USCIS Announces FY2026 H-1B Cap Reached: No Second Lottery to Be Conducted

By Angel Feng

On July 18, 2025, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received enough H-1B petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap of 85,000 new H-1B filings for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY2026). As a result, USCIS will not conduct a second lottery selection for H-1B cap–subject petitions this year. 

Any H-1B registration not selected in the draw that was conducted in March 2025 will not be eligible to file an H-1B cap petition for FY2026. The next opportunity to sponsor an individual under the H-1B cap will be in March 2026 for the FY2027 cap. 

USCIS received approximately 336,153 unique beneficiary registrations for FY2026 and selected 118,660 of them, representing a 35.3% selection rate. Employers had until June 30, 2025 to submit petitions for selected beneficiaries. Because USCIS received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to fill the FY2026 mandate, there will be no second lottery this year. This contrasts with the last H-1B cap registration season, when USCIS did not receive a sufficient number of filed petitions and selected additional H-1B registrations in a subsequent lottery.

If you have any questions regarding H-1B cap registration or the USCIS lottery process, please contact your Mintz Immigration attorney.

 

Subscribe To Viewpoints

Published

    • Viewpoint Topics

  • Immigration

    • Professionals

  • Angel Feng

    • Related Practices

  • Immigration

    • Author

    Angel Feng

    Angel Feng

    Special Counsel

    Angel Feng is a Mintz Special Counsel whose practice focuses on immigration matters. She counsels corporations and their employees on the processing of non-immigrant and immigrant visa petitions, including H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, E-3, TN, P-1, O-1, E-1, E-2, PERM, EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3.