Washington, D.C. — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has changed the H-1B visa lottery system drastically by going no further with a random process and adopting a wage-based selection method. The rule published on December 29, 2025, will take effect on February 27, 2026, ahead of the fiscal year 2027 H-1B cap registration season.
The new method will involve registrations merged into one pool but weighted according to wage levels supplied by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Higher wage brackets will get multiple entries, thus significantly raising their chance of being picked:
Level IV (highest wage): 4 entries
Level III: 3 entries
Level II: 2 entries
Level I (entry-level): 1 entry
The officials emphasize the fact that the reform is aimed at eliminating petitions for low-paid jobs and simultaneously inspiring employers to engage more skilled and highly paid foreign workers. However, most of the immigration lawyers argue that the wage structure depends on the nature of the job as well as its geographic location. Moreover, the above-mentioned wage structure reveals the truth that some highly paid workers may still belong to lower wage groups.
To claim their wage level is realistic, employers have to provide multiple pieces of evidence in support of their claims. However, if USCIS found any inconsistencies in the documents provided by the employers, they have reserved the right to take action against them.
Professional lawyers advised the companies that they should double-check the job descriptions and rematch wage data during the registration as well as petition phases. Employers in lower-wage regions may find themselves at a disadvantage since USCIS declined proposals to equalize wages at the national level.
This policy shift is after a statement by Donald Trump that introduced a fee of $100,000 for H-1B petitions to be filed abroad and is aligned with the Department of Labor’s new regulations for increasing the wage levels of prevailing jobs. Experts have claimed, that this act is probably the most profound and significant change to the H-1B program that we have seen in decades.