USCIS Releases FY 2026 H-1B Cap Season Statistics

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently released detailed statistics and data regarding the number of beneficiaries selected during the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap season, highlighting the highly competitive nature of the visa process.

Each year, the H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, and demand for these visas has consistently gotten tougher throughout the years.

The FY 2026 data shows a significant drop in H-1B registrants, with 126,361 fewer applicants compared to the previous year.

Overview

During the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap season:

USCIS received eligible registrations for 336,153 unique beneficiaries and selected just 118,660 – or approximately 35.3% – of these beneficiaries.
The overall number of registrations submitted in FY 2026 decreased dramatically from 470,342 eligible registrations filed last year to just 343,981 eligible registrations filed this year.
On average, each beneficiary only had approximately one registration submitted on their behalf.
USCIS is not expected to announce a second cap lottery until at least July 2025, after the current H-1B filing period closes.

A Closer Look

As announced on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website, the agency received H-1B cap registrations for approximately 336,153 unique beneficiaries for the FY 2026 H-1B cap season.

Of these beneficiaries, USCIS selected 118,660 registrants–or approximately 35.3% of those registered – to meet the annual H-1B quota of 85,000 visas.

This represents a higher selection rate than in prior H-1B cap years. Approximately 29% of unique beneficiaries were selected in FY 2025 and 24.8% of eligible registrations were selected in the FY 2024 cap season.

The number of eligible unique beneficiaries submitted in the FY 2026 cap (336,153) was significantly lower than the 423,028 unique beneficiaries submitted in the FY 2025 cap. Further, the overall number of registrations submitted this season (343,981) was significantly lower than in FY 2025 (470,342).

USCIS also reported that for FY 2026, the number of unique employers submitting cap registrations (approximately 57,600), was relatively comparable to FY 2025 (approximately 52,700 unique employers).

The FY 2026 H-1B cap season is the second year that USCIS implements a beneficiary-centric cap selection process, where lottery selection occurs based on unique beneficiary identifiers, rather than by individual registration. This system was introduced to ensure that each beneficiary is entered into the H-1B lottery only once, regardless of how many employers file a registration. The sharp decrease in eligible registrations in FY 2026 may be attributed at least in part to fraud-prevention measures including fraud investigations, and the beneficiary-centric system.

Will there be a second cap selection lottery for FY 2026?

Based on historical data, USCIS normally selects more registrations than needed to meet the annual 85,000 H-1B quota, to account for cases for which no petition is ultimately filed, as well as cases that are denied, rejected, withdrawn, or revoked. If the initial selection fails to meet the annual quota, USCIS may decide to conduct a second lottery and selected from eligible registrations submitted for FY 2026.

USCIS’s decision to conduct a second lottery will depend on how many H-1B cap petitions are received during the current filing period, which ends on June 30.

For more information, please click here.

Contact Us. If you would like to schedule a consultation, please text 619-483-4549 or call 619-819-9204.

Helpful Links

JOIN OUR NEW FACEBOOK GROUP

Need more immigration updates? We have created a new facebook group to address the impact of the new executive orders and other changing developments. Follow us there!