Higher pay, higher odds: US overhauls H-1B lottery in favour of top earners - how it works

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is making a significant change to the H-1B visa selection process, implementing a wage-based weighted lottery system aimed at favoring higher-paid and higher-skilled applicants for the H-1B visas in the FY 2027 registration season.

The DHS, in its draft document, clarifies the purpose of the new rule: "The purpose of this rule is to allow DHS to implement the numerical cap in a way that incentivizes employers to offer higher wages, or to petition for positions requiring higher skills and higher-skilled aliens, that are commensurate with higher wage levels."

According to the new process, when random selection is needed due to receiving more applications than expected, USCIS will conduct a weighted selection process. The selection will be "generally based on each beneficiary's equivalent wage level."

The registration for wage level IV (highest) applicants, for example, will be entered into the pool four times, whereas wage level I (lowest) applicants will only be entered once.

"Each unique beneficiary will only be counted once toward the numerical allocation projections, regardless of how many registrations were submitted for that beneficiary or how many times the beneficiary is entered in the selection pool," the document states.

This change aims to disincentivise abuse of the program by companies that currently use H-1B visas for lower-paid, lower-skilled positions, which DHS describes as a "significant problem" under the present system.

The department further clarified: "This weighted selection process will generally favor the allocation of H-1B visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens, while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels, to better serve the congressional intent for the H1B program."

"Moreover, it will disincentivize abuse of the H-1B program to fill relatively lower-paid, lower-skilled positions, which is a significant problem under the present H1B program," it stated.

The DHS also noted that while the system will continue to use random selection, the wage-based weighting will prioritise applicants with higher-paying roles. The goal is to encourage employers to offer more competitive wages for roles requiring specialized talent.