US Citizenship and Immigration Services last week published a final rule that brings changes to the H-1B visa process. One change includes a new electronic registration system for H-1B visas that would require petitioners to first register electronically. Another reverses how H-1B petitions are selected during years when more petitions are received than there are visas available under Congressionally mandated caps.

H-1B visas are used to bring in highly skilled workers on a temporary basis such as IT professionals.

In the final rule, however, the electronic registration system was postponed until after the 2020 federal fiscal year. The agency said the move came after public comments and in order to test the system. The agency is set to begin accepting petitions under the caps for 2020 starting April 1.

“We were pleased that they had delayed the electronic registration process,” TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts said last week. The organization had earlier issued comments on the changes, and there was concern about the impact of last-minute, untested changes on the H-1B process.

Regarding the other change — the reversal of how H-1B petitions are selected in years when the visa caps are reached within the first week — Roberts said some IT staffing firms may be advantaged while some will be disadvantaged depending on their mix of professional contingent workers. USCIS aims for the change to increase the number of H-1B visa holders with master’s degrees or higher. However, Roberts said many staffing firms already hire professionals with master’s degrees from universities, and the change could leave out some otherwise highly qualified workers who don’t have such degrees.

H-1B selection happens when the government receives more petitions in the first week after it starts accepting them than are available under Congressionally mandated caps of 65,000 for all H-1B petitions and 20,000 for just those with master’s degrees or higher.

USCIS holds a lottery to determine who gets an H-1B in that case. Under the change, petitions would be randomly chosen from all available until the 65,000-cap is reached. Then it would randomly choose among those with master’s degrees under the 20,000 cap. It’s the reverse order of what was done in the past.

USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna said the changes are in keeping with President Trump’s goal of improving the immigration system.

“The new registration system, once implemented, will lower overall costs for employers and increase government efficiency,” Cissna said.

For more on the changes, click here.

In addition, USCIS has resumed its “premium processing” on H-1B petitions for the 2019 federal fiscal year. Premium processing provides for a visa petition to be processed within 15 days.