8 CFR 299 - IMMIGRATION FORMS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is amending its regulations to enable U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to migrate from a paper file-based, non-integrated systems environment to an electronic customer-focused, centralized case management environment for benefit processing. This transformation process will allow USCIS to streamline benefit processing, eliminate the capture and processing of redundant data, and reduce the number of and automate its forms. This transformation process will be a phased multi-year initiative to restructure USCIS business processes and related information technology systems. DHS is removing references to form numbers, form titles, expired regulatory provisions, and descriptions of internal procedures, many of which will change during transformation. DHS is also finalizing interim rules that permitted submission of benefit requests with an electronic signature when such requests are submitted in an electronic format rather than on a paper form and that removed references to filing locations for immigration benefits. In addition, in this rule DHS is publishing the final rule for six other interim rules published during the past several years, most of which received no public comments.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is amending its regulations to enable U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to migrate from a paper file-based, non-integrated systems environment to an electronic customer-focused, centralized case management environment for benefit processing. This transformation process will allow USCIS to streamline benefit processing, eliminate the capture and processing of redundant data, and reduce the number of and automate its forms. This transformation process will be a phased multi-year initiative to restructure USCIS business processes and related information technology systems. DHS is removing references to form numbers, form titles, expired regulatory provisions, and descriptions of internal procedures, many of which will change during transformation. DHS is also finalizing interim rules that permitted submission of benefit requests with an electronic signature when such requests are submitted in an electronic format rather than on a paper form and that removed references to filing locations for immigration benefits. In addition, in this rule DHS is publishing the final rule for six other interim rules published during the past several years, most of which received no public comments.

The Department of Homeland Security is proposing to amend its regulations governing petitions filed on behalf of H-1B alien workers subject to annual numerical limitations or exempt from numerical limitations by virtue of having earned a U.S. master's or higher degree (also referred to as the “65,000 cap” and “20,000 cap” respectively, or the “cap” collectively). This rule proposes to require employers seeking to petition for H-1B workers subject to the cap to first file electronic registrations with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) during a designated registration period. Under this proposed rule, if USCIS anticipates that the H-1B cap will not be reached by the first day that H-1B petitions may be filed for a particular fiscal year, USCIS would notify all registered employers that they are eligible to file H-1B petitions on behalf of the beneficiaries named in the selected registrations. USCIS would continue to accept and select registrations until the H-1B cap is reached. On the other hand, if USCIS anticipates that the H-1B cap will be reached by the first day that H-1B petitions may be filed for a particular fiscal year, USCIS would close the registration before such date and randomly select a sufficient number of timely filed registrations to meet the applicable cap. USCIS proposes to allow only those petitioners whose registrations are randomly selected to file H-1B petitions for the cap-subject prospective worker named in the registration. USCIS would create a waitlist containing some or all of the remaining registrations, based on USCIS statistical estimates of how many more registrations may be needed to fill the caps should the initial pool of selected registrations fall short. USCIS would notify the employers of those registrations placed on the waitlist when and if they are eligible to file an H-1B petition. Employers whose registrations were neither randomly selected to file petitions nor placed on the waitlist would receive notification that they were not selected to file petitions in that fiscal year. USCIS anticipates that this new process will reduce administrative burdens and associated costs on employers who currently must spend significant time and resources compiling the petition and supporting documentation for each potential beneficiary without certainty that the statutory cap has not been reached. The proposed mandatory registration process also will alleviate administrative burdens on USCIS service centers that process H-1B petitions.