DHS plans to tilt H-1B lottery toward higher-paying jobs

Higher-skilled and higher-paid workers would get a leg up for H-1B visas under a new plan from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Each year, there are 65,000 new visas available under the H-1B program for in-demand foreign workers with specialized skills, such as software developers, engineers, healthcare professionals and architects. An additional 20,000 H-1B visas are available for foreign nationals holding a master’s degree or higher from a US university.

Employers seeking H-1B visas must electronically register each candidate. If the number of registrations exceeds the H-1B quota, the DHS’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) runs a lottery.

Currently, that lottery is random. But now the DHS is proposing to change the lottery to weight registrations based on beneficiaries’ equivalent wage levels.

Specifically, the revised method of H-1B quota allocation would be based on the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage levels. Beneficiaries registered for the lottery would be entered into the selection pool using a weighted system based on their proffered wage (meaning the wage the employer intends to pay). Beneficiaries whose offered wage corresponds to Level 4 (the highest tier) of the wage structure would be entered into the pool four times. A Level 3 beneficiary would be entered three times; a Level 2 beneficiary would be entered twice; and a Level 1 beneficiary, once.

Employers would be required to indicate the appropriate occupational code, OEWS wage level and geographic location of employment in each candidate’s registration for the H-1B cap lottery.

These proposed changes follow a recent presidential proclamation requiring all new H-1B petitions to be accompanied by a $100,000 payment, starting September 21, 2025, and ending September 21, 2026, unless extended.

Employers may comment on the proposed rule through October 24, 2025, at regulations.gov under DHS Docket No. USCIS-2025-0040.

After the comment period ends, the DHS will respond to comments and possibly make revisions before publishing a final rule. This final rule will include a formal effective date, which generally must be no earlier than 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.