United States: H-1B Cap Is Reached for FY 2026
July 18, 2025
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At a glance
- USCIS announced today that it has received enough cap petitions to fill the 85,000 slots available for H-1B employment available for the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1.
- In March of this year, USCIS selected 118,660 unique beneficiaries – or approximately 35.3% of those registered – to meet the annual H-1B quota. Employers had until June 30, 2025 to submit petitions for registrants selected in the lottery.
- The agency will not run a second cap lottery selection for H-1B employment in FY 2026.
A closer look
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received enough petitions to meet the annual H-1B quota of 85,000 for Fiscal Year 2026, according to an agency announcement issued today.
The announcement means that USCIS will not conduct a second cap lottery selection for H-1B employment in FY 2026.
In March, USCIS received H-1B cap registrations for approximately 336,153 unique beneficiaries for FY 2026. The agency selected 118,660 of these beneficiaries – or approximately 35.3% of those registered – to meet the annual H-1B quota of 85,000. This was a higher selection rate than in prior cap years; approximately 29% of unique beneficiaries were selected in FY 2025 and 24.8% of eligible registrations were selected in the FY 2024 cap season.
This is the second consecutive year USCIS has implemented a beneficiary-centric cap selection process, in which lottery selection occurs based on the unique foreign national beneficiary rather than on the total pool of eligible registrations. H-1B registration data from both FY 2025 (the first year USCIS implemented the beneficiary-centric system) and FY 2026 reflect a decrease in overall registrations submitted. The number of eligible unique beneficiaries submitted in the FY 2026 cap (336,153) was significantly lower than the 423,028 unique beneficiaries submitted in the FY 2025 cap. In addition, the overall number of registrations submitted this season (343,981) was significantly lower than in FY 2025 (470,342). USCIS attributes this decrease in part to the beneficiary-centric registration system and in part to other H-1B cap enforcement efforts such as investigations, petition denials and revocations, and referrals for prosecution.
What this means for employers and foreign nationals
The USCIS announcement means that there are no further opportunities for cap-subject H-1B employment in FY 2026; however, USCIS continues to accept petitions for H-1B employment that are not subject to the cap, including extensions of stay, changes of employer, amended petitions, and employment that is exempt from the annual quota.
Registrations that were not chosen in the FY 2026 lottery should be reflected in the USCIS system as “Not Selected: Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration.” If USCIS follows the protocols of prior years, the agency will send non-selection notices to employers that registered for the FY 2026 H-1B cap and their immigration counsel through their online accounts over the next few days.
Foreign nationals whose registrations were not selected can be re-registered by a sponsoring employer when the FY 2027 cap season begins in Spring 2026. Unselected registrations are not automatically carried over to the next fiscal year.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.
