USCIS published a new edition of Form I-129 (edition date 02/27/26) on February 27, 2026, and starting April 1, 2026, will accept only the 02/27/26 edition. The revision aligns with the new H-1B wage-weighted selection process for FY 2027 and affects every practitioner filing nonimmigrant worker petitions across all I-129 visa categories.
What changed
USCIS published a new edition of Form I-129 (edition date 02/27/26) on February 27, 2026. Starting April 1, 2026, USCIS will accept only the 02/27/26 edition. Until then, you can also use the 01/20/25 edition.
The primary driver for this revision is the new H-1B wage-weighted lottery system. The latest revision to Form I-129 (edition 02/27/26) is to implement the H-1B Wage-Weighted Selection rule, which replaces the traditional random lottery with a system that prioritizes higher-paid and higher-skilled workers. The February 2026 revision includes new questions in the H-1B supplement requiring detailed information about minimum position requirements.
Why it matters
The April 1, 2026 deadline creates a hard cutover date. USCIS will reject the 01/20/25 edition of Form I-129 if it is received on or after April 1, 2026. Practices that continue to use outdated templates will face automatic rejections, not requests for evidence—a complete loss of filing fees and processing time.
For H-1B filers in particular, the wage-weighted system directly affects petition likelihood. Effective February 27, 2026, USCIS implemented a weighted selection process for the FY 2027 H-1B cap season. This new system gives higher weight to registrations with higher wage levels, replacing the previous random lottery. The new form requires you to document the position’s minimum wage level and qualification requirements with precision—vague or inconsistent LCA / I-129 wage descriptions will be caught by USCIS, and mismatch between them creates an RFE.
Non-H-1B categories (L-1, O-1, P, E, TN, etc.) also file on Form I-129, so your entire employment-based intake process must transition to the new edition by the deadline.
Way forward
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Download the new edition immediately from https://www.uscis.gov/i-129 and verify the edition date 02/27/26 at the bottom of every page. Discard all printed or cached copies of the 01/20/25 edition.
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Update your practice templates and checklists to reflect the new H-1B supplement fields on wage levels and position requirements. Brief staff on the April 1 deadline.
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For H-1B registrations and petitions: Cross-check your Labor Condition Application wage level against the Form I-129 supplement wage-level fields. Inconsistency triggers denials. The new form enforces alignment that the old one did not.
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Verify the edition date on every filing before mailing or uploading. If you complete and print this form to mail it, make sure that the form edition date and page numbers are visible at the bottom of all pages and that all pages are from the same form edition. If any of the form’s pages are missing or are from a different form edition, USCIS may reject your form.
Disclaimer
This article is not legal advice and does not establish an attorney–client relationship. We are a software company, not a law firm. Consult a licensed immigration attorney to evaluate your specific circumstances and ensure full compliance with the I-129 rules. Policy and form editions can change without notice; always verify the current edition and instructions at https://www.uscis.gov/i-129 before filing.