The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the H-1B visa cap for fiscal year (FY) 2026 without the need for a second lottery indicating high demand for the work visa coveted by Indian techies.
Noting a second round of lottery was not needed to fill the annual quota, immigration attorney Johnson Myalil told The American Bazaar, the Trump administration should consider increasing the cap in light of the high demand for H-1B visas.
The 2025 registration window, which feeds into FY 2026 approvals, saw 343,981 eligible H-1B registrations submitted. From this pool, USCIS selected 120,141 beneficiaries to move forward with full petition filings.
The selection process, revised this year to focus on individual beneficiaries rather than multiple submissions from different employers, aimed to reduce fraud and level the playing field.
READ: Banks and telecom giants overtake tech in H-1B visa hiring, data shows (June 30, 2025)
Despite a 27% drop in overall registrations compared to the previous cycle, demand for H-1B visas remains strong. With only 85,000 total spots available, a significant portion of eligible applicants were not selected, including many recent international graduates and skilled foreign professionals.
The immigration agency said it will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, are exempt from the FY 2026 H-1B cap.
It will continue to accept and process petitions filed to: Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.
Meanwhile, according to a Forbes report, the Trump administration plans to publish a proposed rule to end or significantly change the annual H-1B visa lottery.
Near the end of Donald Trump’s first term, the administration proposed ending the current random selection process with one based on salary from highest to lowest.
The Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the rule and could clear it for publication within weeks, it said.
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The Biden administration initially delayed and then ultimately chose not to implement the final rule published on Jan. 8, 2021. It is unclear how the proposed rule differs from the previous rule..
The only clue so far is the titles for the two rules differ, according to Forbes. DHS called the final rule published in January 2021 “Modification of Registration Requirement for Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions.”
However, the title of the new rule under review at OMB is “Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions.”
The new rule will not address the most significant immigration issue that many employers cite: the low number of H-1B petitions relative to the demand for highly skilled talent in an economy reliant on science and technology, Forbes said.
An National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis cited by Forbes found USCIS rejected almost two-thirds of H-1B applications for FY 2026 due to the low annual limit.
The 85,000 annual H-1B limit equals about 0.05% of the U.S. labor force. H-1B visas are often the only practical way a high-skilled foreign national, including an international student, can work long term in the United States, it noted.
READ: Great people come into the U.S. through H-1B program: Trump (January 22, 2025)
There were two primary criticisms of the final rule published in January 2021 that are likely relevant to the new rule, Forbes said. First, opponents argued that the rule was unlawful and that Congress would need to amend the statute to implement the changes proposed by DHS in its rule. Experts cited by Forbes also warned the rule would likely put the United States at a disadvantage in recruiting talent.
The 2021 rule would have disfavored several significant occupations. NFAP identified 11 occupations, including physicians, internists, pediatricians, dentists and computer and information systems managers, where individuals paid Level 1 salaries would be unable to obtain an H-1B petition under the rule, even though their Level 1 salaries were higher than the median salary for Level 3 in all occupations.
The rule also would have made it much less likely that physicists, microbiologists and medical scientists (among others) could gain H-1B petitions: More than half of the labor condition applications for those occupations in FY 2019 were for Level 1, and close to 90% were paid at Level 1 or Level 2.
Middle schools and high schools, which are not cap-exempt, would struggle to hire math and science teachers, as approximately 90% are paid at Level 1 or Level 2.
Focusing on salary alone will likely close the door to talented individuals in less highly compensated fields, Forbes noted.
After DHS publishes the immigration rule, the public will have an opportunity to submit comments. Unless a lawsuit succeeds in blocking the rule, the new H-1B selection process could be in place by March 2026, before the FY 2027 H-1B cap selection, Forbes said.