U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the initial registration period for the H-1B cap lottery registration for fiscal year 2027. The registration will open at noon Eastern time on March 4, 2026, and close at noon Eastern time on March 29, 2026. During this period, prospective petitioners and their representatives must electronically register each H-1B beneficiary via a USCIS online account and pay the required registration fee.
Important H-1B Registration Details
- Each registration must be submitted electronically using a USCIS online account.
- A $215 registration fee applies for each beneficiary.
- If you are an H-1B petitioning employer without an account, you must create an organizational account.
Registration and Weighted Selection Process
For the FY 2026 H-1B cap, registrations are selected based on the unique H-1B beneficiary rather than the number of registrations submitted. If the number of unique H-1B beneficiaries meets the cap by the deadline, USCIS will conduct a random selection process and notify selected beneficiaries accordingly. The H-1B cap for those with a bachelor’s degree is 65,000 and there are an additional 20,000 numbers available for those with a US master’s degree.
Under DHS’s new rule, H-1B registrations will still be subject to a selection process when the cap is exceeded, but registrations will no longer be chosen entirely at random. Instead, USCIS will assign weights to registrations based on the prevailing wage level (assigned by the Department of Homeland Security) associated with the offered position.
Registrations tied to higher wage levels will receive greater weight, increasing their likelihood of selection, while lower-wage positions will have a reduced chance. DHS has emphasized that this is not a strict ranking system but rather a probabilistic model that favors higher wages while still allowing lower-wage registrations to be selected.
In particular, the final rule states that the registrant must select the highest wage level that the beneficiary’s offered wage equals or exceeds for the relevant occupational code for the worksite. A beneficiary assigned wage level IV will be entered into the selection pool four times, a beneficiary assigned wage level III will be entered into the selection pool three times, a beneficiary assigned wage level II will be entered into the selection pool two times, and a beneficiary assigned wage level I will be entered into the selection pool one time.
Please contact Attorney Monique Kornfeld at mkornfeld@mhkimmigration.com for further information about or assistance with an H-1B petitions.