United States | FY 2027 H-1B cap initial registration period opens March 4

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2027 H-1B cap will open on March 4 and run through March 19, 2026.

Key Points:

• 15-day registration period: The FY 2027 H-1B cap initial registration period will open at 12 p.m. ET on March 4, 2026, and close at 12 p.m. ET on March 19, 2026.
• Process: Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners and representatives must submit registrations electronically through a USCIS online account and pay the required $215 H-1B registration fee for each petitioner.
  • H-1B petitioning employers and representatives without a USCIS online account must create an organizational account, but must wait until March 4 to enter beneficiary information and submit registrations and the associated $215 fee.
• Selection notifications: After the initial registration period closes, USCIS will conduct a random selection process if the number of registrations exceeds the annual cap. USCIS intends to notify USCIS account holders of selection results by March 31, 2026.
• Petition filing: Petitioners may only file an H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, if their registration for the beneficiary of the cap-subject petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.
• New “weighted selection” rule: The final rule implementing the weighted H-1B cap selection process, effective Feb. 27, 2026, will apply to the FY 2027 cap season. According to the USCIS announcement, “For the FY 2027 H-1B cap season, if we receive registrations for unique beneficiaries during the initial registration period that exceed the cap, we will conduct a weighted selection from the unique beneficiaries with properly submitted registrations. If we do not receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries, we will select all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period.”
• $100K fee: Following the mandate under the H-1B proclamation, the announcement says “if a petitioner has their registration selected and is eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition, they may need to pay an additional $100,000 fee before filing the H-1B petition as a condition of eligibility.”

Further details on the electronic registration process can be found here. BAL will monitor related developments and provide additional updates as USCIS releases further details on the FY 2027 cap process.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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