FY 2027 H-1B Cap Registration Period and New Selection Process

USCIS Policy Alerts

Published January 30th, 2026

Detected March 1st, 2026

Summary

USCIS announced the FY 2027 H-1B cap initial registration period will be from March 4 to March 19, 2026. A new final rule implements a weighted selection process prioritizing higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens to protect American workers' wages and job opportunities.

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What changed

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the initial registration period for the Fiscal Year 2027 H-1B cap, which will run from March 4, 2026, to March 19, 2026. During this period, employers must electronically register beneficiaries via a USCIS online account and pay a $215 fee per registration. A significant change for FY 2027 is the implementation of a final rule that introduces a weighted selection process for H-1B registrations. This new process prioritizes beneficiaries who are higher-skilled and higher-paid, aiming to better protect the wages, working conditions, and job opportunities of U.S. workers.

Employers intending to petition for H-1B cap-subject visas must ensure they register beneficiaries within the specified window. Only selected registrations will be eligible to file an H-1B petition. USCIS expects to send selection notifications by March 31, 2026. The new weighted selection process is a key change that may affect which registrations are chosen, potentially impacting the pool of eligible candidates for H-1B visas. While not directly impacting the registration process, a Presidential Proclamation may impose additional fees for eligible H-1B petitions.

What to do next

Create or access USCIS online account before March 4, 2026.
Register beneficiaries electronically for the FY 2027 H-1B cap between March 4 and March 19, 2026.
Pay the $215 registration fee for each beneficiary.

Penalties

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Source document (simplified)

FY 2027 H-1B Cap Initial Registration Period Opens on March 4

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.

Last Reviewed/Updated:

01/30/2026

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