H-1B cap season 2027 opening date is nearing. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the opening nd closing date for the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2027 H-1B cap season.
H-1B cap season 2027 registration will open at noon Eastern Time on March 4, and the last date for filing H-1B cap season 2027 registrations ends at noon Eastern on March 19, 2026.
Selections will begin after the deadline for the H-1B cap season 2027 initial registration period closes on March 19. USCIS will provide selection notifications to prospective petitioners and representatives with at least one registration selected via their USCIS online accounts by March 31.
H-1B Initial Registration Period
Between March 4 and March 19, prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners and representatives have to use a USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $215 H-1B registration fee for each registration.
H-1B petitioning employers without a USCIS online account are required to create an organizational account. Representatives may add company clients to their accounts at any time; however, both representatives and employers must wait until March 4 to enter beneficiary information and submit registrations along with the $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.
The initial registration period is for a minimum of 14 calendar days each fiscal year. The initial registration period for the H-1B cap season 2027 will be open for 15 days. There are 2 new rules introduced in the FY 2027 Cap Season – the new H-1B selection process and the $100,000 petition fee.
Wage-Based Selection Introduced
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 foreigners to better protect the wages, working conditions, and job opportunities of American workers.
For the FY 2027 H-1B cap season, if USCIS receives registrations for unique beneficiaries during the initial registration period that exceed the cap, it will conduct a weighted selection from the unique beneficiaries with properly submitted registrations.
If USCIS does not receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries, it will select all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period.
$100,000 Fee Introduced
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. All US employers hiring foreign workers in the 2026 H-1B lottery and other H-1B petitions submitted after September 21, 2025, will be required to pay a $100K fee.