USCIS: H-1B Registration Begins March 7

Employers intending to sponsor foreign workers for H-1B visas can begin submitting registrations for the fiscal 2026 H-1B cap on March 7.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the registration period will open at noon ET on March 7 and run through noon ET on March 24. Late registrations will not be accepted.

Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a USCIS online account to register each worker for the selection process and pay the associated $215 H-1B registration fee for each registration. The increased fee is new this year, up from $10 in prior years. The fee increase was announced in 2024, as part of a broader USCIS fee rule.

For the second consecutive year, USCIS will use a beneficiary-centric registration selection system, rather than selecting from among the submitted registrations as a whole, in order to mitigate fraud. In other words, each worker will only be entered into the H-1B cap lottery selection process once, regardless of how many registrations were submitted on their behalf, either by the same employer or by multiple employers.

USCIS plans to notify employers of lottery selections by March 31. Those employers will then be eligible to file an H-1B petition for the worker beginning April 1. The petition filing period will remain open for at least 90 days.

As in past years, USCIS is expected to receive far more H-1B cap registrations than needed to meet the annual quota of 85,000 visas. At the end of the registration period, USCIS will conduct two lotteries to select enough beneficiaries to meet the annual cap. The first lottery will include all registered beneficiaries and will select enough to meet the regular cap of 65,000. The second lottery will include registered U.S. advanced-degree holders who were not chosen in the first lottery and will select enough to meet the advanced-degree cap exemption of 20,000.

“Each year, employers vie for one of the coveted 85,000 lottery spots available for a new H-1B,” said Danielle Atchison, an attorney with Mdivani Corporate Immigration Law Firm in Overland Park, Kan. “Last year’s lottery proved no different. USCIS reported it received almost 480,000 registrations in 2024.”

Employers should begin working with their immigration counsel now to identify H-1B cap needs and gather required information from prospective workers as soon as possible.

“Do your due diligence on these cases now,” Atchison said. “Take inventory. Start preparing the cases.”

Atchison provided a few fundamental questions to think about during the preparatory stage, including:

• Who, of your current and potential workforce, needs to be registered for the lottery? Employers could have an employee on an F-1 student visa who may need H-1B status to continue working, for example.
• Is the job offered a qualifying job?
• Does the individual meet the education requirements?
• Can you afford the H-1B employee? “Regulations require employers pay at least the prevailing wage for the occupation based on the intended area of employment,” Atchison said.
• Does the employer or worker qualify for any H-1B lottery exemptions?