USCIS Announces Initial Registration period for FY 2026 H-1B Cap

By: Diya Mathews

Introduction

On February 5, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern time on March 7, 2025, and close at noon Eastern time on March 24, 2025.

During this period, prospective H-1B petitioners and their representatives must use a USCIS online account to electronically register each beneficiary and pay the $215 registration fee per beneficiary. Selections will be made only after the registration period closes, so there is no advantage to registering on the first day.

Summary

For Employers:

Employers who do not yet have a USCIS online account should create an organizational account to participate in the H-1B registration process. Employers who previously had an H-1B registrant account between FY 2021 and FY 2024 but did not use it for FY 2025 will have their existing account automatically converted to an organizational account upon their next login. First-time registrants may create an account at any time.

For Representatives:

Representatives can add employer-clients to accounts at any time, but entering beneficiary information and submitting registrations is only allowed once the registration period opens on March 7, 2025. USCIS will update the Organizational Accounts FAQ page with step-by-step instructional videos and additional guidance before the registration period begins.

Additionally, USCIS has introduced several enhancements to improve organizational and representative accounts. Paralegals can now work with multiple legal representatives and assist in preparing H-1B registrations, Form I-129, and Form I-907 (premium processing requests) across different attorneys. Legal representatives can more easily add paralegals to company accounts. Certain Form I-129 fields will now be pre-populated from selected H-1B registrations. Additionally, users can prepare and upload a spreadsheet of beneficiary data to pre-populate H-1B registrations.

H-1B Selection Process:

USCIS will continue using the beneficiary-centric selection process introduced in FY 2025. With this process, selections are based on unique beneficiaries rather than the number of registrations submitted. If enough unique beneficiaries are registered by March 24, USCIS will randomly select beneficiaries and notify selected petitioners via their USCIS online accounts by March 31. If there are fewer than enough unique beneficiaries, all properly submitted registrations will be selected.

Credit Card Limit Increase:

To accommodate the high volume of H-1B registrations, U.S. Department of Treasury has temporarily increased the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99 for the FY 2026 H-1B cap season. Payments exceeding this amount must be made via Automated Clearing House (ACH), and employers may need to notify their banks to prevent ACH transaction blocks.

Conclusion

For more information on the H-1B registration process, please refer to the USCIS press release on this topic. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to contact your trusted immigration professionals at Chugh, LLP.