The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has started releasing the results of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 H-1B visa lottery. If your status shows “Selected”, it means you have cleared the lottery stage and the next step is for your employer to file the H-1B petition on your behalf.
Applicants can check their selection status through their employer, legal representative or the USCIS online portal. As the results are announced in batches, those still awaiting confirmation should stay updated regularly.
If the status shows “Submitted”, it means the applicant is still in the lottery pool and has not been selected yet. However, “Submitted” does not mean the applicant is running out of time. There’s still a chance of selection as the process continues.
However, if the status does not update to “Selected” by April 1, it means the applicant was not chosen in the current lottery round.
The H-1B visa registration process for FY 2026 was open from March 7 to March 24, 2025. During this period, US employers registered foreign skilled workers in sectors like information technology, healthcare and engineering.
A significant change this year was the sharp increase in the H-1B registration fee, rising from $10 to $215 per beneficiary. This 2050% hike is aimed at covering administrative costs and reducing non-serious applications. USCIS has also introduced procedural updates to streamline the selection process and enhance fairness in visa allocations.
Meanwhile, the US student visa rejection rate has reached a decade-high. Data from the US State Department analysed by The Indian Express revealed that 41% of international student visa applications were denied in the past fiscal year (October 2023–September 2024). This figure marked a significant rise from the 2014 fiscal year, when the rejection rate was nearly half of the current percentage.