Feds put finger on H-1B lottery scale to favor higher earners

The H-1B lottery in the US is being tipped heavily in favor of high-wage earners under a long-awaited rule proposal unveiled on Tuesday.

The US Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released the text of a proposed rule that was first advanced in July, which would shift the H-1B program from a purely randomized lottery to a wage-weighted draw favoring applicants with higher-paying job offers.

H-1B visas are designed to attract talented individuals to fill high-skill roles – ostensibly ones that would be difficult to fill with American workers. The program is limited to 85,000 people annually, after which point a lottery is held to randomly select applicants. If fewer applications are received, the lottery is not held, but that hasn't been the case in more than a decade.

The current process was defined during the Biden administration and limited H-1B lottery entries to ...