U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Announces FY 2026 H-1B Cap Registration Period

Category: Client Alerts
Date: Feb. 06, 2025
Title: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Announces FY 2026 H-1B Cap Registration Period

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will hold the H-1B electronic registration process for the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap. This is the process used to run the annual H-1B lottery. Registration begins at noon ET on March 7, 2025, and goes through noon ET on March 24, 2025.

Following the registration period, USCIS will randomly select more than 85,000 entries and invite those petitioners to submit a full H-1B petition filing (including all filing fees) within the period of at least 90 days specified in the case selection notice. The reason that USCIS selects more entries than the 85,000 available H-1B numbers (including 20,000 for U.S. master’s degree holders) is to ensure that cases that are denied or not pursued do not prevent the 85,000 allotment from being reached. If USCIS believes that more H-1B filings are needed in order to reach the 85,000 available numbers, it can make additional rounds of selections (subsequent to the March lottery).

This year’s registration period will use the same beneficiary-centric selection process that was launched in FY 2025. This approach ensures that each beneficiary will have the same chance of being selected, regardless of how many registrations are submitted on their behalf — although U.S. master’s degree holders will still have higher odds of selection. The beneficiary-centric selection process requires that we provide a valid passport or a valid travel document. The passport or travel document provided must be the one the beneficiary, if or when abroad, intends to use to enter the United Sates if issued an H-1B visa. Each beneficiary must be registered under only one passport or travel document.

USCIS will also continue to administer the online electronic registration process through its MyUSCIS portal. USCIS has provided information and resources on organizational accounts, including step-by-step videos, on their Organizational Accounts Frequently Asked Questions page. This page will be updated with FY 2026 information before the start of the initial registration period. Also note, the government registration fee has increased this year to $215 per registration.

USCIS announced that the initial selection process will be completed by March 31, 2025. USCIS will then notify organizations as to which foreign nationals have been selected via the MyUSCIS portal. These notifications will also provide a 90-day period in which H-1B petitions for the selected individuals must be prepared and filed. However, candidates who need a cap gap extension of their F-1 OPT/STEM OPT EAD cards must have H-1B petitions filed for them before their EAD cards expire.

To be eligible for the master’s cap, an individual must earn a U.S. master’s (or more advanced) degree no later than the last (89th) day of the period allotted for the filing (due on day 90) of the H-1B petition following lottery selections. This means that if an individual has not yet earned their U.S. master’s (or more advanced) degree but will earn it within 89 days following April 1, 2025, he or she may be eligible for the master’s cap.

Please review your employment needs now to determine whether you wish to sponsor any of your current or prospective employees for H-1B status. This includes those professionals already employed by you in F-1 Optional Practical Training (OPT), F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, E-3, TN, J-1/J-2 or L-1A/L-1B status, and any other individuals you may wish to bring on board as of Oct. 1, 2025. You may also consider submitting an H-1B registration for current employees who are already working for you based on their dependent status (H-4 EAD, L-2S, E-2S, E-3S, etc.).

If you haven’t already done so, please let us know by Feb. 17 the names of anyone whom you want to enter into the H-1B lottery.

If you have any questions or need additional information about this alert, please feel free to contact us.