USCIS Opens FY 2027 H-1B Cap Registration March 4 to March 19, 2026
Published Jan 30, 2026Effective Mar 4, 2026
USCIS announced that the initial registration period for the FY 2027 H-1B cap will run from noon Eastern on March 4 through noon Eastern on March 19, 2026. Petitioners must register each beneficiary electronically through a USCIS online account and pay a $215 registration fee per registration.
Key points
- The FY 2027 H-1B cap initial registration window opens at noon Eastern on March 4, 2026 and closes at noon Eastern on March 19, 2026.
- Petitioning employers must use a USCIS online account to electronically register each beneficiary and pay a $215 registration fee per beneficiary.
- Employers without a USCIS online account must create an organizational account, though beneficiary information can only be entered starting March 4.
- USCIS intends to notify selected petitioners and representatives by March 31, 2026 through their online accounts.
- A new DHS final rule changes the selection process to a weighted lottery favoring higher-skilled, higher-paid beneficiaries if registrations exceed the cap.
- If a registration is selected and the beneficiary is subject to the September 19, 2025 presidential proclamation, the petitioner may need to pay an additional $100,000 fee before filing the H-1B petition.
Who is affected
Employers and representatives planning to file H-1B cap-subject petitions, including advanced degree exemption cases, for fiscal year 2027.
What to do
Employers should ensure they have a USCIS online account set up before March 4 and prepare to register beneficiaries and pay the $215 fee during the registration window.
Full text
The complete official text was archived on this site on 2026-10-13. It stays available here even if the source link changes or is removed.
Release Date
01/30/2026
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2027 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 4 and run through noon Eastern on March 19, 2026. During this period, prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners and representatives must use a USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $215 H-1B registration fee for each registration.
If you are an H-1B petitioning employer who does not have a USCIS online account, you must create an organizational account. Representatives may add company clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and employers must wait until March 4 to enter beneficiary information and submit registrations and the associated $215 fee. Selections take place after the initial registration period closes. We intend to send selection notifications by March 31, 2026, via users’ USCIS online accounts to prospective petitioners and representatives who have at least one registration selected.
A petitioner may only file an H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, if their registration for the beneficiary of the cap-subject petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.
Additional information on the electronic registration process is available on the H-1B Electronic Registration Process page. We will update this page prior to the initial registration period.
New for the FY 2027 Cap Season
The Department of Homeland Security published a final rule amending the regulations governing how USCIS selects H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries who can then file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The new H-1B selection process prioritizes allocating visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens to better protect the wages, working conditions, and job opportunities of American workers. For the FY 2027 H-1B cap season, if we receive registrations for unique beneficiaries during the initial registration period that exceed the cap, we will conduct a weighted selection from the unique beneficiaries with properly submitted registrations. If we do not receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries, we will select all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period.
On Sept. 19, 2025, President Trump issued a Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, an important initial step to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program. While the proclamation does not directly impact the electronic registration process, if a petitioner has their registration selected and is eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition, they may need to pay an additional $100,000 fee before filing the H-1B petition as a condition of eligibility. See the Presidential Proclamation on Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers section on our H-1B Specialty Occupations page for additional details.
01/30/2026
Original title: FY 2027 H-1B Cap Initial Registration Period Opens on March 4
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This summary was produced with AI from the official announcement. Only the official source is authoritative.