received a total of 308,613 H-1B cap submissions in the initial filing period. Of those, the USCIS selected 87,500 for approval, the amount they estimate to reach the FY2022 allocation. The cap for H-1B is set at 65,000 with an additional 20,000 for the advanced degree exemption.
Over 37,000 prospective petitioners filed the registrations. 48% of the petitioners requested consideration under the advanced degree exemption.
The USCIS uses historical data to determine the number of registrations needed to meet the H-1B cap for any given fiscal year, per regulation. For FY2022 H-1B, the initial projected number of registrations required to meet the limitation was less than the estimate for FY2021.
274,237 H-1B registrations were filed for FY2021. Initially, 106,100 selections were projected as needed to reach the FY2021 allocation. However, the FY2021 allocation was not reached. As such, a second selection was made in August 2020 with an additional 18,315 selected. In total, 124,415 registrations were selected in order to meet the FY2021 allocation of 85,000 H-1B visas, which includes the advanced degree exemption.
The USCIS will continue to monitor petition filing rates for FY2022. The USCIS will determine if additional registrations are needed to meet the FY2022 after the filing period closes on June 30, 2021.
If you have questions about the FY2022 H-1B filing process or any immigration related issue, contact us at ILBSG.
