Client Alert: USCIS Reaches Fiscal Year 2027 H-1B Cap

On July 17, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet both the congressionally mandated 65,000 regular H-1B cap and the 20,000 U.S. advanced-degree exemption, commonly known as the “master’s cap,” for fiscal year 2027.

This announcement confirms that USCIS does not anticipate conducting an additional selection round for the FY 2027 H-1B cap. USCIS will issue non-selection notices through the online registration system for registrations that were not selected. Once that process is complete, the status of those registrations will reflect that they were not selected and are not eligible to support an FY 2027 cap-subject H-1B petition.

For individuals whose registrations were selected and whose H-1B petitions were timely filed, this announcement does not affect the continued processing of those petitions.

Our office will continue monitoring the pending FY 2027 H-1B cases and will notify the appropriate company contacts of any case-specific developments. For employees who were not selected, we recommend reviewing their current immigration status and work-authorization expiration dates so that alternative options can be considered in advance.

The complete announcement is available on the USCIS website.

Please contact our office if you have questions regarding a particular employee or would like assistance evaluating alternative immigration strategies.