FY2027 H-1B Cap Is Officially Closed: What Employers and Foreign Workers Should Do Next

By Thomas M. Lee 

If you registered for this year’s H-1B lottery and didn’t hear good news, you’re not alone — and you’re out of chances until next spring. On July 17, 2026, USCIS confirmed that it had received enough petitions to fill the entire FY2027 H-1B cap, which means there will be no second lottery this year.

If your registration wasn’t selected, or you’re an employer whose candidate came up empty, here’s what actually happened, why fewer people were even in the running this year, and what your realistic options are right now.

What Happened

USCIS reached both halves of the annual 85,000-visa cap: the 65,000 regular cap and the 20,000 “master’s cap” reserved for individuals with a U.S. advanced degree. Employers whose registrations were selected in the March 2026 lottery had until June 30, 2026 to file complete petitions. Because that was enough to fill the cap, USCIS will not run a second round of selections. If your registration wasn’t picked in that initial lottery, it’s dead for this cycle — there’s no waitlist, no appeal, and no second draw. The next opportunity to enter the H-1B cap lottery will be in March 2027, for the FY2028 cap, with employment authorization beginning October 1, 2027 at the earliest.

Why Fewer People Registered This Year

This year’s cap season looked different from the last few. USCIS received about 211,600 properly submitted registrations, a drop of roughly 38% from the 343,981 registrations submitted the year before. Two changes likely drove that decline. First, USCIS has moved to a wage-weighted selection system: instead of the old flat random lottery, registrations tied to higher-paying job offers now get a better chance of selection, based on Department of Labor wage level data. That has shifted who gets picked — this year, about 71.5% of selected beneficiaries held a U.S. advanced degree, up sharply from 57% the year before, and only about 17.7% of selections came from the lowest prevailing wage tier. Second, employers appear to have registered more selectively this year, weighing the expense and compliance burden of sponsorship against increasingly uncertain odds.

The practical effect is that if your offer was near the bottom of the pay scale for your occupation and location, your odds this year were worse than they’ve been in the past, and that’s likely to remain true going forward unless the rules change again.

What Cap-Exempt Employers and Current H-1B Holders Should Know

The cap being reached doesn’t affect everyone. USCIS continues to accept H-1B filings that are cap-exempt, including extensions of stay for people currently in H-1B status, amendments to an existing H-1B petition, changes of employer for someone already holding H-1B status, and new petitions filed by cap-exempt organizations such as universities, nonprofit research organizations, and certain government research entities. If you’re already in H-1B status, this announcement generally isn’t a reason for concern. If you’re a cap-exempt employer, you can still sponsor foreign workers year-round.

What Are the Alternatives If You Weren’t Selected?

For everyone else, the question now is what to do for the next eight months. Depending on your situation, a few paths are worth exploring. The O-1 visa is available to individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement in their field, carries no annual cap, and can often be filed on a faster timeline. The L-1 intracompany transfer category is an option if the employer has a qualifying overseas affiliate and the employee has worked there for at least a year. TN status is available to eligible Canadian and Mexican professionals in designated occupations under USMCA, while the E-3 visa serves a similar purpose for Australian nationals in specialty occupations. For eligible students and recent graduates, an F-1 OPT or STEM OPT extension can buy additional work authorization time to try again next March. And a role with a university or nonprofit research institution can allow H-1B sponsorship without waiting for the lottery at all, since those employers are cap-exempt.

Not every option fits every situation, and eligibility depends heavily on the individual’s background, the employer’s structure, and the specific role involved.

What to Do Now

If your H-1B registration wasn’t selected this year, don’t wait until next February to start planning. Between now and the March 2027 registration window, it’s worth reviewing whether the employee qualifies for any of the alternative categories described above, whether current status such as F-1 or OPT is expiring soon and needs a bridge strategy, whether the employer has any cap-exempt affiliation that could be used, and what changes, if any, to compensation or job classification might improve next year’s odds under the wage-weighted selection system.

Legal Disclaimer and Contact Information

The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute formal legal advice. Reading this material does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case involves unique facts, and individuals seeking guidance on their case should consult an experienced attorney for legal advice. For a free phone consultation with Attorney Thomas Lee, please call (213) 251-5533.