On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the online registration period for H-1B quota selection for the upcoming fiscal year will begin on Friday, March 7 at 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern time and run through 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern time on Monday, March 24. The FY2026 H-1B quota is for H-1B registrations and petitions filed to USCIS in March 2025, with a start date of October 1, 2025, or later.
The registration system for this year is similar to prior H-1B registrations. 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 their unique beneficiary rather than by registration. Registrations will be submitted electronically and will require a non-refundable $215 registration fee, which is a significant increase from last year's $10 registration fee. The US Department of Treasury has approved a temporary increase in the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99 per day for the FY 2026 H-1B cap season. This temporary increase is in response to the volume of previous H-1B registrations that exceeded the daily credit card limit.
Assuming that USCIS receives more registrations than the allotted number of 85,000 available H-1B petitions, USCIS will conduct a computer-generated lottery among all registrations. USCIS "intends" to complete its process of notifying employers of selected H-1B registrants by March 31. Employers with selected cases will then be eligible to file an H-1B petition to USCIS within a designated 90-day period following registration selection. As mentioned above, approved H-1B petitions will be effective on October 1, 2025 — the start of the government's 2026 fiscal year — or later.
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