The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the H-1B-CAO annual quota of 85,000 has been received for the financial year (FY) 2026 (year 30, 2026) and the lottery selection process has been completed. The selection results for sponsoring employers and their lawyers have been informed and now they are able to look at their submission status in their registration accounts.
The USCIS stated that during the H-1B-CAP E-registration period, employers presented adequate registration for unique beneficiaries to meet quota of 65,000 standard H-1B cap numbers and a cap discount of 20,000 for users of US Advanced degrees. As mentioned earlier by Toi, this year’s e-registration was covered by high fee of $ 215 unlike $ 10. The immigration agency has not disclosed further details such as the total number of qualified e-regulations received.
For those selected in lottery, USCIS will begin to accept H-1B CAP applications from sponsoring employers on April 1, 2025. The petition filing period cannot end before 90 days.
Also read: H-1B selection completed for FY 2026: Here is mentioned how to check your situation
Indian heads are H-1B beneficiaries. In FY 2023, he made 68,825 (58%) and 2.10 lakhs (79%) of the initial employment visa for extensions, to remove China, the second largest source, the second largest source, with a much lower allocation of 16,094 and 29,250 respectively.
Mitch Waxler, senior advocate of Fragoman, a global immigration law firm, explained, “Although in most cases an H -1B cap application can be filed at any point during the filing period, some cases may be required to file some cases at a specific time. If the beneficiary (H -1B cap is sponsored for Visa) will work on an F -1 Student Operate Training (opt). The authority document is ending.
If a beneficiary was not selected in this lottery, they will later remain in the registration system for consideration for selection in lottery, if any. Last year’s H -1B cap season, USCIS selected two lottery. In FY 2024, the USCIS also made two lottery selections, while in FY 2023 there was only one lottery selection.
