H-1B visa cap for FY26 reached: USCIS confirms visa cap met, fewer applicants get selected

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it has received enough petitions to meet both the 65,000 H-1B regular visa cap and the 20,000 advanced degree exemption quota for the fiscal year 2026.

The H-1B programme enables U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals in specialised fields requiring a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. It remains one of the most sought-after work visa categories, especially among Indian applicants.

According to the USCIS, the 2026 cap was reached after processing 3,43,981 eligible registrations, including 7,828 individuals with multiple registrations. Only 120,141 registrations were ultimately selected. This marks a 26.9% drop in eligible entries from FY25, when 4,70,342 registrations were recorded.

“The number of eligible registrations fell 26.9 per cent for FY 2026 in comparison with FY 2025. Overall, we saw an average of 1.01 registrations per beneficiary this year for FY 2026, compared to 1.06 for FY 2025,” the USCIS noted. “This means that, on average, each beneficiary only had approximately one registration submitted on their behalf.”

While the visa cap has been met, USCIS confirmed it will continue processing cap-exempt petitions. These include:

• Extension requests for existing H-1B visa holders

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• Changes to terms of employment for current visa holders

• Transfers to new employers

• Concurrent H-1B employment at multiple organisations

“Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, are exempt from the FY 2026 H-1B cap,” the agency stated.

The advanced degree exemption, commonly referred to as the “master’s cap,” applies to foreign nationals with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions and remains part of the broader annual allocation.

The announcement follows continued demand for the programme, which has seen hundreds of thousands of applicants annually, driven largely by sectors like technology and consulting.