[Updated as of 04/09/2020]
Information sourced from AILA Doc. No. 20033136
AILA followed up with USCIS for additional clarification and information regarding the H-1B registration duplicate submission issue that members have been reporting. USCIS responded that the agency has not currently found any duplicate registration invalidations due to technical issues associated with the registration system. In addition, USCIS provided a second common reason regarding why a duplicate submission occurred. USCIS’s response is provided below:
Our teams have been examining every individual inquiry received. During this research, they identified a second common reason for the duplicate entries. We updated the information below to add details about the second common reason. See #2 in the response.
The most common reasons for invalidation are that:
1. There is a submission from 1) the Registrant (the prospective petitioner); and 2) the Representative on behalf of the Registrant (with associated G-28). This means that the Representative submitted one registration for the named beneficiary on the Registrant’s (client) behalf, and the Registrant separately submitted an additional registration for the same beneficiary without the Representative. Therefore, two registrations were submitted for the same Registrant and beneficiary and both registrations were invalidated consistent with 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(2).
In some cases, the Representative created two registrations for the same Registrant and beneficiary, and correctly deleted one of the multiple registrations that they entered. However, the Registrant directly submitted a separate registration for the same beneficiary, without the use of their Representative, thereby submitting a duplicate registration.
2. There is a withdrawn G-28, but the H-1B registration for the named beneficiary was not deleted. This means that the Representative submitted one registration (with associated G-28), for the named beneficiary on the Registrant’s (client) behalf and subsequently withdrew the G-28 from the submitted registration. Withdrawing an associated G-28 from a registration does not delete a submitted registration from the system. It removes the Representative’s ability to represent the Registrant on the H-1B submission and to see the registration in the system. However, the registration remains visible to the Registrant and valid in the system.
Therefore, when the Representative or Registrant submitted a second registration for the named beneficiary, two registrations were submitted for the same Registrant and beneficiary and both registrations were invalidated consistent with 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(2).
USCIS has indicated that it will share this same information with others who submit questions about the duplicates.
Attorneys experiencing this issue should double check their records, as well as reach out to their clients and ask them for a screen shot of what they can see in their MyUSCIS account as this might provide some clues, and well as confirming with the client that they did not submit a duplicate registration or pay a $10 registration fee. If after investigating the issue further the response provided by USCIS does not address your specific situation, attorneys should gather additional information and documentation to clearly demonstrate that a duplicate H-1B registration did not occur in order to refute the issue with USCIS by following up with USCIS via the public engagement email box: [email protected] so that USCIS can continue to research your specific issue.