U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that the Fiscal Year 2027 H-1B cap has been reached. USCIS has received enough H-1B cap-subject petitions to meet the annual numerical limits: 65,000 H-1B visas under the regular cap and 20,000 additional visas under the U.S. advanced-degree exemption, commonly referred to as the “master’s cap.”
The FY 2027 cap season was the first to operate under USCIS’s new weighted selection process for cap-subject H-1B petitions. Unlike the prior random lottery, the new process gives greater weight to registrations associated with higher-skilled and higher-paid positions, using the applicable Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics wage level as part of the registration process. Employers therefore should expect H-1B cap planning to be increasingly tied to compensation strategy, job classification, worksite location, and prevailing wage analysis. See full Client Alert details here.
If you have any questions please contact: Anthony F. Siliato, Scott R. Malyk, or Stacey A. Simon.