Further restricting H-1B visa rules, the Trump administration has ended the lottery system for selecting visa recipients. In a press release, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that the department of homeland security (DHS) is replacing “the random lottery for selecting visa recipients with a process that gives greater weight to those with higher skills.” The process, for those unaware, was used till date to randomly select applicants when demand for H-1B work visas exceeded the annual cap. It helped employers fill skilled worker shortages, especially in fields of technology, healthcare and engineering.Announcing the new rule, Matthew Tragesser, Spokesman, USCIS said: “As part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to H-1B reform, we will continue to demand more from both employers and aliens so as not to undercut American workers and to put America first.”
The new rule is effective February 27, 2026, and will be in place for the FY 2027 H-1B cap registration season, USCIS said in its official release.
H-1B visa lottery process was ‘exploited and abused’: USCIS spokesman
Explaining why the administration has ended the H-1B visa lottery system, Tragesser said “The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers.”“The new weighted selection will better serve Congress’ intent for the H-1B program and strengthen America’s competitiveness by incentivizing American employers to petition for higher-paid, higher-skilled foreign workers. With these regulatory changes and others in the future, we will continue to update the H-1B program to help American businesses without allowing the abuse that was harming American workers,” he said.As per the US immigration authority, the current random selection process has often been “criticized for allowing unscrupulous employers to exploit it by flooding the selection pool with lower-skilled foreign workers paid at low wages, to the detriment of the American workforce.” “To address these concerns, the final rule will implement a weighted selection process that will increase the probability that H-1B visas are allocated to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels,” the agency added.
H-1B visas limited to 65,000 annually
In its press release, the USCIS said that the number of H-1B visas issued annually is limited to 65,000, with an additional 20,000 for US advanced degree holders. The agency said that the administration’s new rule is another crucial step to strengthen the integrity of the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program. “It is in line with other key changes the administration has made, such as the Presidential Proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa as a condition of eligibility,” it stated. To recall, the Trump administration announced an annual fee of $1,00,000 on H-1B visa applications, starting September 22, 2025.
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