USCIS Reaches the H-1B Cap for FY 2027

USCIS has confirmed that it received enough H-1B petitions to meet both the regular and master’s degree allocations for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027, which begins on October 1, 2026. The deadline for filing H-1B petitions based on selected registrations closed on June 30. As a result, like last year, there will be no second lottery (unfortunately).

No action is required from employers or foreign nationals whose registrations were not selected. USCIS should update myUSCIS accounts in the coming days that the registration was not selected. Unselected registrations do not roll forward, so a sponsoring employer would need to register the beneficiary again when the FY 2028 season opens in spring 2027. Cap-exempt filings are unaffected, including extensions, transfers, amendments, and employment at exempt institutions.

The bigger story is the new selection method. DHS replaced the random selection with a weighted system favoring beneficiaries whose offered wages fall at the higher end of the Department of Labor's four-level wage scale. The first Trump administration tried a similar approach, but litigation over its impact on entry-level positions prevented its implementation.

Full selection rates have not yet been released, although the agency released some statistics in May. According to USCIS, properly filed registrations fell about 38.5 percent, from 343,981 to 211,600. Beneficiaries with a U.S. advanced degree made up 71.5 percent of selections, up from 57 percent, and only 17.7 percent of selected registrations fell in the lowest wage level.

If your registration was not selected and you would like to discuss other visa options, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Otherwise, we will reach out to employers early next year to see whether they would like to submit H-1B lottery registrations in March 2027.

This alert is for informational purposes only. Please contact us if you would like to discuss these developments further.