The H-1B lottery decides, before any petition is ever filed, whether your employer even gets a chance to sponsor you. Our general H-1B guide covers the visa end to end; this page goes deep on just the registration and selection mechanics — because the rules changed meaningfully for the FY2027 cap season, and most explanations online are still describing the old random lottery.
Registration vs. petition: two different things
Employers don’t file a full H-1B petition to enter the lottery. They file a much shorter electronic registration — basic information about the employer and the beneficiary, plus a $215 fee per beneficiary — during a designated window each year. Only registrations selected in that lottery ever proceed to a full Form I-129 petition. This two-step design exists because demand for the 85,000 annual cap slots (65,000 regular + 20,000 for US master’s degree holders) routinely runs at 2-4x supply, and USCIS doesn’t want employers assembling full petition packages for candidates who have no chance of being picked. Full details on the process sit on USCIS’s H-1B Electronic Registration Process page.
FY2027 cap season: the actual dates
For the FY2027 cap (workers starting October 1, 2026):
- Registration window: noon Eastern, March 4, 2026 through noon Eastern, March 19, 2026.
- Selection notifications: USCIS intended to notify selected registrants by March 31, 2026.
- Petition filing period: opened April 1, 2026, giving selected employers roughly 90 days to file the complete I-129 petition (the exact window is stated in each selection notice).
- Earliest possible start date: October 1, 2026 — the start of the federal fiscal year, and the earliest date USCIS will approve a cap-subject H-1B to begin work.
USCIS confirmed these dates in its own alert, FY 2027 H-1B Cap Initial Registration Period Opens on March 4. If you’re reading this after the FY2027 window has closed, the FY2028 cycle will follow a similar March-opening pattern — but confirm exact dates on USCIS.gov before assuming anything carries over.
The lottery just changed: wage-weighted selection is now final, not proposed
This is the single most important update for anyone researching the H-1B lottery in 2026, and a lot of older content still gets it wrong. DHS proposed weighting selection by wage level back in September 2025. That proposal is no longer just a proposal — DHS published a final rule in the Federal Register on December 29, 2025, and it took effect February 27, 2026, in time for the FY2027 cap season described above. You can read the rule text directly at the Federal Register: Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions.
Here’s how the math actually works. Every registration is tied to a Department of Labor prevailing-wage level for the offered role (Level I through Level IV, based on the position’s SOC code and geographic area). Instead of one entry per beneficiary in a flat random draw, each registration now gets a number of “entries” in the selection pool matching its wage level:
- Level IV (highest wage) — 4 entries
- Level III — 3 entries
- Level II — 2 entries
- Level I (entry-level wage) — 1 entry
USCIS still draws randomly from the pool, but a Level IV registration is mathematically four times more likely to be drawn than a Level I registration for an otherwise identical role. This applies separately within both the regular 65,000 cap and the 20,000 master’s-cap pool. The rule text makes no other changes to eligibility — it only changes the odds math. Multiple registrations for the same beneficiary by different, non-colluding employers are still allowed and are still treated as separate entries, but submitting duplicate registrations for the same beneficiary by the same employer or related entities remains prohibited and can result in denial or referral for fraud investigation.
Practical effect: if your employer has discretion over how a role is wage-leveled (job duties, required experience, degree requirements all factor into DOL’s wage determination), that decision now directly affects your lottery odds — not just your eventual pay. It’s worth a conversation with your employer’s immigration counsel about whether the role’s leveling reflects the actual duties accurately, since under- or over-leveling both carry consequences beyond the lottery.
Beneficiary-centric selection: one person, one shot per year
Since the FY2025 cap season, USCIS selects by unique beneficiary, not by registration. If five different employers register the same person, USCIS treats that as one entry into the selection pool for that person (weighted per the rules above) — not five separate chances. If that person is selected, every employer that registered them can proceed to file a petition for that same beneficiary, but being registered multiple times no longer multiplies your odds. This closed a loophole from years when a beneficiary registered by many affiliated shell entities had disproportionately high odds of selection.
Multiple selection rounds
USCIS does not always fill the cap in the first round. If the number of petitions actually filed after initial selection falls short of the 85,000 cap, USCIS can run additional selection rounds later in the fiscal year, drawing again from previously submitted (but not yet selected) registrations. This has happened in several recent cap seasons, so a registration not chosen in the initial March draw is not necessarily dead for that fiscal year — check your USCIS online account periodically rather than assuming a non-selection is final.
Cap-exempt employers: no lottery at all
Not every H-1B goes through this process. Petitions filed by or on behalf of the following employers are exempt from the annual cap and can be filed year-round without registering in the lottery:
- Institutions of higher education.
- Nonprofit organizations affiliated with a university.
- Nonprofit or governmental research organizations.
- Certain physicians filing based on prior J-1 waiver work in underserved areas.
If you’re moving between a cap-exempt employer and a cap-subject one, or your current H-1B was originally approved under a cap-exemption, the rules around whether you need to re-enter the lottery are fact-specific — this is a case to review with immigration counsel rather than assume either way based on your prior status.
After selection: what actually happens next
Selection is not approval. Once selected:
- File the complete I-129 petition within the window USCIS specifies (typically around 90 days from the start of the petition filing period) — including the certified Labor Condition Application, the specialty-occupation case, and all supporting fees.
- Respond to Requests for Evidence (RFEs) if USCIS issues one — common triggers include weak specialty-occupation arguments, off-site or third-party placement arrangements, and wage-level inconsistencies (which now carry more scrutiny given the wage-weighted selection rule).
- Wait for approval or, for candidates changing status inside the US, use premium processing if timing is tight — a 15-calendar-day decision guarantee is available for an additional fee.
- Start date: cap-subject H-1B status cannot begin before October 1 of the relevant fiscal year, regardless of when the petition is approved. F-1 students already in the US get an automatic cap-gap extension of their status and work authorization from April 1 through September 30 (or the approved start date if earlier) so they don’t fall out of status while waiting — covered in more depth in our STEM OPT extension guide and OPT 90-day unemployment rule guide if you’re bridging from student status.
If your petition isn’t selected or is denied, your options are re-registering in a future cap season, pursuing a cap-exempt role, or exploring alternative categories — our H-1B to green card guide covers what happens on the other end for those who do get through the lottery and want to plan the long-term path.
FAQ
How much does H-1B registration cost in 2026? $215 per beneficiary, paid electronically at the time of registration by the sponsoring employer. This is separate from — and much smaller than — the full petition filing fees paid later if selected.
Does a higher salary guarantee H-1B selection? No. It improves your odds under the wage-weighted system (up to 4x more entries at Level IV versus Level I) but selection is still a random draw from a weighted pool, not a ranked list.
Can I register myself for the H-1B lottery? No. Only US employers (or their authorized representatives) can submit registrations, and a job offer must exist first — there’s no individual or self-sponsored registration.
What happens if my registration isn’t selected? You can be registered again in a future year’s cap season, or your employer can look into cap-exempt options, additional selection rounds later in the same fiscal year, or alternative visa categories such as O-1 or L-1.
Is the wage-weighted rule definitely permanent? It’s a published final rule in effect as of February 27, 2026, not a proposal — but any federal regulation can be challenged in court or revised by a future rulemaking. Confirm its status on USCIS.gov before relying on it for a filing years out.
None of this is legal advice — registration dates, fees, and the weighted-selection mechanics are set by federal rule and can change with little notice. Confirm the current cap-season dates, fees, and any pending litigation over the weighted-selection rule directly with USCIS or your employer’s immigration counsel before making filing decisions. VisaMet is building tools to help applicants track cap-season dates and prepare documentation ahead of registration — join the waitlist for early access.
Sources: USCIS — H-1B Electronic Registration Process, USCIS — FY 2027 H-1B Cap Initial Registration Period Opens on March 4, Federal Register — Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions (Dec. 29, 2025), USCIS — H-1B Cap Season.