USCIS Reaches Fiscal Year 2026 H-1B Cap

The USCIS has announced that it has received enough petitions for fiscal year 2026’s congressionally mandated H-1B visa cap (i.e., 65,000 regular petitions and another 20,000 with advanced US degrees). U.S. businesses use the H-1B track to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations and must contend with the limited number of new slots made available each year.

While the H1-B lottery is now closed to new applicants for 2026, USCIS will continue to process petitions that are in status or otherwise exempt from the cap, whether to extend the amount of time allowed for an H-1B holder to remain in the US, change the terms of employment, change employer, or to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.

For more information, see here: https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-reaches-fiscal-year-2026-h-1b-cap