U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Friday that the H-1B visa program has reached its cap for fiscal year 2027. The agency accepted 65,000 applications through the regular quota and an additional 20,000 through the U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the master's cap.

Not all H-1B nonimmigrant visas are subject to this annual cap, as USCIS has clarified; for example, applicants working in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam may be exempt.

The Trump administration added several obstacles to the H-1B visa program, which primarily targets positions requiring "highly specialized knowledge."

In September of last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed updating the visa application screening process by giving higher-paying applications more lottery chances, aiming to incentivize employers to offer higher wages and hire more skilled workers, DHS said. The proposal coincided with President Trump's announced policy of adding a $100,000 fee to H-1B visa applications, which sparked lawsuits from the business community.

Last month, a judge ruled that Trump did not have the authority to tax the program, and the $100,000 fee was therefore struck down.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced in September of last year, alongside the fee policy, an enforcement initiative called "Project Firewall," aimed at protecting the rights and wages of American workers and "maximizing compliance with the H-1B visa program." The initiative includes prioritizing investigations into cases where American workers may have been displaced or not considered in favor of H-1B workers.

Despite these efforts, many large employers still heavily use the visa program. USCIS data shows that Amazon was the employer with the most approved applications, with nearly 5,000 beneficiaries. Apple, Google, Meta, and JPMorgan Chase also ranked among the top ten companies with the most approved applications.