U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Thursday that it would extend the H-1B cap registration period to Monday.

Key Points:

• Registration was previously set to end at noon ET on Friday, March 22. It has been extended through noon ET on Monday, March 25.
• In announcing the extension, USCIS said the agency “is aware of a temporary system outage experienced by some registrants and is extending the registration period to provide additional time due to this issue.”
• During the registration period, petitioners can use their online USCIS accounts to register beneficiaries electronically. Following registration, USCIS conducts a lottery to determine which registrations will be eligible for H-1B petition filing beginning April 1.
• USCIS stated that it still intends to notify registrants selected in the lottery by March 31.

BAL Analysis: The extended registration deadline will provide more time to those affected by technical problems to complete registration.