LOS ANGELES:-  US Citizenship and Immigration Services has opened the initial registration period for the H-1B cap for fiscal year 2027, effective March 4. H-1B cap-subject petitioners and representatives must use a USCIS online account to electronically register each beneficiary for the selection process and pay the associated $215 H-1B registration fee for each registration.

If you are an H-1B applicant employer who does not have a USCIS online account, you must create one. Representatives can add company clients to their account at any time, but applications will be open starting March 4 for both representatives and employers to enter beneficiary information and submit registration and the associated $215 fee.

A petitioner 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.

Additional information on the electronic registration process is available on the H-1B Electronic Registration Process page. We will update this page prior to the initial registration period.

New for the FY 2027 Cap Season

The Department of Homeland Security published a final rule amending the regulations governing how USCIS selects H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries who can then file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The new H-1B selection process prioritizes allocating visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens to better protect the wages, working conditions, and job opportunities of American workers. 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.

On Sept. 19, 2025, President Trump issued a Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, an important initial step to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program. While the proclamation does not directly impact the electronic registration process, 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. See the Presidential Proclamation on Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers section on our H-1B Specialty Occupations page for additional details.