The US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the initial registration period ofr 2027 H-1B cap that will open at noon on March 4 and run through March 19. During this period, prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners and representatives must use a USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $215 H-1B registration fee for each registration, the agency announced.
The announcement comes at a time the H-1B visa program is dominating headlines for many reasons. The administration announced major overhaul plans over the visa program that allow companies to hire skilled employees from foreign countries, while two Republican states, Florida and Texas, announces a ban on H-1B hiring in state jobs.
"If you are an H-1B petitioning employer who does not have a USCIS online account, you must create an organizational account. Representatives may add company clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and employers must wait until March 4 to enter beneficiary information and submit registrations and the associated $215 fee. Selections take place after the initial registration period closes. We intend to send selection notifications by March 31, 2026, via users’ USCIS online accounts to prospective petitioners and representatives who have at least one registration selected," the agency said.
$100,000 fee, wage-based selection: New H-1B rules for 2027
These new H-1B petitions will come with a $100,000 fee if they are selected as announced by President Donald Trump on September 10, 2025. "While the proclamation does not directly impact the electronic registration process, if a petitioner has their registration selected and is eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition, they may need to pay an additional $100,000 fee before filing the H-1B petition as a condition of eligibility," the USCIS reminded.
"The new H-1B selection process prioritizes allocating visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens to better protect the wages, working conditions, and job opportunities of American workers. For the FY 2027 H-1B cap season, if we receive registrations for unique beneficiaries during the initial registration period that exceed the cap, we will conduct a weighted selection from the unique beneficiaries with properly submitted registrations. If we do not receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries, we will select all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period," the agency said on new selection process.
H-1B registration for 2027
- Dates: March 4- March 19, 2026
- Available visas: 85,000
- Registration fee: $215
- Selection: March 31, 2026
- $100,000 fee if the petition gets selected
- Weighted selection if USCIS gets more tha 85,000 applications which happens every year
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