USCIS Reaches Fiscal Year 2026 H-1B CAP

July 21, 2025 Paola Calero

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced on July 18, 2025, they had reached the H-1B Cap for fiscal year 2026. The Service reported having received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated limits for the H-1B visa regular cap, as well as the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap) for FY2026. The agency conducted a single lottery selection from selections that were submitted in March 2025 and will not be conducting any further selection lotteries for FY2026.

For those not selected, remember there may still be hope.

USCIS Completes Selections from Electronic Registrations for FY2026 H-1B Cap

April 1, 2025 Paola Calero

On March 31, 2025, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced they had received enough initial electronic registrations for unique individuals for the fiscal year 2026 (“FY26”) H-1B cap, as well as the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap) and have randomly selected enough properly submitted registrations. The Service has completed the notifications to all employers who submitted online registrations. Those with selected registrations may begin filing H-1B cap subject petitions for FY2026 as of April 1, 2025 and the period to file their petition with the service will be at least 90 days. Petitions may be filed either on paper at the correct filing location or online at my.uscis.gov within the filing period that is indicated on the selection notice.

FY2026 H-1B Lottery Kick Off

February 18, 2025 Protima Daryanani

Here we are, ready to kick off the fiscal year 2026 (“FY26”) H-1B cap. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced the initial registration period for the FY26 H-1B cap will begin at 12pm Eastern on March 7, 2025, and run through 12pm Eastern on March 24, 2025. During this registration period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to submit their H-1B registrations using online accounts and pay the required fee for each registration submitted on behalf of individual beneficiaries. The Service is maintaining its beneficiary-centric selection process launched last year for FY2025.