H-1B Petitions to Get Online Filing Option Starting in February

Employers seeking to sponsor H-1B specialty occupation workers starting next month will have an online filing option and be able to set up organizational accounts with US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency announced.

In addition to I-129 petitions for H-1B workers, employers or legal representatives will also be able to submit premium processing requests online, USCIS said Friday. The organizational accounts will allow multiple individuals at a company to file petitions through a single account.

The H-1B registration process, which occurs before employers file I-129 petitions, moved online beginning in 2020. The registration period generally opens in early March, followed by a lottery after USCIS receives sufficient registrations to meet the 85,000 annual cap on the visas.

“USCIS is always striving to improve and streamline our processes, and this is a big step forward,” USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said in a statement. “Once we launch the organizational accounts and online filing of I-129 H-1B petitions, the entire H-1B lifecycle becomes fully electronic -- from registration, if applicable, to our final decision and transmission to the Department of State.”

The changes are expected to streamline petitions and reduce duplicate registrations, USCIS said. The agency will host engagements with users on the process on Jan. 23 and 24.

The transition to a mostly online process comes as USCIS pursues an overhaul of the H-1B visa lottery that aims to weed out attempts to game the system. Proposed changes that could take effect as soon as this year would base lottery selections on individual workers, rather than the number of registrations that employers submit on their behalf.