A SHRM article posted yesterday indicates that USCIS has discovered potential collusion among a number of technology companies to submit multiple H-1B registrations on behalf of the same beneficiaries. According to the article, USCIS is quoted stating that "several dozen small technology companies" colluded to submit registrations for a group of 96,000 workers, totaling 408,891 registration submissions.
In an April 28, 2023 announcement, USCIS stated that the large number of beneficiaries with multiple registrations "has 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." USCIS further stated that if fraud is discovered, H-1B petitions may be denied or revoked after approval.
Employers which sponsored employees or candidates in the H-1B cap registration lottery were generally shocked that the number of eligible registration submissions increased from 474,421 in March 2022 to 758,994 in March 2023, particularly in the current economic landscape.
USCIS may announce that there will be a second lottery based on the rejection of fraudulent registrations. Based on previous H-1B cap seasons, this announcement may not come until late July. As a result, there may be hope for employers and potential H-1B beneficiaries who did not try to game the system and were shut out from this year's H-1B cap lottery.
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