On Friday, March 27, 2020, the USCIS announced that they received 275,000 H-1B cap registrations; this number is substantially higher than prior years. As a result, the USCIS has randomly allocated the 85,000 visas among the properly-submitted registrations. The USCIS is notifying the selected registrants (via the attorney or employer who submitted the registration) on a rolling basis — our office has seen a gradually-increasing number of registration alerts over the past few hours. The Law Offices of Kevin M. Wilhelmi has over 30 years of experience in filing H-1B cases and would like to offer our knowledge and assistance in filing your FY21 H-1B cap case.
Process for H-1B Cap Petition Submission for Selected Registrations:
Registrations that have been marked as “Selected” will be allowed to download an electronic (PDF format) H-1B cap Registration Selection notice. This notice includes detailed information about the petitioner and the selected beneficiary and advises that the employer has up until June 30, 2020, to submit a fully-prepared and documented H-1B petition to the USCIS. The H-1B petition must include a copy of the Registration Selection notice. The notice also indicates the USCIS service center where the petition should be filed while making it clear that only the named employer can file only for the named beneficiary with no substitutions of beneficiaries permitted.
If the petition is not submitted before the deadline noted in the Registration Selection notice, the registration selection will be void and the H-1B number will be allocated to a different beneficiary as part of a subsequent waitlist lottery (see below).
We recommend preparing and filing (as fully-documented as possible) H-1B Cap Petitions as early as possible.
We recommend selected registrants submit fully-prepared and documented H-1B petitions as early as possible after the filing window opens on April 1st, and definitely well before the June 30th deadline. It may be possible to re-file a rejected H-1B cap petition within the deadline, but if an H-1B petition is rejected after June 30th, there is no recourse and the H-1B cap registration will be lost.
The Law Offices of Kevin M. Wilhelmi will be happy to provide consultations or assistance with preparing and submitting H-1B cap petitions. Please note that our office is able to assist with H-1B cap petitions even if the H-1B cap registration was submitted by the employer (without using an attorney), or by another law office.
If you would like to schedule a consultation with an attorney to discuss a specific case (but perhaps without engaging us to help with the actual filing), we offer phone consultations as well.
We are also happy and available to assist with a comprehensive case analysis, preparation, and filing of the FY21 H-1B petition, including RFE responses if received. Please feel free to contact me via email (contact@kmwlawoffices.com or kevin@kmwlawoffices.com) with any questions you may have in this regard.
You will be happy to know that we offer some of the lowest attorney fees around, yet we have the highest approval rates around. Thank you for your time and consideration. Have a safe and healthy week.
- Law Offices of Kevin M. Wilhelmi