USCIS Reached the Fiscal Year 2026 H-1B Cap

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap.

On July 18, 2025, USCIS announced that it received enough petitions to reach the mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 visas for advanced degree holders.  Unlike prior years, there was only one round of selected registrations, announced in March 2025, with no additional rounds.

WHAT EMPLOYERS CAN EXPECT
Employers may expect that over the next few days, USCIS will update non-selected registrants’ online accounts to change the status of pending FY 2026 registrations from “Submitted” to “Not Selected.”

PETITIONS NOT SUBJECT TO THE H-1B CAP
USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B petitions that are not subject to the cap. These include filings for extensions of status, amended petitions, changes of employer, concurrent employment for existing H-1B workers, and petitions filed by organizations that are cap-exempt.

If you have any questions about this alert, please contact your Gibney representative or email info@gibney.com.