USCIS News: H1B Visa 2026 Registration Starts March 7th, Fee $215

H1B Visa 2026 Registration: The first registration period for the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap will begin at noon Eastern on March 7 and end at noon Eastern on March 24, 2025, according to a statement from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Each beneficiary must be electronically registered for the selection process during this time, and prospective petitioners and representatives must pay the registration fee for each beneficiary using a USCIS online account.

Each recipient must be registered electronically for the selection process using a USCIS online account, and the potential H-1B CAP-Subject petitioners or their representatives of each registration made by the recipient $ 215 H-1B for each registration made by the recipient, Registration fee must be paid. If you are an employer who submits an H-1B request and does not currently have the USCIS online account, you must create an organizational account. If you are an H-1B petitioning employer who had an H-1B registrar account for FY 2021-FY 2024 H-1B registration sessions, but did not use the account for FY 2025, your current account will be converted into an organizational account.

Key Dates and Registration Process

Employers and lawyers must electronically register their beneficiaries through the USCIS online portal and pay the $215 registration fee per beneficiary in order to be eligible to take part in the H-1B lottery.

$1400 Final Stimulus Check Payment Date Eligibility and Claiming Process

Canada Next Extra GST Payment 2025: Check Eligibility, Payment Schedule

H1B Visa 2026 Registration Process & Fee

On the other hand, individuals who had an H-1B registrant account in FY 2021–FY 2024 but did not use it in FY 2025 will have their current account changed to a “organizational account” when they log in again. Before the registration period opens, USCIS will update its instructional videos and resources to provide step-by-step instructions on how to create and manage organizational accounts.

• Procedure for Registration New users can register at any moment.
• Although registrants and representatives must wait until March 7 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $215 fee, representatives are free to add clients to their accounts whenever they want.
• It is not necessary to register on the day the initial registration period opens because selections take place after it ends.
• Employers must have a USCIS online account in order to register.

Beneficiary-centered selection methodology

• Unique beneficiaries, not registrations, choose registrations under the beneficiary-centric process.
• The beneficiary-centric selection process, which was first implemented for FY 2025, will be maintained by USCIS for FY 2026.
• USCIS clarified that the selection of registrations under this process will be based on the unique beneficiaries rather than the quantity of registrations filed for them.
• The purpose of this modification is to lessen the likelihood of fraud and guarantee that every candidate has an equal chance of being chosen, irrespective of how many times their name is submitted by various employers.
• USCIS will choose beneficiaries at random and notify them via the USCIS online accounts if it receives a sufficient number of unique beneficiary registrations by March 24. All unique beneficiary registrations that were correctly submitted during the initial registration period will be chosen if USCIS does not receive enough unique beneficiary registrations.
• By March 31, USCIS plans to notify representatives and potential petitioners whose accounts have at least one registration chosen.

Biden forgives debt of 150,000 student loan borrowers: Know Who will get the benefit?

CRA $3100 OAS Pension Bonus in 2025: CRA Reveals New CPP and OAS Boost – Are You Ready?

For the FY 2026 H-1B cap season update

For the FY 2026 H-1B cap season, the U.S. Department of Treasury has authorized a temporary increase in the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99. The volume of prior H-1B registrations that went over the daily credit card limit is the reason for this brief increase. By using the Automated Clearing House (ACH), transactions exceeding $99,999.99 can be completed. In order to get rid of any possible ACH block on their account, the payer may need to notify their bank beforehand when using ACH.

Before the first H-1B registration period begins, more details will be available. Only the petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was chosen during the H-1B registration process may file an H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who qualifies for the advanced degree exemption.

Improvements in the registration system 2026

USCIS has improved organizational and representative accounts for H-1B filing in a number of ways for FY 2026. Among these improvements are:

• The ability of paralegals to work together with several lawyers. A paralegal will now be able to accept invitations from multiple legal representative accounts within a single paralegal account in order to prepare H-1B registrations, Form I-907 requests for premium processing for various attorneys, as well as Form I-129 H-1B petitions.
• A more straightforward way for lawyers to add paralegals to their clients.
• Preparing a spread-sheet of H-1B beneficiary data and uploading it to pre-populate data in H-1B registrations and pre-populating specific Form I-129 fields from specific H-1B registrations.
• These enhancements will be implemented prior to the start of the initial registration period.
• Under the H-1B non-immigrant visa program, foreign workers with specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or above may be temporarily employed in specialty occupations. On Friday, January 17, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security’s final H-1B and H-2 rules, which revised and improved the requirements for the H-1B and H-2 non-immigrant visa programs, became operative.

Indians continue to be the main beneficiaries.

Thousands of highly qualified professionals obtain H-1B visas each year, with Indians continuing to be the largest group of recipients. H-1B visas are limited to 65,000 per year by the US Congress, with an extra 20,000 slots available for individuals with advanced degrees from US universities.