H-1B visa: Initial registration period to close on March 22, here's all you need to know

The initial registration period for the most sought-after H-1B visas for foreign guest workers for fiscal 2025 closes at 12 noon Eastern Time on March 22, a federal agency has said.

During this period, prospective petitioners and legal representatives must use an online account of US Citizenship and Immigration Services to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated registration fee for each beneficiary, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said on Monday.

Online account users will also be able to collaborate on registrations and petitions with enhanced organisational account features in their online accounts, it added.


Form I-129, petition for a non-immigrant worker, for H-1B petitions and Form I-907, request for premium processing service, are now accessible in USCIS online accounts, a media release said.

USCIS will begin accepting online filing of the forms for H-1B cap petitions on April 1. "We will announce when online filing of non-cap H-1B petitions is available," USCIS said.

Registrations in the last three years vs acceptance:

In 2022, there were a total of 308,613 registrations, from which 131,924 applications were selected for further processing. Moving to 2023, registrations increased to 483,927, with 127,600 applications being selected. In 2024, there was a notable rise in registrations, reaching 780,884, and the number of applications selected amounted to 188,400.

Important dates:

March 6: H-1B registration period opens

March 22: H-1B registration period closes

March 31: Date by which US Citizen and Immigration Services intends to notify selected registrants.

April 1: The earliest day when you can submit H-1B petitions for the 2025 fiscal year that were chosen during the initial selection process.

How to register?

In order to submit an H-1B registration, you must first create a USCIS online account.

The initial registration period for FY 2025 will open on March 6 and end on March 22. Both representatives and registrants must wait until March 1 to create and submit H-1B registrations.

Starting February 28, 2024, individuals submitting their own registrations (referred to as "registrants," including U.S. employers and U.S. agents) will use an "organizational" account, previously known as a "registrant" account. Registrants can create new organizational accounts from February 28, 2024. Existing registrant account holders can simply upgrade to an organizational account instead of making a new one.

Representatives can make an account anytime using the existing representative account type. If they already have a representative account, they don't need to create a new one. They can also upgrade to an organizational account starting on February 28, 2024.

What is the fee?

$10 is the fee for each registration and each registration is for a single beneficiary.

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 stakeholder feedback and the volume of previous H-1B registrations that exceeded the daily credit card limit.

There is a daily transaction limit for credit cards of $24,999.99 per credit card per day. Alternatively, you can:

• Process transactions using a checking account. The checking account information (routing and account number) must be from a financial institution located in the United States; or
• Process transactions using a debit card from a financial institution located in the United States.

You can continue to use a credit card, limiting your daily credit card transactions to a total of $39,999.99 per card.

(With PTI inputs)