On Tuesday, September 23, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new regulations in the Federal Register to reform the H-1B visa selection process under the Trump administration. The proposed changes aim to prioritize selection based on the skill level required for the position and the wage, replacing the current simple random lottery system.
The H-1B visa is a widely used employment visa in the U.S. technology industry. The program only allows for 85,000 new visas each year, with exemptions for higher education and research institutions.
The announcement stated that under the new process, if the number of visa applications exceeds the 85,000 statutory cap in a given year, applications from high-wage employers will receive higher weighting. This is intended to better protect American workers from unfair wage competition from foreign workers.
The proposed regulation released on Tuesday will alter the existing visa lottery process. The probability of selection for high-wage workers will be higher based on wage levels.
According to the notification, visa allocations will not be strictly based on the highest salaries but will categorize each applicant into four wage levels based on surveys conducted by the Department of Labor.
Applicants at the highest wage level with an average annual salary of $162,528 will have four chances to enter the lottery pool, while those at the lowest wage level will only have one chance.
The notification stated that this process “will benefit in allotting H-1B visas to highly skilled, high-income foreign nationals while also preserving employers’ opportunities to hire H-1B workers across various wage levels.”
Last Friday, the White House announced the imposition of a $100,000 fee on new H-1B applicants as a condition of entry, causing concerns among employers and H-1B applicants. The government later clarified that this fee would only apply to new applicants.
This represents President Trump’s latest effort to reform the H-1B visa program. Conservative groups believe that H-1B visa holders are displacing American workers and are pushing for policy adjustments.
The final approval of the new regulation may still require several months or even years. The notification indicated that the new rules could potentially be implemented in the lottery of 2026, prior to the registration period in March 2026.
As President Trump’s first term comes to a close, a previously finalized H-1B visa regulation was later withdrawn by the incoming President Biden.
Business groups warn that the wage-based H-1B proposal may prevent employers from hiring early foreign job seekers who have just graduated from U.S. universities and oppose using the Department of Labor’s wage levels as a measure of workers’ skill levels.
The imposition of fees effective from September 21 and the wage-based visa selection process are both likely to face legal challenges, according to analysts.
Lawyers and organizations have already cautioned that regardless of the wisdom of linking the H-1B lottery with wages, the proposal is illegal under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which mandates the issuance of visas in the order of application receipt.
The notification released on Tuesday cited estimates from the Department of Homeland Security that starting from October 1 in the 2026 fiscal year, the total wages paid to H-1B visa workers will increase to $502 million. This figure is expected to progressively rise, with wages projected to increase by $1 billion in the 2027 fiscal year, $1.5 billion in 2028, and $2 billion annually from 2029 to 2035.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 5,200 small businesses currently holding H-1B visas are expected to suffer significant economic impacts due to workforce loss.
The USCIS will open a 30-day public comment period starting from Wednesday.