SCOOP: H1-B Petition Reviews Abandoned After Visa Quota Reached Overnight
USCIS met the 85,000-visa cap, leaving employers to plan for next year’s lottery.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced overnight that it has received enough petitions to meet the congressionally mandated H-1B visa caps for fiscal year 2026, closing the application window for the highly sought-after work visas.
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The agency confirmed it has filled both the 65,000 regular cap and the additional 20,000 visas reserved for the U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, according to an alert posted on the USCIS H-1B portal.
The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, such as technology, engineering, and medicine, requiring at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
USCIS reported receiving 343,981 eligible registrations for fiscal year 2026, a 26.9% decrease from the previous year’s 470,342. From these, 120,141 registrations were selected, representing 118,660 unique beneficiaries.
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The agency attributed the drop in registrations to enhanced measures to curb fraud, including restrictions on multiple registrations per beneficiary. Petitions for the 2026 fiscal year must specify an employment start date of Oct. 1, or later.
BUT there’s a caveat: A senior USCIS official confirmed lat night to Migrant Insider that the agency will continue processing cap-exempt petitions, including those for current H-1B workers seeking extensions or changes in employment. No further registrations will be accepted for fiscal year 2026, and employers are advised to prepare for the next cap season which begins next March
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