No Procedural Changes for Upcoming H-1B Cap Season (No Pre-Registration for now)

The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration (USCIS) has confirmed to American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that it is not implementing any procedural changes to this year’s H-1B cap season which begins on April 1, 2018. Just as in the past, the rumors mills were abuzz with news that USCIS is planning to implement some form of pre-registration system for H-1B cap cases. While that is still a possibility in future, for the upcoming H-1B lottery USCIS intends to follow the same procedures that it had followed in the past, which presumable would not include a pre-registration system. 

In addition, the USCIS also advised AILA that while it does not anticipate that premium processing will be suspended for non-cap H-1B petitions, it may do so for a short time for H-1B cap cases.