US Plans H-1B Lottery Overhaul to Prioritize Higher Earners(bloomberg.com)
bloomberg.com
US Plans H-1B Lottery Overhaul to Prioritize Higher Earners
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-23/trump-plans-h-1b-lottery-replacement-with-wage-based-rule
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DHS Proposal: Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-
Subject H-1B Petitions [1]
Summary: USCIS would use the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage levels for the relevant job classification (SOC code) and location to determine how many times a registration is entered into the selection pool.
Registrations would be weighted like this:
[1] https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-18473.pdf
Summary: USCIS would use the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage levels for the relevant job classification (SOC code) and location to determine how many times a registration is entered into the selection pool.
Registrations would be weighted like this:
• Wage Level IV → 4 entries
• Wage Level III → 3 entries
• Wage Level II → 2 entries
• Wage Level I → 1 entry
[1] https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-18473.pdf
This makes somewhat more sense than the "charge everyone $100k" plan.
Though using four wage bands, rather than something that would be close to a plain "total compensation adjusted for location cost of living" ordering is still a shortcoming.
Well a high H-1B fee also favours the most needed and highest earning people for roles that can't be filled locally, which, I believe is the purpose of H-1B.
The question is at what point is the fee too high to defeat the purpose and effectively kills this type of visa.
The question is at what point is the fee too high to defeat the purpose and effectively kills this type of visa.
The goal should be to to give the visa to the company/worker pair that will most benefit the US.
One obvious positive signal is compensation. But we also know this will tend to shut out smaller firms since options won’t count.
I would look at allocating some fraction of the visas to small firms that directly hire the candidate (no consultants / body shops) with a pretty low limit per firm.
Also, from the POV of a highly qualified candidate and a company that really needs them, a lottery is a terrible solution. The body shops have no issue spamming the process, they don’t really care about and individual application.
We need a system that allocates better, and removes or reduces the randomness.