The H-1B cap lottery is the selection process USCIS runs when employers submit more registrations than there are cap numbers. The annual cap is 85,000: 65,000 regular numbers plus 20,000 reserved for beneficiaries with a U.S. master's degree or higher. Two rules now shape the odds — the beneficiary-centric system, under which a person counts once regardless of how many employers register them, and the wage-weighted selection rule that took effect on February 27, 2026, under which a registration receives between one and four entries depending on the wage level the offered salary meets.
Status as of July 24, 2026. The FY 2027 cycle is closed: USCIS announced on July 17, 2026 that it had received enough petitions to reach the cap, so there will be no second selection round this year. It was the first cycle run under the weighted rule, and registration volume fell sharply — 211,600 registrations against 343,981 the year before, with USCIS reporting that 71.5% of selected beneficiaries hold U.S. advanced degrees, up from 57% for FY 2026. Separately, the $100,000 fee imposed by the September 2025 proclamation on certain new petitions requiring consular processing remains in litigation: a district court vacated it on June 8, 2026, briefly stayed its own order, and on July 24, 2026 the First Circuit declined to stay that ruling pending appeal. Parallel challenges are pending elsewhere, and the position can change quickly.
How selection works under the weighted rule
DHS published the final rule on December 29, 2025, replacing the purely random draw beginning with the FY 2027 cap season. Each unique beneficiary is placed in the pool with a number of entries tied to the highest Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage level that the proffered wage meets or exceeds — one entry at the lowest level, up to four at the highest. Entry-level positions are not excluded; their relative odds are lower than before.
The beneficiary-centric structure from the 2024 rule is preserved on top of that: each person is selected once, and where several employers register the same beneficiary at different wage levels, the lowest of those levels governs the number of entries. The order of the draws is unchanged — the regular cap runs first, and registrations for beneficiaries with a qualifying U.S. advanced degree that were not selected go into the master's cap draw afterwards.
The rule also changed what employers must state at registration: the SOC occupation code, the area of intended employment, and the highest OEWS wage level the offered salary meets. A revised Form I-129 requiring additional disclosures about the terms of employment was introduced alongside it.
The cycle, step by step
USCIS announces the registration window at least 30 days in advance and keeps it open for a minimum of 14 days; registrations are submitted through a myUSCIS organizational account with a fee of $215 per beneficiary. For FY 2027 the window ran from March 4 to March 19, 2026, with selection notices issued through employers' online accounts by the end of March.
A selected registration gives the employer a 90-day window to file the cap petition — April 1 through June 30, 2026 for FY 2027 — and employment in H-1B status could begin no earlier than October 1, 2026. Selection is permission to file, not an approval: the petition is still adjudicated on the specialty occupation requirements, the beneficiary's qualifications, and the wage. If USCIS receives enough petitions to reach the cap, as it did on July 17, 2026, no further rounds are run that year.
Who is outside the lottery entirely
Cap-exempt employers — institutions of higher education, related or affiliated nonprofit entities, nonprofit research organizations, and governmental research organizations — file outside the annual cap and outside the registration cycle. Extensions, amendments, and changes of employer for a worker already counted against the cap are also outside it, which is what makes the transfer route independent of lottery season; that mechanism is covered in the piece on the H-1B transfer. The broader category, including status, dependents, and the path onward, is in the H-1B section.
What are the chances of being selected?
There is no fixed rate: the odds depend on how many registrations are submitted that year and, since FY 2027, on how many entries a registration receives. USCIS has not published a selection rate for FY 2027; for FY 2026, roughly 120,000 selections were made against about 354,000 eligible registrations. Because the weighted rule assigns more entries to higher wage levels, two registrations in the same year no longer carry the same probability.
Does registering with several employers improve the odds?
No. Under the beneficiary-centric rule, a person is entered once no matter how many employers submit registrations for them, and all registrants are notified if that beneficiary is selected. Under the weighted rule, multiple registrations at different wage levels do not add entries either — the lowest wage level among them applies.
What happens if a registration is not selected?
Nothing is filed and no cap petition can be submitted for that beneficiary that year unless USCIS runs an additional round, which it did not do for FY 2027 or FY 2026. The remaining routes are cap-exempt employment, another nonimmigrant category, or waiting for the next registration season.
Is the $100,000 fee payable now?
Its status is unsettled. The fee applied to certain new petitions for beneficiaries abroad requiring consular processing — not to change-of-status filings, extensions, or amendments. A district court vacated it in June 2026, the order was briefly stayed, and on July 24, 2026 the First Circuit declined to stay the vacatur pending appeal, with related cases pending in other courts. Anyone with a filing potentially affected checks the current posture before acting, with counsel.