United States | FY 2026 H-1B cap season updates as of May 16

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services provided updates on the fiscal year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap process, noting a significant decrease in the total number of registrations submitted and eligible beneficiaries compared to FY 2025.

Key Points:

• In March, USCIS received enough initial registrations to meet the FY 2026 H-1B cap, including the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap), selecting 118,660 unique beneficiaries and resulting in 120,141 selected registrations.
• During the initial registration period there was a significant decrease in the total number of registrations submitted and eligible beneficiaries compared to FY 2025, including a decrease in the number of registrations submitted on behalf of beneficiaries with multiple registrations. Additional registration analysis found:
  • The number of unique employers for FY 2026 (approximately 57,600) was comparable to the number last year for FY 2025 (approximately 52,700).
  • The number of eligible unique beneficiaries for FY 2026 (approximately 339,000) was significantly lower than the number last year for FY 2025 (approximately 442,000).
  • The number of eligible registrations was also dramatically lower for FY 2026 (343,981) compared with FY 2025 (470,342) — a 26.9% reduction.
• On average, each beneficiary only had approximately one registration submitted on their behalf, with an average of 1.01 registrations per beneficiary for FY 2026, compared to 1.06 for FY 2025.

Additional Information: The chart below shows registration and selection numbers for FYs 2021–26:

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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