By Gao Yun
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it will implement major reforms to the H-1B visa lottery system for Fiscal Year 2027, introducing a “wage-weighted lottery” mechanism. This change will affect thousands of foreign tech workers seeking employment in the U.S. and their employers.
H-1B visas have allowed thousands of talented foreign individuals to work and live in the United States, but criticism of the program has included concerns that employers use this immigration status as a means of driving down salaries and to avoid hiring American citizens who might demand higher pay.
According to Newsweek, citing a USCIS announcement, the initial registration period for H-1B visas for FY2027 will open at 12:00 PM Eastern Time on March 4 and close at 12:00 PM on March 19.
Employers or their authorized representatives must submit electronic registrations via a USCIS online account and pay a $215 registration fee for each beneficiary. Only registrations completed within this time window will be entered into the lottery.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
USCIS plans to announce lottery results through employers’ online accounts by March 31.
Employers whose registrations are selected will be eligible to file full H-1B cap-subject petitions starting April 1, with approximately 90 days to complete the application.
The total H-1B visa cap for FY2027 remains unchanged at 65,000 visas per year. An additional 20,000 visas are available for applicants who have earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher.
New ‘wage-weighted’ lottery mechanism introduced
For the first time, USCIS will implement a wage-based weighted lottery when registrations exceed the annual cap, rather than relying entirely on a purely random selection.
According to rules released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the new system will prioritize higher-wage positions to attract more highly skilled and better-compensated professionals. Specifically, higher wages will give registrations a greater chance of selection.
Morgan Bailey, a partner at Mayer Brown and former DHS official, noted that the reform will most affect low-wage H-1B applications.
He told Newsweek: “Only applications at Wage Level I (the lowest tier) will see a significant drop in selection rates.”
According to DHS model projections:
- Wage Level I: selection probability may drop nearly 50 percent
- Wage Level II: selection probability may rise ~3 percent
- Wage Level III: selection probability may rise ~55 percent
- Wage Level IV (highest tier): selection probability may rise ~107 percent
Under the previous system, all registrations had roughly a 30 percent chance of being selected. The new system is expected to maintain or increase lottery odds for mid- and high-wage positions while sharply reducing chances for low-wage positions.
USCIS emphasized that this weighted lottery model assumes “normal registration participation levels” and does not account for potential disruptive factors, such as last September’s new $100,000 fee for certain H-1B applications, state-level budget limits on hiring foreign employees at public institutions or universities, technical delays, or legal challenges.
Bailey added: “If some employers opt out of registering as a result, the selection probability for those who continue participating will increase further.”
Why H-1B matters
H-1B visas allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, typically requiring at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. Because annual applications far exceed the cap, USCIS has long used electronic registration and random lotteries to allocate visas.
This reform is seen as a key step by the U.S. government to improve the quality of tech immigration. It may have direct effects on India’s IT industry, international students, and employers in universities and tech companies.
Indians are the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas; according to government figures, 71 percent of approved applicants come from India, while Chinese nationals come in a distant second, accounting for 11.7 percent of approvals.
