The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency has completed the FY 2026 H-1B visa lottery for employees who will begin working October 1, 2025. Any employer selected in the lottery may file an H-1B petition (a Form I-129) and accompanying documents for the selected beneficiary by the end of June. USCIS notified all selected petitioner employers via email and their my.uscis.gov accounts.
The H-1B visa program is intended to help American companies deal with labor shortages in highly specialized fields by issuing visas to foreign workers in occupations that require specialized knowledge — most commonly computing, science, math, and engineering. The number of H-1B visas is limited by statute, and demand often exceeds supply. Therefore, USCIS uses an annual lottery to decide which employers may apply for an H-1B visa on behalf of a foreign employee.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, can read more here.