USCIS announces H-1B initial registration period to begin on March 7

The initial registration period for the H-1B visas, the most sought-after by Indian IT professionals, for fiscal 2026 will commence on March 7 and close on March 24, a federal agency has said.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The initial registration period for the most sought-after H-1B visas for foreign guest workers for fiscal 2026 will open at noon Eastern Time (10:30 pm IST) on March 7 and run through noon Eastern Time (10:30 pm IST) on March 24, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Wednesday.

During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives must use a USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated registration fee for each beneficiary, it said.

The registration fee is $215.

The USCIS further said that the FY 2026 H-1B cap will use the beneficiary-centric selection process launched in FY 2025. The US fiscal begins on October 1.

Indians are the main beneficiaries of the H-1B visas, which bring in the best of the talent and brains from across the world. Highly skilled professionals from India walk away with the overwhelming number of H-1B visas - which is Congressional mandated 65,0000 every year and another 20,000 for those who received higher education from the US.

According to USCIS, under the beneficiary-centric process, registrations will be selected by a unique beneficiary rather than by registration. This new process is designed to reduce the potential for fraud and ensure each beneficiary would have the same chance of being selected, regardless of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf by an employer.

If enough unique beneficiaries are received by March 24, then the agency will randomly select unique beneficiaries and send selection notifications via users' USCIS online accounts, it said.

If enough unique beneficiaries were not received, then all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period will be selected, the statement said.