Using INSZoom to Prepare and Submit H-1B Cap Registrations

1. Data Collection:

Bulk H-1B Beneficiary import template

Click here to download the bulk H-1B Beneficiary Import template. You can also login to INSZoom and download it from the following path:

Setup > Help > Downloads > INSZoom Help Files > H-1B Cap Electronic Registration Data Collection Template

Prepare one excel sheet (template) per corporation/employer. Add the H-1B beneficiary data in each, as appropriate, and save it to your local system. 

Pre-requisite to prepare the source template for Importing beneficiaries:

The First Name, Last Name, Gender, and Date of Birth are the required fields to import the beneficiaries into the system. Ensure these required fields are filled correctly to avoid validation errors. 

Sample H-1B beneficiary import template

*Note: Since the passport number is not a required field, it is recommended to either enter the correct passport number or leave the passport field blank and avoid mentioning texts such as 'NA' or 'NIL'.

If you mention 'NA' or 'NIL' and choose 'continue anyway' to update the matching duplicate record(with same passport number as 'NA' or 'NIL'), the data of the two profiles will be merged into one.

Once the template data has been collected, navigate to the new H-1B Registration left menu item at a Corporation/Employer directly or from the main H-1B Registration Module menu item, and click the Corporation/Employer name. 

*If you are unable to see this left menu item, please ensure you have “United States of America” as a country linked. (My Settings > My INSZoom > Country)

 

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2. Pre-Registration:

Start from an existing corporation/employer or create a new one if not existing. Click the "H-1B Registration" option in the left menu. Click the "Corporation Details" tab to update the necessary employer details required for the H-1B Registration submissions.

Click on the "H-1B Beneficiaries" tab. Click the "Import Beneficiaries" button to import your list from the template. Simply drag & drop the completed template onto the drop-zone or click “browse” to locate and identify it.  Then click “Upload & verify”.

Upon uploading the spreadsheet, the application will validate source data and present potential duplicates for review before importing.

If duplicate or invalid records are flagged, you will have options to either Continue Anyway with the potential duplicates or to Start Over and correct your source data. 

If no errors are found in the source data, you may click on Start Import to bulk import beneficiaries for H-1B registration.

                

Invalid/duplicate records Validation:

A record is considered Invalid/ duplicate on the following conditions-

• If the mandatory fields First Name, Last Name, Gender, and DOB(incorrect month/ date/ year) are missing, then the record is considered as invalid record. 
• If the passport number matches with an existing foreign national record, then the record is considered a duplicate regardless of other FN data.
• If the FirstName, LastName, and DOB is matching an existing record under all Corporations, then the record is considered a duplicate.

If the import is successful, the following screen will be displayed:

Click an H-1B Beneficiary name in the "H-1B Beneficiaries" tab to view/update the specific information required for the registration submission if needed.

If a Foreign National already exists in the system but is not present in the template and you would like to include them in the Registration submission, use the "All Beneficiaries" tab, locate & select the beneficiary and click "Include for H-1B Registration".

You can view all logs of imported data in the "Import Logs" tab. This will help you validate and audit what data was imported specifically.

Note: If you choose "Continue Anyway", after importing the invalid and the matching duplicate record(s), the system lists these record(s) under Import logs as 'Invalid/ Failed or Duplicate'.

 

Click “My Uploads” for a list of previously imported files with date and time of the import. The imported files can be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet to further review imported data from the source.

Additional Features of Data Import:

After importing the beneficiaries, the duplicate records under the ‘Invalid/Failed or duplicates’ table have two features-

• Add -   Use this feature to proceed with adding an imported H-1B beneficiary record that was flagged as duplicate by INSZoom.

  

Clicking on ‘Start over’ would navigate the users back to the beneficiary details screen. And clicking on ‘Proceed Anyway’ would add the beneficiary under the selected H1B fiscal year. 

• Update - Use this feature if you would like to overwrite the existing beneficiary record with details from the imported record that was flagged as a duplicate by INSZoom.

Note:  If a user selects the options ‘Update matching duplicate records’ or ‘Add’ or ‘Update’, then the beneficiary records would no longer have the Add or Update function and are displayed with the green tick box against the beneficiary record.

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3. Registration (E-File to myUSCIS H-1B Registration portal)

Once you are ready for registration with the H-1B Beneficiary records for a specific Corporate Client, click the ‘E-File’ button (‘H-1B Beneficiaries’ tab)

For first-time users, the e-filing Desktop Add-on needs to be installed on the system. After installation, users can seamlessly e-file H-1B Registrations to myUSCIS. 

If you are using the Desktop Add-on for the first time, click on ‘download and start e-filing’ to download the installation file. Once the file is downloaded, double-click the file to begin the installation of the add-on and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.

 

If the Add-on is already installed on your computer, a popup message appears at the top of the browser screen. Click on ‘Open INSZoom e-filing Desktop Add-on' to start the e-filing process.

Continue to log in with your myUSCIS credentials. All H-1B Registration Beneficiary records with the status of ’Pending Registration’ will be included for submission to myUSCIS portal.

*Note – if more than 250 H-1B beneficiaries exist in the corporation list, a batch of the first 250 beneficiaries pending for registration will be sent over to the myUSCIS Registration portal. This is in line with myUSCIS limit of 250 or fewer beneficiaries per submission.

 

Important points to consider: 

1. When the e-filing is in progress in myUSCIS portal there will be a blue color progress bar at the top (a line between the header content and the government website), which shows the progress of the data transfer to the myUSCIS portal. Until the progress bar is completed user should not click on the “Next or Continue” button on the online form page.
2. E-filing/data auto-population will not be completed if you close the Desktop Add-on during the e-filing process and the form data might not get saved in myUSCIS portal. Do not interrupt the e-filing process in between unless it is absolutely necessary.

For more information, refer to the e-Filing Desktop Add-on Help article.

 

 

 

Once logged into the myUSCIS portal, INSZoom e-Filing Desktop Add-on will attempt to locate the specific Corporate Client in the existing client list on the myUSCIS portal. If it is not able to locate then the e-filing program will add the specific Corporate Client. Click on ‘Start a form’ when all fields on the screen are populated.

 

 

 

If the corporate client record already exists, locate the client and click ‘Start a form’ (follow on-screen instructions)

 

 

INSZoom’s e-filing Desktop Add-on will then populate data into myUSCIS portal. 

 

 

Click 'OK' on the above prompt, and almost instantly, you will notice all the required data for the Employer, Authorized Signatory, and the related Beneficiaries from INSZoom H-1B Registration module created in your myUSCIS registration case in draft mode.

 

Review the data populated by INSZoom E-File program for accuracy before you submit the registration.

After the successful H-1B Registration in myUSCIS portal, please return to INSZoom and update the related H-1B Beneficiary record(s) with status- 'Submitted'. This step is vital to ensuring the H-1B BNF Registration status is in sync between both INSZoom and the myUSCIS portal registration.

*note – you can manually update BNF Registration status per beneficiary or you can also do a bulk update using the .csv export directly from the myUSCIS registration and upload to INSZoom (see bulk update feature)

 

Continue to manually enter the Beneficiary Confirmation Number & Submission date and click “Save”.

Note – if Selected, the Confirmation Number will flow to the subsequent H-1B Case and forms created as necessary

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4. Bulk Status Update – using .csv export from myUSCIS H-1B Registration

Using the .csv export directly from the myUSCIS H-1B Registration submission, users can update data in INSZoom in a bulk fashion! Simply download from your myUSCIS registration and upload directly to INSZoom at the corporation/ employer’s H-1B Registration module.

Find the appropriate corporation/ employer and click “Bulk Update”

Pre-requisite to examine before bulk update:

The Beneficiary First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, and Status are the required fields to bulk update H-1B beneficiaries into the system. Ensure these required fields are filled correctly to avoid validation errors. 

Simply upload the .csv directly as downloaded/exported from the myUSCIS registration.  The system will check for an exact matching record first, and if found, will update the appropriate beneficiary registration data. If a match is found, the “Status”, “BNF Confirmation Number” and “Submitted Date” will be updated. If the system is unable to find a match, an error alert will be provided to the user that an update cannot be made to those records.

Validation alerts:

The following error alerts are displayed after system validation-

• If the system doesn't find an appropriate matching record, it displays an error 'Unable to Update' with the reason 'Match not Found: First Name + Last Name + DOB not found'.
• If the Status column in the .csv file is empty, it displays 'Unable to update' with the reason 'Unrecognized Status' error. 
• If the Submitted date specified in the .csv file is incorrect (invalid date/ month/ year selected), it displays 'Unable to update' with the reason 'Submitted Date specified is invalid.

  

The Bulk Update feature can be utilized throughout the H-1B process, for Registrations that are Selected, Denied, or subsequently Not Selected.

Once the H-1B Registrations are complete, you can use INSZoom's billing module to generate invoices directly in the beneficiary profiles.
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5. Selection - Mass Communications with Clients (Employers or Beneficiaries)

INSZoom’s “Broadcast” message tool can be accessed at Setup > Settings > Organization Tools > Broadcast Messages. Click on "New message" and in the "Choose Recipients" drop-down, choose the "Import your own List" option. Here you can upload the recipient list to broadcast messages to multiple beneficiaries.

If the beneficiary list is not large, then you can send the email individually from the respective beneficiary profile.

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6. H-1B Petition Filing

The Registration Phase has been added to our related process modules – "H-1B Registration" and "H-1B Process Module". Fields related to H-1B Registration are available under the “Process Fields” tab. 

Go to: Knowledgebase >> Petition Details (select Petition) >> Process Module

• Registration Submitted On
• Registration Status - Selected, Denied
• Selected On
• Beneficiary Confirmation Number – unique identifier received from myUSCIS which will flow to the required form(s)
• Last Date to File H-1B Petition -- Date specified in selection notice
• Denial Date

If you are using the H-1B petition type for H-1B cap cases, click on "Process Module" in the left menu and attach the "H-1B Process Module" module if not already attached.

In the Beneficiary’s recent H-1B case profile, go to the Process Module / Process Fields and select “2023” in the “H-1B Cap Fiscal Year”.

  

The appropriate H-1B Registration section will then be displayed and will pre-populate the information maintained in the H-1B Registration Module.

Note - Applicable only to FY2021+ cap-subject H-1B petitions

*Note – fields will be displayed dynamically based on the Status value selection and data will flow to appropriate forms wherever required

We hope this helps you in managing the new H-1B FY2021+ Registration and cap-subject petition features and functions, but in case you need any support or additional guidance please reach out directly via the in-app support chat feature or via support@inszoom.com