H-1B Visa Application: US made a new rule regarding H-1B visa application, now these Indians will get exemption

USCIS said it will continue to accept and process applications that are exempt from this cap through 2026.

H-1B Visa : The US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has said that they have received the required number of H-1B visa applications for the deadline of fiscal year 2026. USCIS has said in its statement that enough applications have been received to achieve the 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and 20,000 H-1B visa advanced degree exemption (master’s degree) set by Parliament. However, the exemption to apply will continue in some cases.

This information is very important for Indians because a large number of US H-1B visa seekers have been from India. The H-1B visa allows employers to hire foreign workers with specific skills and graduate degrees. Indians have consistently dominated the issuance of H-1B visas.

65 thousand cap

The H-1B classification has an annual limit (cap) of 65,000 for new status/visas each fiscal year. An additional 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries who have a master’s degree from a US higher education institution are exempt from this cap. In its new statement, USCIS said that it will continue to accept and process petitions that are exempt from this cap.

According to USCIS, it will continue to accept petitions in certain cases. This includes extending the period of stay of an existing H-1B employee in the US, changing the terms of employment for existing H-1B employees, allowing existing H-1B employees to change employers and allowing existing H-1B employees to work simultaneously in additional H-1B positions.

There has been a decline in 2026

According to the data of the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), it has received 3,43,981 eligible H-1B cap registrations for the 2026 financial year. Of these, there were 7,828 beneficiaries who had multiple eligible registrations. However, the agency selected only 120,141 registrations. In 2025, USCIS received 4,70,342 eligible registrations. Of these, there were 47,314 beneficiaries who had multiple eligible registrations. The agency selected 1,35,137 registrations.

According to USCIS, there has been a 26.9 percent decline in the number of eligible registrations for FY 2026 compared to FY 2025. Overall, we saw an average of 1.01 registrations per beneficiary for FY 2026 this year, compared to 1.06 for FY 2025, USCIS said. This means that on average, about one registration was submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.

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