The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made its final selections for the FY26 H-1B cap and has notified all sponsoring employers and legal representatives of selected beneficiaries through their respective USCIS Organizational Accounts. Petitions may be filed online starting April 1, while paper filed petitions may be mailed to the specified lockbox. The petition filing period is now open and will run for at least 90 days, through June 30, 2025.
USCIS announced that it has made its final selections for the FY26 H-1B cap lottery. USCIS has randomly selected enough beneficiaries with properly submitted registrations projected as needed to reach the H-1B cap and all prospective petitioners with selected beneficiaries have been notified accordingly. Additionally, registrants’ online accounts will also display a registration status.
USCIS has not yet announced the number of lottery registrations for FY26. The total number of FY25 eligible registrations was 470,342 (consisting of 47,314 eligible beneficiaries with multiple registrations and 423,028 eligible beneficiaries with no other eligible registrations). USCIS generally provides registration and selection percentage data in the summer; historical data for past registrations and selections is available on the USCIS website.
The 90-day H-1B cap petition filing window is now open and runs April 1 through June 30, 2025.
Petitions must be filed using the 01/17/2025 edition of the Form I-129. H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2026, including those petitions eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may be filed with USCIS beginning April 1, 2025, if filed for a selected beneficiary and based on a valid registration. Only petitioners with registrations for selected beneficiaries may file H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2026.
Petitioners filing for selected beneficiaries based on their valid registration must still submit evidence or otherwise establish eligibility for petition approval, as registration and selection only pertains to eligibility to file the H-1B cap-subject petition.
For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:
Manish Daftari
Partner
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