- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed it will not conduct a second H-1B lottery for fiscal twenty twenty-seven.
- Both the sixty-five thousand regular cap and the twenty thousand master’s degree exemption have been fully met.
- Wage-based selection significantly reduced the success rate for entry-level Level One salary categories this year.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Friday that it will not conduct a second H1B lottery for fiscal 2027 after receiving enough petitions to fill both statutory H-1B allocations. The agency confirmed the decision on July 17, 2026.
The cap covers 65,000 regular H-1B visas and another 20,000 places reserved for workers with qualifying U.S. advanced degrees. USCIS said both limits have been reached.
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"U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master's cap, for fiscal year 2027."
The USCIS statement also said the agency will not select additional registrations from the remaining pool because the numerical allocations have been met. The announcement ends the prospect of another selection round for this cap season.
Employers faced a June 30, 2026, deadline to submit petitions for beneficiaries chosen in the initial March 2026 lottery. That filing window has now closed.
One selection round filled both H-1B allocations
USCIS received approximately 211,600 properly submitted registrations for the fiscal 2027 season. That total fell 38.5% from the 343,981 registrations recorded for fiscal 2026.
The lower registration volume did not leave enough unused capacity to justify another round. The agency said petitions already reached the regular cap and the advanced-degree exemption.
The season also produced a different profile among selected foreign nationals. Workers holding a U.S. advanced degree accounted for 71.5% of selected registrations, compared with 57% the previous year.
Salary levels also shaped the results. Only 17.7% of selected registrations fell into the lowest wage category, known as OEWS Level 1.
Wage-based selection changed the odds for entry-level roles
Fiscal 2027 marked the first full implementation of a wage-based weighted selection process instead of a purely random draw. The system gave greater weight to candidates with higher salary offers relative to their occupation and work location.
That approach reduced the share of selected registrations in the lowest wage category. Entry-level applicants, particularly those assigned to OEWS Level 1 positions, faced a selection system that placed less weight on those registrations.
The season also relied on unique-beneficiary improvements intended to prevent repeated entries for the same person from distorting the selection pool. The agency’s single-round result followed those changes.
The absence of another round marked the second consecutive year in which USCIS reached the cap through one selection round. The result also means that an unselected registration will not receive another chance during this season.
Unselected registrants must consider other routes
People who were not chosen in the initial March 2026 round will soon see their accounts updated to “Not Selected” in myUSCIS. Those applicants are not eligible for additional consideration under the fiscal 2027 cap.
Employers cannot use the closed selection pool to revive an unselected registration. A petition may be filed for a cap-subject worker only when the registration has been selected and the employer meets the applicable filing requirements.
Workers and employers may instead examine other immigration options. The alternatives identified for affected individuals include the O-1 category for people with extraordinary ability, the L-1 category for intracompany transfers, and cap-exempt H-1B jobs at universities and nonprofit research organizations.
Each route has different eligibility rules. The O-1 option turns on extraordinary ability, while L-1 eligibility concerns an intracompany transfer. Cap-exempt H-1B employment can avoid the annual numerical cap when the position and qualifying organization meet the applicable requirements.
The next opportunity is expected in March 2027
Applicants who do not qualify for an alternative category must wait for the fiscal 2028 registration period, which is expected to open in March 2027. That will be the next registration opportunity identified for people who were not selected in the current season.
Employers should preserve records from the completed registration and petition process, including the offered wage and the occupation and location used for selection. Those details are especially relevant after the first full use of wage-based weighting.
Employees should confirm their myUSCIS status and ask whether their employer can support an O-1, L-1, or cap-exempt H-1B strategy. The immediate status update will determine whether the fiscal 2027 cap remains available to them: it does not.
