The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made its final selections for the FY27 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, 2026.
H-1B cap selections
USCIS announced that it has made its final selections for the FY27 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.
If a beneficiary was not selected in the initial lottery, they will remain in the registration system for potential selection if USCIS does not receive a sufficient number of H-1B cap petitions for unique beneficiaries to meet the annual 85,000 quota by June 30. In that case, USCIS may conduct one or more additional lottery selections, depending on how many beneficiaries were selected in the initial round and how many H-1B petitions are ultimately filed by employers.
USCIS has not yet announced the number of lottery registrations for FY27 H-1B lottery. The total number of FY26 eligible H-1B lottery registrations was 343,981 (consisting of 7,828 eligible beneficiaries with multiple registrations and 336,153 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.
H-1B cap petitions
The 90-day H-1B cap petition filing window is now open and runs from April 1 through June 30, 2026. Petitions must be filed using the 02/27/2026 edition of the Form I-129. In addition, Vialto will provide further information around the FY27 H-1B cap statistics as they become available.
For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:
Peter Koutroubis
Senior Associate
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