USCIS Reaches the FY 2027 H-1B Cap: No Second Lottery, and a Weighted System That Keeps Favoring Higher Wages

On July 17, 2026, USCIS confirmed that it had received enough H-1B registrations to meet the FY 2027 cap and would not hold a second selection round this year. That closes out the FY 2027 cap season with the full 85,000 slots spoken for on the first try — but the numbers behind that headline tell a more interesting story about who is winning the lottery, and how many employers even bothered to enter.

What we know

• Announcement date: July 17, 2026
• Total cap filled: 85,000 (65,000 regular cap + 20,000 U.S. advanced-degree exemption)
• Properly submitted registrations: approximately 211,600 unique beneficiaries — down sharply, roughly 38% below the prior cycle's count
• No second selection round for FY 2027
• Filing deadline for selected registrants: June 30, 2026
• Next opportunity to enter the cap: the FY 2028 registration window, expected to open in March 2027

The weighted, wage-level lottery keeps reshaping who gets selected

Since DHS finalized its beneficiary-centric, wage-weighted selection process, registrants are no longer selected with a flat, equal-odds lottery. Beneficiaries tied to higher Department of Labor OEWS wage levels are weighted more heavily in the selection pool, on the theory that this favors higher-paid, more specialized roles. The FY 2027 results show that effect getting stronger: 71.5% of selected beneficiaries held a U.S. master's degree or higher, up from 57% in FY 2026, while only 17.7% of selections fell into the lowest wage tier, OEWS Level 1 — down significantly from prior cycles. In practice, entry-level and lower-offered-wage roles are having a harder time clearing the lottery than they used to, regardless of employer size or industry.

If your registration was not selected

• Your USCIS online account will show the registration as "Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition."
• There is no waitlist and no second round this cap season — unlike some past cycles, unselected registrations do not get another chance to be drawn.
• Registrations do not carry forward: you (or your employer) must submit a brand-new registration during the FY 2028 window, expected to open around March 2027.
• In the meantime, ask about cap-exempt options (universities, nonprofit research organizations, certain government research entities), remaining OPT or STEM OPT time if you are still F-1, or other status categories like O-1, with an immigration attorney.

Why registrations dropped so sharply

Immigration attorneys tracking the cycle point to a mix of likely contributors rather than one single cause: the substantially higher per-registration fee now in place compared to a few years ago, employer caution stemming from the still-unresolved litigation over the separate $100,000 H-1B fee (see our earlier article — that fee is not currently in effect, but the uncertainty alone appears to have discouraged some filings), and the wage-weighted lottery itself, which reduces the incentive for the kind of high-volume, low-wage-registration strategies that inflated registration counts in past cycles.

Bottom line

FY 2027 is now closed: the cap is full, there is no second lottery, and unselected registrants have to wait for the FY 2028 window next spring. The more durable trend is the wage-weighted selection process continuing to tilt outcomes toward higher-paid, advanced-degree beneficiaries — worth factoring in now if you are an OPT or STEM OPT holder mapping out when and how your employer should register you for a future cap season.