Important Updates
Important Updates
July 1, 2025 | PortugalPortugal: Residence Permits Extended
July 2, 2025 | 🌐Middle East - The Latest News on Mobility and Travel Considerations
July 2, 2025 | 🌐Minimum Salary Changes Announced
July 2, 2025 | United KingdomUnited Kingdom: Statement of Changes Creates Restrictions for Sponsored Work Routes
July 1, 2025 | PolandPoland: Single Permit Eligibility Limited  
July 1, 2025 | PortugalPortugal: Residence Permits Extended
July 2, 2025 | 🌐Middle East - The Latest News on Mobility and Travel Considerations
July 2, 2025 | 🌐Minimum Salary Changes Announced
July 2, 2025 | United KingdomUnited Kingdom: Statement of Changes Creates Restrictions for Sponsored Work Routes
July 1, 2025 | PolandPoland: Single Permit Eligibility Limited  
July 1, 2025 | PortugalPortugal: Residence Permits Extended
Subscribe
Fragomen.com home
Select Language
  • English
  • French
  • French - Canadian
  • German

Select Language

  • English
  • French
  • French - Canadian
  • German
ContactCareersMedia
Search Fragomen.com
  • Our Services
    For EmployersFor IndividualsBy IndustryCase Studies
  • Our Tech & Innovation
  • Our People
  • Our Insights
    Worldwide Immigration Trends ReportsMagellan SeriesImmigration AlertsEventsMedia MentionsFragomen NewsBlogsPodcasts & Videos
  • Spotlights
    Navigating Immigration Under the Second Trump AdministrationTravel & Mobility Considerations: Situation in the Middle EastImmigration Matters: Your U.S. Compliance RoadmapHumanitarian and Evolving Legal Pathways (HELP)Vietnamese ImmigrationAustralian Immigration: New Skills in Demand Visa
  • About Us
    About FragomenOfficesResponsible Business PracticesFirm GovernanceRecognition

Our Services

  • For Employers
  • For Individuals
  • By Industry
  • Case Studies

Our Tech & Innovation

  • Our Approach

Our People

  • Overview / Directory

Our Insights

  • Worldwide Immigration Trends Reports
  • Magellan Series
  • Immigration Alerts
  • Events
  • Media Mentions
  • Fragomen News
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts & Videos

Spotlights

  • Navigating Immigration Under the Second Trump Administration
  • Travel & Mobility Considerations: Situation in the Middle East
  • Immigration Matters: Your U.S. Compliance Roadmap
  • Humanitarian and Evolving Legal Pathways (HELP)
  • Vietnamese Immigration
  • Australian Immigration: New Skills in Demand Visa

About Us

  • About Fragomen
  • Offices
  • Responsible Business Practices
  • Firm Governance
  • Recognition
Select Language
  • English
  • French
  • French - Canadian
  • German

Select Language

  • English
  • French
  • French - Canadian
  • German
ContactCareersMedia
  • Insights

United States: USCIS Announces H-1B Cap Registration Schedule for FY 2026

February 5, 2025

insight-news-default

Country / Territory

  • United StatesUnited States

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

At a glance

  • The FY 2026 H-1B cap registration period will open at noon ET on March 7, 2025 and will close at noon ET on March 24, 2025. All cap registrations must be drafted and submitted online during this period.
  • New this year, the H-1B cap registration fee will increase to $215 per beneficiary, from $10 in prior years.
  • After registration closes, USCIS will conduct the FY 2026 H-1B cap selection and notify all sponsoring employers of selected beneficiaries by March 31, 2025.
  • USCIS is expected to begin accepting H-1B petitions on April 1, 2025. The petition filing period will remain open for a minimum of 90 days.

The issue

Sponsoring employers may submit registrations for the FY 2026 H-1B cap between noon ET on March 7, 2025, and noon ET on March 24, 2025, USCIS has announced. For the second consecutive year, USCIS will use a beneficiary-centric registration selection system, meaning a random computerized lottery will select the unique beneficiaries, rather than the individual employer registrations, for which an H-1B cap petition may be submitted.

Also for the second consecutive year, the myUSCIS organizational account system will be available for employers and will permit collaboration within organizations and with legal representatives. Prospective H-1B employers can create new organizational accounts or upgrade their existing accounts to an organizational account at any time and continuing through the end of the registration period on March 24.

An important change from prior H-1B cap registration years is an increase in the registration filing fee – for FY 2026, the fee will increase to $215 per beneficiary, up from $10 in prior years. The fee increase was announced last year, as part of a broad USCIS fee rule.

A timeline of the FY 2026 H-1B cap process is outlined below.

Registering for the FY 2026 H-1B cap

USCIS will once again use an online registration system to conduct the H-1B cap selection. An employer account is necessary whether your organization will work with immigration counsel to submit registrations or will submit registrations on its own behalf. Your organization’s accounts must be maintained by an employee authorized to sign immigration benefit requests for your organization.

For the second year, USCIS is making available an organizational account system that will allow multiple people within an organization and their immigration counsel to collaborate on and prepare H-1B registrations. If your organization will be represented by immigration counsel during the registration process, you or your attorney will be able to associate your organization’s account with its attorneys’ accounts. USCIS has also announced some improvements to the organizational and representative accounts this year, including the ability to prepare a spreadsheet of H-1B beneficiary data and upload it to the registration system in order to pre-populate data in H-1B registrations.

Organizational and representative user accounts may be created or upgraded at any time. Because the system is complex, new users of the system and their counsel should carefully plan in advance before upgrading or creating new accounts. USCIS is expected to issue further instructions on the enhanced system in the coming weeks.

Cap registration opens March 7, 2025

USCIS will open the cap registration period on Friday, March 7, 2025 at noon ET. Employers and their immigration counsel can begin to draft, review, sign, and submit cap registrations at that time. The USCIS system will not accept drafts or registrations before March 7.

The registration period will close on Monday, March 24, 2025 at noon ET. All registrations for the FY 2026 cap must be submitted by this time. Late registrations will not be accepted.

The H-1B cap lottery: selection by beneficiary rather than registration

As part of DHS’s continued efforts to prevent misuse, the H-1B cap registration system will again use beneficiary-centric selection, rather than the registration-centric selection method that had been in effect before FY 2025. Under the beneficiary-centric system, a foreign national’s passport or valid travel document will be required for an H-1B cap registration submission on their behalf. The passport or travel document will be used as the beneficiary’s unique identifier, serving as the means for selection in the H-1B cap lottery. Each beneficiary will only be entered into the H-1B cap lottery selection process once, regardless of how many registrations were submitted on their behalf. Foreign nationals must use the same passport or travel document as an identifier for all of the registrations submitted on their behalf; if they are registered under more than one document, all of their registrations can be invalidated.

As in past years, USCIS is expected to receive far more H-1B cap registrations than needed to meet the annual quota of 85,000. At the end of the registration period, USCIS will conduct two lotteries to select enough beneficiaries to meet the 85,000 annual cap. The first lottery will include all registered beneficiaries and will select enough to meet the regular cap of 65,000. The second lottery includes registered U.S. advanced-degree holders who were not chosen in the first lottery and would select enough to meet the advanced-degree cap exemption of 20,000.

USCIS plans to notify employers and immigration counsel of winning beneficiaries by March 31, 2025. If a beneficiary is selected, each potential employer that filed a bona fide registration on that beneficiary’s behalf will be notified and each of those employers will be eligible to file an H-1B petition for the beneficiary. USCIS will provide a selection notice for each winning beneficiary. The selection notice is valid for the named beneficiary only; employers cannot substitute beneficiaries.

The petition filing period

USCIS is expected to begin accepting H-1B cap petitions for selected beneficiaries on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. The petition filing period must remain open for at least 90 days.

Employers can file their petitions at any time during this period, but some cases might need to be filed by a specific date within the filing window. For example, an F-1 student with an optional practical training (OPT) employment authorization document (EAD) that expires before the end of the filing period must have their cap petition filed before the OPT EAD expiration date to ensure cap-gap work authorization benefits through the start date of their H-1B cap petition or April 1, 2026 (whichever is earlier). Your organization should work with your Fragomen team to identify beneficiaries with time-sensitive filing needs.

USCIS will again offer the option of online filing of cap and non-cap H-1B petitions and associated premium processing requests. However, because online filing remains untested in the scope and scale needed for the high volume of H-1B petitions and has other limitations and potential risks, employers should carefully consider with their immigration counsel whether it is advisable. Hard-copy submission remains USCIS’s predominant method of case filing.    

What employers should do now

Though cap registration will not open until March 7, employers should work with their immigration counsel to identify H-1B cap needs and gather beneficiary data as soon as possible. For each beneficiary, the employer must provide the following: 

  • Full legal name;
  • Gender;
  • Date of birth;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Valid passport information (The beneficiary must use the same passport or travel document for all registrations filed on their behalf); and
  • Whether the beneficiary is eligible for the U.S. advanced-degree cap or will be eligible for the advanced-degree cap at the time an H-1B cap petition is filed on the beneficiary’s behalf.

Your organization should also work with your Fragomen team to begin to gather supporting documentation and information required for the H-1B cap season. Advance preparation can minimize the risk of delay during the busy registration and petition filing periods. Employers should also work closely with prospective FY 2026 H-1B cap beneficiaries to ensure they have valid passports or travel documents and that they are aware of the parameters of the beneficiary-centric system.

Fragomen is closely monitoring the USCIS cap registration process and will provide updates throughout the FY 2026 cap season.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.

Country / Territory

  • United StatesUnited States

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Explore more at Fragomen

Blog post

The 11th Seat: Timor-Leste's ASEAN Debut and the Shifting Map of Regional Mobility

Business Immigration Consultant Ryaihanny Sahrom discusses Timor-Leste's ASEAN debut and its impact on regional mobility.

Learn more

Blog post

Understanding the Saudi Real Estate Market: What Expats Need to Know

Destination Services Manager Ali Sikandar provides essential information for expats navigating the Saudi real estate market.

Learn more

Blog post

2025 Middle East and Africa Immigration Trends: Balancing Localization Concerns with Global Talent Attraction Efforts

This blog highlights the most significant immigration developments shaping the Middle East and Africa in 2025, drawing from Fragomen’s upcoming 2025 Regional Immigration Overviews—available mid-July.

Learn more

Video

French Citizenship by Decree | Everything You Need to Know

Immigration Consultant Azela Hadia covers everything you need to know about French citizenship by decree, a legal process through which a foreign national can acquire French nationality.

Learn more

Blog post

Navigating the UAE Corporate Landscape: A Strategic Guide for Startups and Entrepreneurs

This blog provides an overview of the key factors to consider when deciding in which jurisdiction to set up a company in the UAE.

Learn more

Media mentions

TechRound: Experts Share: How Will The Global Talent Visa Help The Startup Industry?

Manager Alexander Hood explains how the UK’s Global Talent visa helps tech founders start and grow businesses without employer sponsorship.

Learn more

Blog post

The Future of Care Work in the UK: Understanding the Latest Immigration Announcements

Partner Siobhan Owers and Senior Associate Asif Hanif discuss the latest UK immigration announcements and their impact on the future of care work.

Learn more

Media mentions

Toronto Star: 25 Years Ago New Immigrants to Canada Told Us Their Dreams. We Checked In to See How They’ve Fared

Senior Business Immigration Analyst Rabaa Biry recently shared her journey to Canada and how support and perseverance helped shape her path forward.

Learn more

Fragomen news

2025年6月 アメリカ移民法ダイジェストLearn more

Media mentions

Arab News: Growing Saudi Film Industry Driving Job Creation, Economic Growth

Partner Abeer Al Husseini highlights how Saudi Arabia’s growing film industry is creating jobs, attracting global talent and supporting economic diversification.

Learn more

Awards

Silicon Valley Business Journal Recognizes Partner Cindy Jen Among 2025 Women of Influence

Partner Cindy Jen is recognized as a 2025 “Woman of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Learn more

Blog post

2025 LAR and Canada Immigration Trends: Balancing Control and Opportunity

This blog highlights the most significant immigration developments shaping Canada and Latin America in 2025. Drawing from Fragomen’s upcoming 2025 Regional Immigration Overviews—available mid-July—it provides actionable insights and strategic guidance to help businesses and individuals navigate the region’s dynamic immigration landscape.

Learn more

Blog post

The 11th Seat: Timor-Leste's ASEAN Debut and the Shifting Map of Regional Mobility

Business Immigration Consultant Ryaihanny Sahrom discusses Timor-Leste's ASEAN debut and its impact on regional mobility.

Learn more

Blog post

Understanding the Saudi Real Estate Market: What Expats Need to Know

Destination Services Manager Ali Sikandar provides essential information for expats navigating the Saudi real estate market.

Learn more

Blog post

2025 Middle East and Africa Immigration Trends: Balancing Localization Concerns with Global Talent Attraction Efforts

This blog highlights the most significant immigration developments shaping the Middle East and Africa in 2025, drawing from Fragomen’s upcoming 2025 Regional Immigration Overviews—available mid-July.

Learn more

Video

French Citizenship by Decree | Everything You Need to Know

Immigration Consultant Azela Hadia covers everything you need to know about French citizenship by decree, a legal process through which a foreign national can acquire French nationality.

Learn more

Blog post

Navigating the UAE Corporate Landscape: A Strategic Guide for Startups and Entrepreneurs

This blog provides an overview of the key factors to consider when deciding in which jurisdiction to set up a company in the UAE.

Learn more

Media mentions

TechRound: Experts Share: How Will The Global Talent Visa Help The Startup Industry?

Manager Alexander Hood explains how the UK’s Global Talent visa helps tech founders start and grow businesses without employer sponsorship.

Learn more

Blog post

The Future of Care Work in the UK: Understanding the Latest Immigration Announcements

Partner Siobhan Owers and Senior Associate Asif Hanif discuss the latest UK immigration announcements and their impact on the future of care work.

Learn more

Media mentions

Toronto Star: 25 Years Ago New Immigrants to Canada Told Us Their Dreams. We Checked In to See How They’ve Fared

Senior Business Immigration Analyst Rabaa Biry recently shared her journey to Canada and how support and perseverance helped shape her path forward.

Learn more

Fragomen news

2025年6月 アメリカ移民法ダイジェストLearn more

Media mentions

Arab News: Growing Saudi Film Industry Driving Job Creation, Economic Growth

Partner Abeer Al Husseini highlights how Saudi Arabia’s growing film industry is creating jobs, attracting global talent and supporting economic diversification.

Learn more

Awards

Silicon Valley Business Journal Recognizes Partner Cindy Jen Among 2025 Women of Influence

Partner Cindy Jen is recognized as a 2025 “Woman of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Learn more

Blog post

2025 LAR and Canada Immigration Trends: Balancing Control and Opportunity

This blog highlights the most significant immigration developments shaping Canada and Latin America in 2025. Drawing from Fragomen’s upcoming 2025 Regional Immigration Overviews—available mid-July—it provides actionable insights and strategic guidance to help businesses and individuals navigate the region’s dynamic immigration landscape.

Learn more

Stay in touch

Subscribe to receive our latest immigration alerts

Subscribe

Our firm

  • About
  • Careers
  • Firm Governance
  • Media Inquiries
  • Recognition

Information

  • Attorney Advertising
  • Legal Notices
  • Privacy Policies
  • UK Regulatory Requirements

Our firm

  • About
  • Careers
  • Firm Governance
  • Media Inquiries
  • Recognition

Information

  • Attorney Advertising
  • Legal Notices
  • Privacy Policies
  • UK Regulatory Requirements

Have a question?

Contact Us
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

© 2025 Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP, Fragomen Global LLP and affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Please note that the content made available on this site is not intended for visitors / customers located in the province of Quebec, and the information provided is not applicable to the Quebec market. To access relevant information that applies to the Quebec market, please click here.