US Plans H-1B Lottery Overhaul to Prioritize Higher Earners

To me, this makes little sense, but I support the goal.

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.

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:

  • Wage Level IV → 4 entries

  • Wage Level III → 3 entries

  • Wage Level II → 2 entries

  • Wage Level I → 1 entry

A “unique beneficiary” is counted once toward numerical allocations, no matter how many registrations are submitted for them or how many entries they get in the weighted pool.

[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.