U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will conduct its annual electronic registration process for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap from March 7, 2024 to March 24, 2025.
Employers seeking to register employees in the H-1B cap lottery will need to have an active myUCSIS account, if they do not already have one. We strongly recommend that all employers contact their counsel for assistance, if necessary, in setting up their online accounts. While the account establishment process is relatively simple, employers do need to take care to establish the correct type of account to submit registrations.
As in prior years, employers should start planning for cap registration now by identifying foreign nationals they intend to register for the H-1B cap lottery, and ensuring that they have a properly configured myUSCIS account that it linked to their immigration counsel’s account.
In completing the registration, employers must identify whether the intended beneficiary qualifies for the H-1B visa pursuant to either the advanced degree cap (reserved for individuals holding a U.S. master’s degree or higher in a field of study related to the offered position) or the standard H-1B cap (reserved for individuals holding a Bachelor’s degree or higher in a field of study related to the offered position).
Employers may register multiple individuals at once, using a single online “batch” submission.
Employers may only submit one registration per intended beneficiary in any fiscal year. If an employer registers an individual more than once in the same fiscal year, all registrations submitted by that employer for that individual will be invalidated.
The employer’s authorized legal representative may prepare and submit cap registrations for the employer.
Employers should work with legal counsel now to identify current or prospective employees who may require an H-1B petition to work in the U.S., and to take appropriate steps to ensure timely online registration of identified candidates.
Not All H-1B Petitions are Subject to the Cap
Certain individuals and employers are not subject to the annual H-1B cap or cap registration, including:
Cap-subject H-1B petitions generally fall within two categories:
“Standard” petitions. The minimum educational requirement for a standard H-1B petition is a Bachelor’s degree or professionally evaluated experience equivalent. Standard cases are capped at 65,000 visas annually with approximately 6,800 reserved for nationals of Chile and Singapore.
“Advanced degree” or “Master’s cap” petitions. The minimum educational requirement for an advanced degree H-1B petition is a Master’s degree or higher, awarded by a U.S. university. USCIS allocates an additional 20,000 H-1B visas for U.S. advanced degree holders each fiscal year.
As a reminder, employers will need to establish a registrant account with USCIS, which will need to be linked to an organizational account maintained by their counsel (presuming they are registering with the assistance of an attorney). Please contact immigration counsel now to ensure you are well-positioned for H-1B cap season.
Gibney will provide additional updates as they are announced. In the interim, additional information is available on the USCIS website here.
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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations. Attorney Advertising.
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