H-1B visa registration for FY 2026 begins March 7: Key details

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap will commence at noon Eastern on March 7 and conclude at noon Eastern on March 24, 2025.

During this timeframe, prospective petitioners and representatives must register each beneficiary electronically via a USCIS online account and pay the required $215 registration fee per beneficiary.

Online account requirement

Employers and representatives must use a USCIS online account for H-1B visa registration. Those who previously held H-1B registrant accounts for the FY 2021–FY 2024 registration periods but did not participate in FY 2025 will have their accounts converted to organisational accounts upon their next login.

First-time registrants can create accounts at any time. Additional resources and step-by-step video guides are available on the Organizational Accounts FAQ page, which will be updated with FY 2026 information before the registration period opens.

Process for representatives and registrants

While representatives can add clients to their accounts at any time, the submission of beneficiary information and payment of the $215 fee can only be completed starting March 7. Selection will take place after the registration period ends, meaning there is no advantage to registering early.

Beneficiary-centric selection process

The FY 2026 H-1B visa cap will continue to use the beneficiary-centric selection process introduced in FY 2025. Under this system, registrations are selected based on unique beneficiaries rather than individual registrations. If USCIS receives sufficient unique beneficiary registrations by March 24, a random selection will be conducted. Notifications will be sent via USCIS online accounts by March 31.

Temporary increase in credit card limit

To accommodate the high volume of registrations, the US Department of Treasury has temporarily increased the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99 for the FY 2026 H-1B cap season. Transactions exceeding this limit can be processed via Automated Clearing House (ACH). Employers using ACH should check with their banks to ensure there are no ACH blocks on their accounts.

Filing eligibility for selected petitions

Only petitioners whose registrations were selected in the H-1B process may file cap-subject petitions, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption. More details on the electronic registration process are available on the H-1B Electronic Registration Process page.

Organisational account enhancements

For FY 2026, USCIS has introduced several enhancements to organizational and representative accounts, including:

Paralegals can now collaborate with multiple legal representatives, allowing them to prepare H-1B registrations, Form I-129 petitions, and Form I-907 requests for premium processing across different attorney accounts.

A streamlined process for legal representatives to add paralegals to company accounts.

Pre-population of select Form I-129 fields from chosen H-1B registrations.

A new feature allowing bulk uploads of H-1B beneficiary data via spreadsheet, simplifying data entry for registrations.

These enhancements aim to improve efficiency and will be active before the registration period begins.