Modified Lottery Selection Process: For years, demand for H-1B visas has exceeded supply, necessitating a lottery system to determine which petitions are selected for processing. On September 24, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement a weighted selection process for the annual H-1B lottery.

The proposed rule modifies the lottery to prioritize higher-paid and higher-skilled workers. DHS finalized the rule on December 29, 2025, without adopting any public comments or changes. The rule takes effect tomorrow (February 27, 2026).

Presidential Proclamation: New Restriction on Entry Fee: On September 19, 2025, the President issued a proclamation establishing a $100,000 fee that employers must pay before filing H-1B petitions for beneficiaries residing outside the United States. This substantial fee represents a new barrier to entry for companies seeking to sponsor foreign workers.

These initiatives collectively represent the most substantial revision to H-1B visa allocation procedures in over three decades. Both large corporations and small businesses that rely on the H-1B program to fill essential positions will need to adapt to these new requirements.

Conclusion: The H-1B Wage Level Rule and Presidential Proclamation 10973 are transformational initiatives designed to make fundamental changes to how H-1B nonimmigrants are petitioned for and selected in the H-1B Lottery. By concurrently implementing a weighted selection methodology in the H-1B Lottery and a restriction on entry designed to reduce and deter employers from submitting H-1B registrations on behalf of beneficiaries outside the United States, the composition of H-1B Lottery selectees is likely to change significantly.

The Proclamation and the H-1B Wage Level Rule in particular, however, rely upon data that is extrapolated from other data sources to support a proposition with relatively limited evidence that higher paid workers are generally higher-skilled. In addition, the quality of the data used to estimate the impact of the H-1B Wage Level Rule along with the lack of government-sponsored economic analyses may result in unintended and adverse impacts to the H-1B program and the broader United States economy.

The full report provides detailed explanation of the serious data limitations on which implementation of the new lottery selection procedures are based as well as an analysis of the policy issues which are raised through these fundamental changes to the H-1B program.