U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the fiscal year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap registration period will open at noon ET on Friday, March 7, 2025, and will remain open until noon ET on Monday, March 24, 2025.

Quick Hits

• The fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap registration period will open at noon ET on Friday, March 7, 2025, and will remain open until noon ET on Monday, March 24, 2025.
• Prospective cap-subject H-1B petitioners and their representatives must use a USCIS organizational account online to register beneficiaries and pay required fees.
• USCIS’s new H-1B registration fee of $215 per registration will be in effect for this year’s H-1B cap season.
• USCIS announced enhancements to the organizational account system to improve functionality for paralegals, legal representatives, and those preparing Forms I-129 online.

Similar to last year’s registration process, prospective petitioners and their legal representatives must use a USCIS organizational account online to register beneficiaries and pay registration fees.

This year brings USCIS’s higher registration fee requirement of $215 per registration, originally announced by USCIS in January 2024. In light of H-1B cap registration volume and higher fees, the U.S. Department of the Treasury increased its daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99 per day.

USCIS will again use the beneficiary-centric selection process originally launched in FY 2025. Through this process, registrations will be randomly selected by unique beneficiary rather than by registration. USCIS intends to start releasing lottery results by March 31, 2025.

USCIS reminded stakeholders that petitioning employers must create an organizational account through their online system if they did not create an account during the FY 2025 H-1B cap registration process. Additionally, while legal representatives may add company clients to their accounts at any time, it will not be possible to create H-1B cap registrations until the registration period opens on March 7, 2025.

USCIS also announced enhancements to the organizational account system it launched last year, including the following:

• The ability for a paralegal to work with more than one legal representative. This will allow a paralegal account to prepare H-1B registrations, H-1B petitions, and requests for premium processing for multiple attorneys (representatives) within the legal team organizational account.
• An easier process for legal representatives to add paralegals to different company clients.
• The ability to upload a spreadsheet of H-1B beneficiary data into the system, allowing for that data to prepopulate into H-1B registrations.
• Prepopulation of some data from an H-1B registration into fields within Form I-129 (if prepared online).

Key Takeaways

Launched in 2024, USCIS’s successful organizational account system and beneficiary-centric selection process are here to stay in the FY 2026 H-1B cap registration lottery, and USCIS has already announced online system improvements based on feedback last year from petitioners and legal representatives. Employers may want to mark their calendars with this year’s dates and check their USCIS online account access as they prepare for this year’s H-1B cap season.