The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it has received sufficient petitions to meet the congressionally mandated H-1B visa cap of 85,000 for foreign workers for fiscal year 2026.
The H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals in specialty occupations such as technology, engineering, and medicine, has reached its annual limit. This limit consists of 65,000 visas under the regular cap and an additional 20,000 visas under the U.S. advanced degree exemption, commonly referred to as the master’s cap.
USCIS completed the initial registration selection process for FY 2026 in March 2025, using a lottery system to allocate these work visas. The registration period ran from March 7 at noon Eastern Time to March 24 at noon Eastern Time. During this time, petitioners and their representatives registered beneficiaries electronically through USCIS online accounts and paid a $215 registration fee, an increase from the previous $10 fee.
For FY 2026, USCIS used its beneficiary-centric selection process, introduced in FY 2025. This process selects registrations based on unique beneficiaries rather than individual registrations to ensure a more equitable process. Petitioners with selected beneficiaries began filing H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, starting April 1, 2025.
With the FY 2026 cap now reached, USCIS will no longer accept new cap-subject petitions. However, the agency will continue to process cap-exempt petitions, including those for current H-1B workers previously counted against the cap who retain their cap number. USCIS will also accept petitions to extend the stay of current H-1B workers, modify their employment terms, allow them to change employers, or permit them to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.
USCIS introduced several enhancements to its organizational and representative accounts for FY 2026 to improve efficiency. A key update allows paralegals to collaborate with multiple legal representatives within a single account, streamlining the management of H-1B registrations, Form I-129 petitions, and premium processing requests.
Additionally, USCIS simplified the process for legal representatives to add paralegals to client accounts, enhancing team collaboration. Other improvements include pre-populating certain Form I-129 fields with data from selected H-1B registrations to reduce errors and save time, as well as a feature enabling representatives to upload a spreadsheet with beneficiary data to streamline registration details.
Kishor Panthi
View More PostsKishor Panthi is the founder and editor-in-chief of Khasokhas and NepYork. He is the author of three books, “Kampan,” "UNTRANSLATABLE" and “Zero Mile.” He writes about social issues, immigration, and politics.
