H-1B visa cap registration to start on March 7 with massive fee hike

The H-1B visa cap registration period for the fiscal year 2025-26 will commence on March 7 and close on March 24. This year, employers sponsoring H-1B visa applicants will reportedly have to pay a higher fee for the E-registration process.

After the hike, this year’s fee is $125 per beneficiary, which is much higher than last year’s fee of $10, according to a Times of India report.

This increase in registration costs, along with the beneficiary-centric registration and selection process, is part of efforts introduced by the Biden administration.

The efforts were introduced by the previous US government to enhance the integrity of the H-1B visa program.

What are the key changes in the H-1B visa registration process?

The beneficiary-centric approach, first used for the registration and lottery process in 2026, will probably be carried forward in 2026 also as per the reports.

Under this system, every beneficiary is entered into the lottery only once, irrespective of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf.

This process takes the passport number of each beneficiary into consideration, which serves as a unique identifier and hence tracks the number of lottery attempts.

This was done to prevent multiple entries for the same individual, which reduces the potential for gaming the system.

What is the H-1B visa registration and lottery process?

According to reports, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will receive more than 85,000 H-1B registrations, more than the annual cap.

The USCIS will then conduct a lottery at the end of the registration period to choose enough beneficiaries to meet the 65,000 annual cap.

This process is followed by random selection from the same pool of registrations of the US advanced degree holders who were not selected initially. It gives them a second shot in the lottery process.

H-1B visa modernisation rules apply for 2026

New H-1B visa modernisation rules, which came into effect from January 17 for the registration and selection process.

It is issued under the Biden administration last couple of weeks which changes the definition of the term of specialty occupation giving sponsoring employers options of working at convenience for employers.

In these modernisation rules, considerations emerge, specifically related to companies like IT services or consultancies as those tend to work out client-site postings with most H-1B employees.

Under the modernised rules, the client’s requirements—rather than the sponsoring employer’s—will be the key factor in determining whether the position qualifies as a speciality occupation.