On Monday, USCIS laid out some FAQs on the H1B program.
H-1B FAQ | USCIS
And on Tuesday, the administration made available proposed regulations to change the H1B lottery system:
Today, on the heels of the $100,000 fee announcement, new proposed regulations were made available about next year’s lottery.
2025-18473.pdf
The regulation will replace the current purely random selection of H-1B registrations with a weighted selection process.
Registrations would be weighted based on the proffered wage of the beneficiary, relative to wage levels (OEWS wage levels) for the particular occupation and location. Higher wages → more “entries/weight” in the selection pool.
Specifically:
- Wage level IV → 4 entries
- Level III → 3 entries
- Level II → 2 entries
- Level I → 1 entry
Unique beneficiaries still count once for purposes of the cap (no multiple counting if more than one registration is submitted for the same person) so as to maintain fairness in how the numerical cap is reached.
There’s a lot more to discuss but this is the highlight of how the lottery process may change.
More to come soon.
