On February 05, 2025, USCIS announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap will open at noon EST on March 7, 2025, and run through noon EST on March 24, 2025. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives must use a USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated registration fee of $215.00 for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.

If you are an H-1B petitioning employer who does not have a USCIS online account, you will need to create an organizational account. If you are an H-1B petitioning employer who had an H-1B registrant account for the FY 2021 – FY 2024 H-1B registration seasons but you did not use the account for FY 2025, your existing account will be converted to an organizational account after your next login. First-time registrants can create an account at any time.

The FY 2026 H-1B cap will use the beneficiary-centric selection process launched in FY 2025. Under the beneficiary-centric process, registrations are selected by unique beneficiary rather than by registration. If USCIS receives registrations for enough unique beneficiaries by March 24, 2025, USCIS will randomly select unique beneficiaries and send selection notifications via users' USCIS online accounts. If USCIS does not receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries, all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period will be selected. USCIS intends to notify by March 31, 2025, prospective petitioners and representatives whose accounts have at least one registration selected.

An H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.

Disclaimer

We regularly update our blog section to acquaint the community with the latest changes in Immigration policies. Please note the information in this blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be nor should it be construed as legal advice. We can promptly and efficiently represent clients located anywhere in the US or abroad on US Immigration Policies. If you seek further clarification, don't hesitate to contact SanSha Law Office at [email protected] or call us at 469-777-6161.