U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has confirmed that the FY 2027 H-1B cap has been reached and that there will be no second H-1B lottery this cap season.

On July 17, 2026, USCIS announced that it received enough petitions to meet both the regular H-1B cap of 65,000 visas and the additional allocation of 20,000 visas under the U.S. advanced-degree exemption, commonly known as the master’s cap.

Will There Be a Second FY 2027 H-1B Lottery?

No. Because USCIS received enough petitions to satisfy both allocations, the agency will not conduct another H-1B registration selection for FY 2027. Registrations that were not selected during the initial selection process will not receive another opportunity for selection this cap season.

Employers and immigration counsel should begin seeing the remaining registrations in their USCIS organizational accounts change from “Submitted” to “Not Selected.” This status confirms that the registration is no longer eligible to support the filing of an FY 2027 cap-subject H-1B petition.

No action is required for registrations that were not selected. The status updates simply close out the FY 2027 H-1B cap season for those registrations.

FY 2027 H-1B Registration Numbers

USCIS previously reported that 211,600 registrations were properly submitted for FY 2027. This represents a decrease of approximately 38.5% from the 343,981 eligible registrations submitted for FY 2026.

The FY 2027 cap season was the first conducted under the new weighted H-1B selection process. Under that system, beneficiaries received between one and four entries in the selection pool based on the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics wage level associated with the offered position:

• Level I: one entry;
• Level II: two entries;
• Level III: three entries; and
• Level IV: four entries.

Although USCIS has released the overall FY 2027 registration total, it has not yet released complete statistics showing the number of selections or selection rates at each wage level. Those figures will provide a clearer picture of how the weighted H-1B lottery affected outcomes across the four wage levels.

By: Adena Bowman

Adena Bowman is a Senior Associate Attorney at Reddy Neumann Brown PC with over 12 years of experience in U.S. immigration law. She helps clients ranging from small businesses to large multinational corporations bring workers to the U.S. and stay compliant with immigration regulations. She also guides individual clients through employment, investment, and family-based immigration matters. Clients rely on her for clear guidance, strategic planning, and personalized support in navigating complex immigration challenges.