The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that they have 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 exception, known as the master’s cap, for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027.
USCIS has not yet released the official FY 2027 cap data, however, in May 2026, the Service released a small amount of registration data through social media which includes the following:
This announcement means that USCIS will not conduct a second H-1B cap lottery for FY 2027. USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B petitions that are not subject to the cap, including extensions of stay, changes of employer, amended petitions, and employment that are exempt from the annual quota.
Registrations that were not selected in the FY 2027 lottery should be updated in the USCIS system within the coming days and it is expected that USCIS will send non-selection notices to employers and their immigration counsel through their online accounts. Employers with unselected beneficiaries should evaluate alternative immigration options.
For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:
Sam Faisal
Manager, Attorney
Simply follow our Vialto Alerts page on LinkedIn and posts will be displayed on your feed. To ensure you don’t miss one, once you’re on our LinkedIn page, click on the bell icon under the banner image to manage your notifications.
Further information on Vialto can be found here: www.vialtopartners.com
Vialto Partners (“Vialto”) refers to wholly owned subsidiaries of CD&R Galaxy UK OpCo Limited as well as the other members of the Vialto Partners global network. The information contained in this document is for general guidance on matters of interest only. Vialto is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. All information is provided “as is”, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will Vialto, its related entities, or the agents or employees thereof be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken in reliance on the information in this document or for any consequential, special or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
© 2026 Vialto Partners. All rights reserved.