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For some years now, there has been a separate registration window for US employers who wish to obtain an H-1B visa for their employees. Only individuals who have registered online in advance can be selected to file an H-1B petition with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. We provide an overview of the H-1B online registration and the subsequent lottery process to select participating individuals and take a look at what's new in the current H-1B Cap Season.
Since 2020 or fiscal year FY 2021, US companies filing initial H-1B applications that fall under the annual numerical limitation (= H-1B cap) must first register via the USCIS online portal in order to be eligible to apply for an H-1B visa.
There are 65,000 H-1B visas available each US fiscal year in the regular cap and an additional 20,000 visas in the master's cap for people with a US master's degree.
The demand for the H-1B category has exceeded the supply of available H-1B visas for many years, which is why the USCIS introduced the H-1B online filing process by registration and lottery.
On the one hand, H-1B pre-registration is not as time-consuming and, despite the increase in fees, less expensive than the "actual" H-1B application. This is a great advantage for US employers who are left empty-handed during H-1B pre-registration: Those who were not selected are spared the processing effort of compiling the H-1B file – compared to the previous selection process a few years ago.
While until FY 2024 the selection process was based on US employers, since FY 2025 beneficiaries have been drawn (= beneficiary-centric selection process). This is intended to prevent possible abuse and give every foreign person the same opportunities. From now on, it is the beneficiaries and no longer the companies or registrations that are in the lottery pot. So if a beneficiary has several job offers, i.e. several registrations, this person still only has one lot in the pot.
The registration period is at least 14 calendar days per US fiscal year. This year, the official fee-based registration for the H-1B lottery for fiscal year (FY) 2026 takes place from March 7, 2025, at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time (EST) / 6 p.m. Central European Time (CET) through March 24, 2025, at 12 noon Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) / 5 p.m. Central European Time (CET).
Only businesses that create a USCIS online account or register (if an account already exists) during the above time period will be eligible to receive H-1B visas for the upcoming FY 2026.
At the end of the registration period, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) checks how many online applications have been received.
If a higher number of applicants register on the portal within this registration window than the number of available H-1B visas within the cap, the USCIS will make a random selection. A lottery will be held to select from the pool of people pre-registered via the online portal those for whom H-1B applications can be filed in a 90-day window starting April 1.
To decide how many petitions to select, USCIS relies on data from previous years (e.g., expected rate of H-1B petitions filed by selected petitioners or beneficiaries). If the number of participants is less than the number of H-1B visas available each year, all valid H-1B registrations will be selected.
If the H-1B cap is not reached despite sufficient registrations being drawn, a new subsequent selection procedure may be carried out.
Before online registration can be completed, an H-1B registration fee per beneficiary or per registration must be paid. From this US Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, i.e. for all H-1B registrations in March 2025, the fee will increase to 215 $ per application based on the fee adjustment.
The H-1B Electronic Registration Fee is non-refundable.
As part of the H-1B registration process, potential US employers (= petitioners) who wish to employ H-1B workers, or their authorized representative or individuals, complete an online application with basic information:
| INFORMATION | DETAILS |
| US company (petitioner) |
|
| Foreign employees (beneficiary) |
|
The valid passport or travel document provided must have been used in the subsequent application process and must be used when entering the United States (depending on whether the person is inside or outside the United States).
If, for example, the document expires in the meantime, proof must at least be provided in the further procedure that the registration was made with a passport / travel document that was valid at the time.
To participate in the electronic H-1B filing process, you must have a free myUSCIS account. Organizational Accounts will again be used for the upcoming H-1B season of the US Fiscal Year 2026.
If you already have an account, you can use your existing credentials. If you have an H-1B Registrant Account, you have the option to update your existing account to utilize the corporate account features. If you have an H-1B Registrant Account from FY 2021 through FY 2024 and have not used that account in FY 2025, your existing account will automatically convert to an Organizational Account after your next login.
Introduced in February 2024, Organizational Accounts are designed to help improve collaboration between companies and their legal representatives when filing H-1B registrations. This will allow multiple individuals within an organization (e.g. a company) and their legal representatives to process H-1B registrations, Form I-129 (Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker) and Form I-907 (Request for Premium Processing Service) or file subsequent H-1B applications online through these accounts.
Depending on the access rights and the function (Administrator, Member, Representative or Paralegal), the persons involved receive more or fewer access rights.
Decisive added value: This account can not only be used to register, but also to file the actual H-1B application (I-129) online afterwards if you are lucky in the H-1B lottery. Previously, it was only possible to submit H-1B applications in paper form by mail.
There are three types of USCIS online accounts:
Attorneys or authorized representatives (legal representatives) filing H-1B registrations on behalf of a potential petitioner or applicant will select this option.
Individuals use this type of account to prepare and file applications, petitions, or other benefit requests. This account type cannot be used to prepare or submit H-1B registrations.
Duplicate or incorrect entries can be deleted or changed by US companies up to the registration deadline. The fee of 215 $ will not be refunded if you delete a duplicate registration.
Once the registration phase is complete, duplicate filings for the same employee will automatically disqualify all registrations for that individual for that US fiscal year. The fee of 215 $ for a removed registration will not be refunded.
Please also note that the USCIS may deny an H-1B petition or revoke the approval of an H-1B petition if it is based on improper registration. In addition, this will be referred to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.
The H-1B selection process takes place after the initial registration deadline and is conducted among the properly submitted electronic registrations.
After the H-1B lottery has been conducted, a status is stored in the online profile for each registration (i.e. for each registered beneficiary).
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uses the online portal to centrally notify all US companies and their employees who were drawn at random (lottery procedure) and who therefore qualify for the "actual" H-1B application round. At the same time, all other registered US companies and their employees can also view the status of their registration.
There are five possible status messages:
The registration was selected and approved for further H-1B processing.
Companies whose potential H-1B applicants were drawn in the registration round have a 90-day window to officially file an H-1B petition with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the current fiscal year in the H-1B Regular Cap or Master's Exemption Cap.
The registration was not selected and therefore not taken into account for the current US fiscal year.
An application for an H-1B visa is only possible again in the coming fiscal year.
The registration has been submitted and is eligible for selection. This status will be displayed beyond the end of the first selection procedure (unless it is subsequently declared invalid).
Properly filed registrations that are not selected will initially remain in the system with a "Submitted" status and may theoretically be considered for selection until the end of the US fiscal year (e.g., if a relatively high number of registrations do not result in actual filings with the USCIS during the 90-day filing window).
The registration is therefore on a waiting list. In the event of possible further lotteries and if taken into account, the status would be updated to "Selected" accordingly.
More than one registration has been submitted by or on behalf of the same petitioner for the same beneficiary. This will invalidate and therefore reject all registrations for that person.
A registration has been made, but the payment has failed.
Consideration by the H-1B lottery does not imply automatic approval of the H-1B petition by the USCIS. It only means that the US company is authorized to file an H-1B petition and that it will be processed by the US authorities.
Since the introduction of the electronic H-1B registration process, more and more filings have been made. For the most recent fiscal year 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received the highest H-1B registrations ever recorded, so the chance of being considered in the H-1B lottery process was lower than ever.
The large number of valid H-1B registrations for potential applicants (= beneficiaries) with multiple valid applications could indicate illegal collusion between companies. As a result, the USCIS has conducted extensive investigations and denied or revoked H-1B applications accordingly.
In response to these (suspected) illegal agreements and activities, the H-1B lottery procedure for Fiscal Year 2025 was changed as described above. Since then, the draw is no longer based on registered companies, but on beneficiaries.
| US FISCAL YEAR | ONLINE REGISTRATION TIME FRAME |
TOTAL H-1B REGISTRATIONS | VALID H-1B REGISTRATIONS* |
VALID H-1B REGISTRATIONS FOR BENEFICIARIES WITH ONE REGISTRATION | VALID H-1B REGISTRATIONS FOR BENEFICIARIES WITH MULTIPLE REGISTRATIONS | SELECTED H-1B REGISTRATIONS |
| FY 2025 | 03/06/2024 - 03/25/2024 |
479,953 | 470,342 | 423,028 | 47,314 | 135,137 |
| FY 2024 | 03/01/2023 - 03/17/2023 | 780,884 | 758,994 | 350,103 | 408,891 | 188,400 |
| FY 2023 | 03/01/2022 - 03/18/2022 | 483,927 | 474,421 | 309,241 | 165,180 | 127,600 |
| FY 2022 | 03/09/2021 - 03/25/2021 | 308,613 | 301,447 | 211,304 | 90,143 | 131,924 |
| FY 2021 | 03/01/2020 - 03/20/2020 | 274,237 | 269,424 | 241,299 | 28,125 | 124,415 |
*excluding duplicate registrations, registrations deleted by the potential employer before the end of the registration period and registrations for which no payments have been made.
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