H-1B visa lottery set to favour higher earners, US confirms

The US section of Homeland certificate has finalised a find replacing the random H-1B visa drawing with a weighted selection treat that prioritises higher-paid and higher-skilled foreign workers, a change expected to make it significantly harder for entry-level professionals, particularly from India, to secure American work visas.

The final rule, announced on Tuesday and effective February 27, 2026, will govern the allocation of approximately 85,000 H-1B visas annually beginning with the fiscal 2027 registration season. Under the new system, applications for higher-paid workers will receive greater weight in the selection process, while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels.

“The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by US employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser. “The new weighted selection will better serve Congress’ intent for the H-1B programme and strengthen America’s competitiveness by incentivising American employers to petition for higher-paid, higher-skilled foreign workers.”

The change marks a fundamental restructuring of how America allocates work visas to foreign professionals. The government has used a random lottery to select which applications would be processed when demand exceeded the annual cap.

“This change matters because it fundamentally reshapes who gets access to the H-1B program. By weighing selection toward higher wages and senior roles, DHS is signaling that early-career and lower-paid professionals are far less likely to be selected. Younger, earlier-stage foreign nationals will likely feel the impact most, since many rely on the H-1B as their first long-term foothold in the U.S. Workforce,” says Nicole Gurnara, principal immigration attorney at Manifest Law. Gurnana adds that professionals with post-graduate careers or substantial foreign work experience will also benefit who will command higher wages.

The H-1B programme allows US companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that typically require at least a bachelor’s degree. The annual allocation includes 65,000 visas for workers with bachelor’s degrees and an additional 20,000 reserved for those with advanced degrees from US institutions.

Indian nationals account for more than 70% of H-1B visas issued annually, making them the demographic most affected by the policy shift. Critics of the random lottery system, including conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, have argued that the programme was being used to import entry-level workers from India and China in their mid-20s, many paid below-median wages, rather than filling specialised roles requiring unique expertise.

“Having a wage-based lottery system would decrease total demand for skilled immigration, particularly affecting aspiring immigrants who are entry-level workers,” said Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley-based immigration lawyer who works with Indian professionals on H-1B visas, when the change was first proposed in September.

The homeland security department first announced its intention to implement the weighted selection process on September 23, 2025, opening a public comment period on the proposed rule. The final rule released on Tuesday incorporates feedback from that process while maintaining the core wage-based weighting mechanism.

Under current law, US employers must file a Labor Condition Application with the department of labor committing to pay H-1B workers at least the prevailing wage — a government-established benchmark reflecting typical pay for a given occupation in a specific geographic area. This requirement is designed to prevent foreign hires from undercutting American workers’ wages.

The rule represents the latest in a series of restrictions the Trump administration has imposed on employment-based immigration. In September, President Donald Trump imposed a $100,000 (approx ₹85 lakh) fee on new H-1B visa petitions for workers outside the United States. The labour department also launched Project Firewall, an enforcement initiative that has opened at least 175 investigations into potential H-1B programme abuses, uncovering more than $15 million (approx ₹127.5 crore) in calculated back wages owed to workers.

The DHS has also eliminated automatic extensions of employment authorisation documents for foreign workers with pending renewal applications, a change affecting H-1B workers’ spouses and others awaiting green card processing.

Technology companies are the largest users of the H-1B programme. The policy changes have created uncertainty for both employers and foreign workers, with some companies advising employees against international travel due to visa processing delays.

“As part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to H-1B reform, we will continue to demand more from both employers and aliens so as not to undercut American workers and to put America first,” Tragesser said.

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