United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released statistics for the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 2026) H-1B Cap registration process. In March, entities wishing to sponsor cap-subject individuals for H-1B status for an October 1, 2025 start date submitted registrations and USCIS ran two lotteries to select registrations. This registration and selection process has been used by USCIS since March 2020.

For the FY 2026 H-1B cap, USCIS received a much lower number of registrations than for the FY 2025 H-1B cap, and there was once again a decrease in the number of registrations submitted on behalf of beneficiaries with multiple registrations. This suggests that the beneficiary-centric registration process implemented by USCIS starting with the FY 2025 cap registration has been successful in removing the incentive to have multiple companies submit registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary.

USCIS makes the following observations about the FY 2026 H-1B lottery submissions:

• The number of unique beneficiaries for FY 2026 was about 336,000 and was thus lower than the FY 2025 number of about 423,000.
• The number of unique employers or entities filing registrations for FY 2026 was about 57,600 and was thus comparable to the FY 2025 number of about 57,200.
• The number of eligible registrations was 343,981 for FY 2026 and thus was “dramatically” 26.9% lower than for FY 2025, when 470,342 eligible registrations were filed.
• The USCIS experienced an average of 1.01 registrations per beneficiary for FY 2026 compared to 1.06 for FY 2025.

The following chart illustrates the registration and selection numbers for fiscal years 2021 through 2026.

What the Numbers Reveal

As referenced above, the total number of eligible registrations received by USCIS this March for the FY 2026 H-1B lottery was 343,981. This represents a decrease of 126,361 eligible registrations compared with FY 2025.

Of the approximately 336,000 unique beneficiaries registered in FY 2026, 120,141 were selected in the two lotteries. This yields an overall selection percentage of approximately 35.3%. The selection rate for holders of advanced degrees from United States universities was almost certainly higher since these individuals are included in both lotteries.

At this time, it is not clear if USCIS will hold another H-1B cap lottery for FY 2026. As in prior years, USCIS selected a greater number of FY 2026 H-1B cap registrations than the annual 85,000 quota since H-1B cap petitions are not filed for all selected registrations, and some H-1B cap petitions are denied, rejected, withdrawn or revoked. If, as has happened in the past, the initial selection is not high enough to fulfill the annual quota, USCIS may choose to reopen the selection process by conducting a new lottery in which registrations not previously selected will be included. This decision will be made sometime after the initial H-1B petition filing period closes on June 30th.

T&S Takeaway

The reason for the dramatic decrease in the number of H-1B Cap registrations filed for FY 2026 is not entirely clear, although the adoption of the beneficiary-centric system for a second year may have influenced this. Concerns about the current presidential administration’s views and policies on immigration to the United States may also have been a factor, as may the significantly higher registration fee this year.

T&S will continue to closely monitor all developments in this regard and provide further updates as they arise.