The registration for the much sought-after H-1B visa for the fiscal year 2023 will begin from March 1 and the successful applicants will be randomly selected and notified online by March 31, according to the US federal immigration agency.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a statement said the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2023 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 1 and run through noon Eastern on March 18, 2022.

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During the period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using the online H-1B registration system, the agency said in a statement on Friday.

"If we receive enough registrations by March 18, we will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users' myUSCIS online accounts. We intend to notify account holders by March 31," the USCIS said in the statement.

As mandated by the Congress, USCIS can issue a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas in a year. It can also issue another 20,000 H-1B visas to foreign students who have completed higher studies from a US university in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.

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The USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2023 H-1B cap. This number will be used solely to track registrations and not to track the applicant's case status in Case Status Online.

Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary and pay the associated USD 10 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary, it said.

Prospective applicants submitting their own registrations (US employers and US agents, collectively known as registrants) will use a registrant account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon Eastern on February 21.

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Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 1 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the fee.

Prospective applicants or their representatives will be able to submit registrations for multiple beneficiaries in a single online session. Through the account, they will be able to prepare, edit, and store draft registrations prior to final payment and submission of each registration, it said.

An H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.

(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)