USCIS Reaches FY 2027 H-1B Cap

Quick Hits

• USCIS announced that both the 65,000 regular H-1B cap allocation and the 20,000 master’s cap allocation have been met.
• USCIS will continue to accept and process cap-exempt H-1B petitions, including extension, amendment, and change of employer petitions, as well as change of status petitions filed by cap-exempt petitioners.

Each year, USCIS is authorized to grant 65,000 new H-1B visas under the congressionally mandated regular cap and an additional 20,000 under the advanced degree exemption. The FY 2027 H-1B cap petition filing window ran from April 1, 2026, to June 30, 2026.

As USCIS has received enough petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap, it will not conduct additional rounds of H-1B cap registration selections. USCIS similarly did not conduct any additional selection rounds in FY 2026. USCIS has not released data related to the FY 2027 cap registration selection rate.

The FY 2027 H-1B cap was marked by a number of changes from prior years. This H-1B lottery was the first conducted under the new weighted selection process, which assigned additional cap lottery entries to beneficiaries based on their salary and the corresponding Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage level. Additionally, a new Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, which requires additional disclosures regarding the terms and conditions of employment, was implemented in conjunction with the weighted selection rule.

Ogletree Deakins’ Immigration Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will post updates on the Immigration blog as additional information becomes available.

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