Preparing for the Upcoming FY2027 H-1B Cap Season
It’s that time of the year again — as many of our clients are aware, H-1B cap season is just around the corner. Over the next several weeks, we will be reaching out to clients to discuss the employees that would benefit from participating in the upcoming Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 H-1B cap lottery.
How the H-1B Cap Lottery Works
Each year, the immigration law allocates a total of 85,000 new H-1Bs, with 20,000 of these reserved for persons who have graduated from US universities with advanced degrees (the “Master’s Cap”), and 6,800 allocated to nationals of Singapore and Chile pursuant to Free Trade Agreements with those countries (H-1B1). The demand for new H-1Bs has far exceeded available numbers for the last decade, and the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has conducted a random selection process (the “cap lottery”) to determine which H-1Bs will be processed under the annual quota.
Starting with the FY2021 H-1B cap season, the USCIS implemented a new online registration process for employers to submit their prospective H-1B workers for consideration in the lottery. If the USCIS receives more online registrations than available H-1Bs, which is expected, the USCIS will conduct a lottery to select from the pool of registrants. Employers may then file an H-1B petition on behalf of the selected registrants.
As noted above, we will be reaching out to each client over the coming weeks to confirm which employees to include on the FY2027 cap list. Please do not hesitate to contact one of our attorneys or specialists with any questions. You may visit our FY2027 H-1B Cap FAQs to read more about the upcoming H-1B cap lottery.