USCIS has announced further changes to the H-1B registration process in order to prevent fraud and frivolous applications, including a final rule implementing a beneficiary-centric selection process. According to USCIS’s review, the previous year’s large number of eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations - much larger than in previous years – raised serious concerns that some may have tried to gain an unfair advantage by working together to submit multiple registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary. This may have unfairly increased their chances of selection.
This final rule contains provisions that will create a beneficiary-centric selection process for registrations by employers, codify start date flexibility for certain petitions subject to the congressionally mandated H-1B cap, and add more integrity measures related to the registration process.
Under the beneficiary centric process, registrations will be selected by unique beneficiary rather than by registration. This new process is designed to reduce the potential for fraud and ensure each beneficiary would have the same chance of being selected, regardless of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf by an employer. Starting with the FY 2025 initial registration period, USCIS will require registrants to provide valid passport information or valid travel document information for each beneficiary. The passport or travel document provided must be the one the beneficiary, if or when abroad, intends to use to enter the United States if issued an H-1B visa. Each beneficiary must only be registered under one passport or travel document.
USCIS issued a reminder to the public that at the time each registration is submitted, each prospective petitioner is required to sign an attestation, under penalty of perjury, that:
All of the information contained in the registration submission is complete, true, and correct;
the registration(s) reflect a legitimate job offer; and
the registrant, or the organization on whose behalf the registration(s) is being submitted, has not worked with, or agreed to work with, another registrant, petitioner, agent, or other individual or entity to submit a registration to unfairly increase chances of selection for the beneficiary or beneficiaries in this submission.
If it is discovered that this attestation was not true and correct, USCIS will find the registration to not be properly submitted and the prospective petitioner would not be eligible to file a petition based on that registration. USCIS may deny a petition, or revoke a petition approval, based on a registration that contained a false attestation and was therefore not properly submitted. Those who submitted a false attestation to appropriate federal law enforcement agencies for investigation and further action, as appropriate.
Based on evidence from the FY 2023 and FY 2024 H-1B cap seasons, USCIS has conducted extensive fraud investigations, and has denied and revoked fraudulent or ineligible petitions, and continues to make law enforcement referrals for criminal prosecution. Based on the decrease in the filing rate for FY 2024’s H-1B lottery petitions, USCIS has found that that these investigations are having an impact. Updates to the H-1B process will continue to further this objective.
