H1B FY 2027 Cap Reached: What You Need to Know Right Now
USCIS has hit the fiscal year 2027 H-1B visa cap after just months of petition filing. Here's what it means for your sponsorship strategy and what you can do if you weren't selected.
The Cap Is Closed—What Happens Now
USCIS has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master's cap, for fiscal year 2027. If your registration was selected in the March 2026 lottery and you filed by the June 30 deadline, you're in the queue. If not, secondary selection rounds may occur in summer 2026 as employers miss deadlines—but those slots are limited.
The Wage-Weighted Lottery Changed Everything
Unlike previous years, USCIS will implement a weighted selection process that prioritizes higher-skilled and higher-paid beneficiaries. Under this system, each registered foreign national will be entered in the lottery a number of times consistent with the prevailing wage level their salary offer meets or exceeds in the DOL system. Foreign nationals with a salary offer that reaches Level IV in DOL's system would receive 4 entries; foreign nationals with a salary offer reaching Level III would receive 3 entries; and so on.
What does this mean in practice? Level IV roles enjoy a 61% selection rate compared to just 15% for entry-level positions. If your offer is pegged to a lower prevailing wage level, your odds dropped significantly in 2026.
Prevailing Wage Rules Are Tightening—And Rising
In March 2026, DOL published a proposed rule that will significantly raise the required prevailing wage and make it more expensive to hire H-1B visa holders and sponsor employment-based immigrants. More specifically, the proposed rule will increase required minimum salaries by 21% to 33%, depending on a worker's experience level.
But there's a compliance trap: USCIS is sending Requests for Evidence challenging wage levels on certified labor condition applications, even when employers use the labor condition application wage calculation worksheet. Not only does this go beyond USCIS jurisdiction, but their adjudicators do not have any training, nor do they use the tools provided by DOL to make the proper determination.
The $100,000 Fee: Who Actually Pays It
If a petitioner has their registration selected and is eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition, they may need to pay an additional $100,000 fee before filing the H-1B petition as a condition of eligibility. However, the fee will not apply to the subsequently filed H-1B petition, if the petition requests a change of status for a foreign national who is inside the United States, and the beneficiary is granted that request. So, employers sponsoring international students in F-1 status with OPT, or foreign nationals with another work-authorized visa status, will not have to pay the fee, as long as the change of status request is approved.
This has reshaped employer hiring strategy: a $100,000 supplemental fee for overseas hires has led employers to focus on hiring F-1 OPT candidates already in the U.S.
What Employers Are Actually Sponsoring Now
Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft lead with over 130,000 approvals annually. AI, machine learning, and semiconductor roles are in high demand. Amazon is the largest H-1B visa sponsor, with 10,044 approvals, which shows how actively it hires international talent. The company mainly offers H-1B roles in fields like software development, data science, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.
In consulting and finance, the story is different. Firms such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are prioritizing tech-driven roles, with a focus on quantitative and AI expertise. And if you're considering IT services firms like Infosys or Cognizant, wages skew lower (often Level 1 or 2) and the work model means you can change project assignments frequently—which means your lottery odds are slim under the new system.
Your Action Items for the Rest of 2026
If you were selected: You've already filed or should have by June 30. Prepare for closer scrutiny on specialty occupation claims and wage-level documentation. Enforcement has tightened across USCIS and the Department of Labor, with closer scrutiny of specialty occupation claims, prevailing wage compliance, and Labor Condition Application attestations.
If you weren't selected: Watch for secondary lottery rounds in July or August. Look for cap-exempt employers if the lottery is the bottleneck. Universities, university-affiliated nonprofits, and qualifying research organizations can file H-1B petitions year-round without going through the lottery. If you missed the registration window or weren't selected, this is the cleanest workaround.
For future cycles: Target roles at Level III or IV prevailing wage if possible. If you are targeting jobs with H-1B sponsorship in 2026, aiming for senior or specialized roles is now a practical strategy, not just career advice. Position yourself for OPT if you're an F-1 student—it saves employers the $100,000 fee and improves your odds.