美国公民及移民服务局（USCIS）近日宣布，2026财年H-1B签证申请的初始注册期将于2025年3月7日中午12点（东部时间）开启，并于2025年3月24日中午12点（东部时间）截止。此次H-1B申请周期不仅延续了电子注册流程，还引入了新的抽签机制和更严格的监管规则，以提高公平性和防止滥用。

H-1B 申请流程概览

申请H-1B签证的雇主及其法律代表需通过USCIS在线系统提交电子注册，并支付每位受益人$215的注册费。在注册窗口结束后，USCIS将对符合条件的受益人进行随机抽选，并计划在2025年3月31日前通过在线账户通知获选者。

新规生效：H-1B抽签机制与流程重大调整

2026财年起，USCIS正式实施以受益人为中心的H-1B抽签流程，旨在减少以往存在的“多家雇主为同一申请人提交多次注册”的问题。

关键变化包括：

• 单一受益人唯一注册：每位H-1B申请人无论由多少雇主提名，都只能被计算一次，大幅降低“多重注册”操纵抽签的可能性。


• 新规避免恶意操纵：USCIS强调，任何企图规避新规、通过多个注册增加中签概率的行为将受到严厉审查。


• 随机抽选优化：此次改革将确保每位受益人享有平等的抽签机会，提高中签机制的公平性。

缴费限额调整与电子注册优化

美国财政部为配合H-1B申请季，暂时提高信用卡支付限额，每日信用卡交易上限由**$24,999.99提高至$99,999.99**，以满足雇主大规模注册需求。同时，USCIS对电子注册系统进行了优化，包括：

• 助理可同时协助多个法律代表，增强协作灵活性。


• 自动填充部分I-129表格字段，减少人工输入错误。


• 支持批量上传H-1B受益人数据，简化雇主提交流程。

F-1签证持有者Cap-Gap期限延长

对于F-1签证持有者，此次调整还带来了一个重大利好。DHS（国土安全部）宣布，Cap-Gap期限将从10月1日延长至次年4月1日，确保H-1B申请人在身份转换期间能够继续合法工作。

雇主与申请人的应对建议

1. 提前注册：建议雇主尽早完成USCIS账户创建，并确保所提交的受益人信息准确无误。


2. 合规申请：雇主需遵守单一受益人唯一注册的规定，避免违规行为导致申请无效。


3. 关注最新动态：密切留意USCIS官网，以获取官方指南和重要通知。

结语

2026财年H-1B申请窗口即将开启，面对新规的实施和抽签流程的重大调整，雇主和申请人需提前做好准备，以确保符合新的合规要求。关注H-1B政策变动并积极应对，将有助于提高申请的成功率。

更多详细信息可访问USCIS官网：https://www.uscis.gov。

 

Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 7 and run through noon Eastern on March 24, 2025. 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.

Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $215 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.

If you are an H-1B petitioning employer who does not have a USCIS online account, you will need to create an organizational account. If you are an H-1B petitioning employer who had an H-1B registrant account for the FY 2021 – FY 2024 H-1B registration seasons, but you did not use the account for FY 2025, your existing account will be converted to an organizational account after your next log in. First-time registrants can create an account at any time. You can find additional information and resources on the organizational accounts, including a link to step-by-step videos, on the Organizational Accounts Frequently Asked Questions page. These FAQs will be updated with FY 2026 information before the start of the initial registration period.

Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 7 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $215 fee. Selections take place after the initial registration period closes, so there is no requirement to register on the day the initial registration period opens.

The FY 2026 H-1B cap will use the beneficiary-centric selection process launched in FY 2025. Under the beneficiary-centric process, registrations are selected by unique beneficiary rather than by registration. If we receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries by March 24, we will randomly select unique beneficiaries and send selection notifications via users’ USCIS online accounts. If we do not receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries, all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period will be selected. We intend to notify by March 31 prospective petitioners and representatives whose accounts have at least one registration selected.

The U.S. Department of Treasury has approved a temporary increase in the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99 per day for the FY 2026 H-1B cap season. This temporary increase is in response to the volume of previous H-1B registrations that exceeded the daily credit card limit.  Transactions more than $99,999.99 may be made via Automated Clearing House (ACH). Use of ACH may require the payor to alert their bank in advance to remove any potential ACH block on their account. We will provide additional information before the start of the initial H-1B registration period.

An H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was selected in the H-1B registration process. Additional information on the electronic registration process is available on the H-1B Electronic Registration Process page.

Organizational Account Enhancements for FY 2026

For FY 2026, we have made multiple enhancements for organizational and representative accounts for H-1B filing. These enhancements include:

• The ability for paralegals to work with more than one legal representative. A paralegal will now be able to accept invitations from multiple legal representative accounts, allowing them to prepare H-1B registrations, Form I-129 H-1B petitions, and Form I-907 requests for premium processing for different attorneys, all within one paralegal account;


• An easier way for legal representatives to add paralegals to company clients.


• Pre-population of certain Form I-129 fields from selected H-1B registrations; and


• The ability to prepare a spreadsheet of H-1B beneficiary data and upload the information to pre-populate data in H-1B registrations.

These enhancements will be live before the start of the initial registration period.