H-1B Visa: Major Changes as US Shifts to Wage-Based Lottery

Just days after President Donald Trump stunned the global tech community with a steep hike in application fees to $100,000, the US government has unveiled sweeping changes to the H-1B visa programme. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed abandoning the current random lottery system and replacing it with a wage-weighted selection process.

The proposed rule seeks to tilt the odds in favor of higher-skilled and higher-paid professionals, while still leaving room for applicants across wage levels. Under the plan, foreign workers in the top wage tier — those earning an annual salary of $162,528 or more — would receive four entries into the selection pool. By contrast, workers at the lowest wage tier would get just one entry, significantly reducing their chances of being chosen.

H-1B Visa: A Shift in Global Talent Flow

“This proposal could reshape how global talent flows into the US economy,” said Nicole Gunara, Principal Immigration Attorney at Manifest Law.

She explained with an example: “An engineer hired at $150,000 by Meta could now have multiple lottery entries, while a junior developer at a startup earning $70,000 might only get one. This tilts the system toward established companies that can pay top-dollar salaries and away from emerging firms that depend on younger, international talent.”

Gunara warned that such a change may push the industry towards a senior-heavy workforce, potentially squeezing out recent graduates and early-career workers who often enter the US through the H-1B visa programme.

Trump’s Push to Prioritize American Workers

The new wage-weighted lottery comes on the heels of Trump’s recent proclamation, which introduced a staggering $100,000 application fee for each H-1B petition.

“President Trump promised to put American workers first, and this action discourages companies from spamming the system and driving down wages,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement. She added that the change would ensure US businesses that genuinely need high-skilled foreign talent can still access it, but without undermining local labor.

During the signing ceremony, Trump himself stressed: “The incentive is to hire American workers.”

H-1B Visa: Impact on Indian Tech Companies

The implications of these moves could be particularly severe for Indian IT firms. According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Indians account for 71% of all approved H-1B visa applications. Giants like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro depend heavily on this program to place skilled professionals in the US.

Analysts estimate that the combination of a $100,000 fee and the wage-based selection system could cost Indian companies billions of dollars. The likely outcomes include reduced hiring of foreign workers and a shift of jobs back to India or other global delivery centers.

Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, described the H-1B system as one of the “most abused visa categories” in the US, justifying the crackdown as part of broader reforms.

Diplomatic Angle

The announcement comes just as Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal arrived in New York for high-level talks with Trump administration officials. The overhaul of the H-1B visa programme is expected to feature prominently in their discussions, given its critical role in India-US economic and tech relations.

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