USCIS Announces It Has Reached H-1B Cap for FY2026

USCIS announced today that it "has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the Master’s cap, for fiscal-year 2026.” This means no further lottery round will be held this fiscal year (FY2026), which began on October 1, 2025.

For FY2026, USCIS received 343,981 eligible H-1B registrations, which was a 26.9% reduction from the prior year. 

USCIS ultimately selected 120,141 registrations in the initial round, which ended up being enough to reach the cap. It shared that it saw an average of 1.01 registrations per beneficiary this year, compared to 1.06 last year, indicating that on average each beneficiary had just one registration submitted on their behalf. USCIS touted this as evidence of its new, beneficiary-centric system's success in combating fraud. 

For FY2025, USCIS received 470,342 eligible H registrations and selected 135,137 registrations across two rounds of selections, in March and July 2024. 

Also of note: 

• The number of unique employers this year for FY 2026 (about 57,600) was comparable to last year (about 52,700).
• The number of eligible unique beneficiaries this year (about 339,000) was significantly lower than last year (about 442,000).

USCIS will likely post non-selection notices to employers’ online MyUSCIS accounts in the coming days. We will keep our clients updated.

We understand the difficulties inherent in not being selected for the lottery and sympathize with any distress or disappointment this result may cause. Weaver Schlenger clients should feel free to contact us with any questions.