H-1B visa registration period for FY 2026 to commence on March 7

Key dates and registration process

The registration model volition unfastened astatine 12 PM Eastern Time (10:30 PM IST) connected March 7 and adjacent astatine the aforesaid clip connected March 24, USCIS stated.

“During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives indispensable usage a USCIS online relationship to registry each beneficiary electronically for the enactment process and wage the associated $215 registration fee,” the bureau said successful its property release.

Employers and representatives tin make USCIS online accounts astatine immoderate time. However, they tin lone taxable beneficiary details and wage the fees starting from March 7. The enactment process volition instrumentality spot aft the registration play ends, truthful there’s nary urgency to registry connected the archetypal time itself.

Beneficiary-centric enactment process

For FY 2026, USCIS volition proceed with the beneficiary-centric enactment process, which was archetypal introduced for FY 2025.

“Under this process, registrations volition beryllium selected based connected unsocial beneficiaries alternatively than the fig of registrations submitted for them,” USCIS explained.

This alteration aims to trim the chances of fraud and guarantee that each applicant has an adjacent accidental of being selected, careless of however galore times their sanction is submitted by antithetic employers.

If USCIS receives capable unsocial beneficiary registrations by March 24, it volition randomly prime beneficiaries and nonstop retired notifications done the USCIS online accounts. If not, each decently submitted registrations volition beryllium selected.

Fee and outgo updates

The registration interest for each beneficiary is $215. To accommodate the precocious measurement of transactions, the US Department of Treasury has temporarily accrued the regular recognition paper transaction bounds from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99 for this H-1B season.

For transactions exceeding this limit, payments tin beryllium made done the Automated Clearing House (ACH). The USCIS advised that ACH users whitethorn request to pass their banks successful beforehand to debar immoderate imaginable blocks connected transactions.

Indians stay the apical beneficiaries

Indians proceed to beryllium the largest radical of H-1B recipients, with thousands of highly skilled professionals securing these visas each year.

The US Congress has capped H-1B visas astatine 65,000 annually, with an further 20,000 slots for those holding precocious degrees from US institutions.

Enhancements successful the registration system

For FY 2026, the USCIS has introduced respective improvements to its online system, including:

Allowing paralegals to enactment with aggregate ineligible representatives. Simplified procedures for ineligible representatives to adhd paralegals to institution accounts.

Auto-filling definite fields successful Form I-129 from selected H-1B registrations. The enactment to upload spreadsheets of beneficiary information to velocity up registration.

Only employers whose registrations are selected tin record H-1B petitions, including for those eligible for the precocious grade exemption. USCIS plans to notify selected petitioners by March 31, 2025.

For much information, USCIS encourages petitioners to sojourn the H-1B Electronic Registration Process leafage connected their website.