USCIS Releases FY2026 H-1B cap season statistics — Visa Lawyer Blog – May

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently released detailed statistics and data regarding the number of beneficiaries selected during the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap season, highlighting the highly competitive nature of the visa process.

Each year, the H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, and demand for these visas has consistently gotten tougher throughout the years.

The FY 2026 data shows a significant drop in H-1B registrants, with 126,361 fewer applicants compared to the previous year.

Overview

During the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap season:

• USCIS received eligible registrations for 336,153 unique beneficiaries and selected just 118,660 – or approximately 35.3% – of these beneficiaries.
• The overall number of registrations submitted in FY 2026 decreased dramatically from 470,342 eligible registrations filed last year to just 343,981 eligible registrations filed this year.
• On average, each beneficiary only had approximately one registration submitted on their behalf.
• USCIS is not expected to announce a second cap lottery until at least July 2025, after the current H-1B filing period closes.

A Closer Look

As announced on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) website reported that the agency received H-1B registration The number of unique beneficiaries selected for the FY2026 cap (336.153) was lower than Further, the overall number of registrations submitted this season (343,981) was significantly lower than in FY 2025 (470,342).

USCIS also reported that for FY 2026, the number of unique employers submitting cap registrations (approximately 57,600), was relatively comparable to FY 2025 (approximately 52,700 unique employers).

The FY 2026 H-1B cap season is the second year that USCIS implements a beneficiary-centric cap selection process, where lottery selection occurs based on unique beneficiary identifiers, rather than by individual registration. This system was implemented to ensure that each H-1B beneficiary is only entered into the lottery once, If the initial selection fails to meet the annual quota, USCIS may decide to conduct If the initial selection fails to meet the annual quota, USCIS may decide to conduct a second lottery and selected from eligible registrations submitted for FY 2026.

USCIS’s decision to conduct a second lottery will depend on how many H-1B cap petitions are received during the current filing period, which ends on June 30.

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