H-1B Cap Season is quickly approaching. Registration for this year’s lottery will open in March 2026. If you are interested in sponsoring your employee(s) in this year’s lottery, please contact SKO to have their case reviewed for eligibility.
WHAT IS H-1B STATUS?
H-1B is a widely used professional work visa available to noncitizens for employment in the U.S. H-1B requires employer sponsorship. The employment must be in a specialty occupation that requires a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education to enter the field in the U.S. Examples of fields for which H-1B is appropriate include computer science, engineering, chemistry, quantitative data analysis and certain financial fields.
WHAT IS THE H-1B CAP?
Each year there is a limit of 65,000 H-1B’s for bachelor’s degree cases with an additional 20,000 for persons with U.S. master’s degrees or higher. Since more individuals seek H-1B’s than there are numbers available, H-1B’s are allocated through a lottery system. *Preference in the lottery will now be given to jobs with advanced credentials and higher wages.* Registration for the lottery will open in March 2026.
WHO SHOULD APPLY?
If you wish to employ or continue to employ a noncitizen for a professional position and they have never been in H-1B status before, we recommend contacting SKO as soon as possible so we can review their case for potential H-1B status.
We strongly recommend considering foreign nationals who are currently employed on F-1 OPT or STEM OPT (work status obtained following graduation from an institution of higher learning), as they have a limited number of chances to be selected in the lottery.
Note: There is a new $100,000 H-1B supplemental fee that applies in certain cases. This fee does not apply to individuals who are in the United States in valid nonimmigrant status and request a change of status to H-1B at the time the petition is filed. The fee does apply, however, to individuals who are outside the United States at the time of filing or who must obtain an H-1B visa through consular processing before beginning H-1B employment.
WHAT IS THE PROCESS?
QUESTIONS?
Please contact a member of the SKO Immigration Team:
- Charles Baesler (charles.baesler@skofirm.com)
- Lisa Lui (lisa.lui@skofirm.com)
- Heather Wages (heather.wages@skofirm.com)
