The H-1B weighted lottery: how wage level sets the number of entries, and the rules that tie the registration to the petition

Since the fiscal year 2027 cap season, when USCIS has more H-1B registrations than it needs it enters each beneficiary in the draw once, twice, three or four times depending on the OEWS wage level (I to IV) that the offered wage equals or exceeds (8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(4)). The registration must be accurate, the later petition must match it, and the fee is $215 per registration. This page explains the rule; it does not predict anyone's chances.

For years the H-1B cap lottery was a plain random draw. Since the fiscal year 2027 cap season it is a weighted draw. DHS published the final rule on 29 December 2025 (Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions, 90 FR 60864). The rule took effect on 27 February 2026, in time for the registration period that closed in March 2026.

The change affects employers, who register, and workers, whose chances depend on what the employer enters. This page explains how the rule works in the words of the regulation: what the registrant has to select, how many entries each wage level gets, why the number of entries is not the same as a chance of selection, how the later petition has to match the registration, and what happens when it does not. It also covers the registration fee, the timeline, what the government has itself reported about the first weighted season, and a related PROPOSED Labor Department rule on how wage levels are computed.

It explains the rule and does not predict outcomes. Whether a given registration is accurate, and what wage level a given job corresponds to, are legal and factual questions for the employer's attorney or accredited representative.

The rule in force: what changed and when

The final rule amended 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8) and related paragraphs. Its summary says DHS is "implementing a weighted selection process that will generally favor the allocation of H-1B visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens, while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels". The rule states that it "is effective February 27, 2026" and "will be effective in time for the FY 2027 registration season." The current text is in the eCFR as of 1 October 2026.

Several things did not change:

The cap numbers. USCIS's cap-season page says Congress set "the current annual regular cap for the H-1B category at 65,000", with up to 6,800 of those set aside for the H-1B1 program, and adds: "An additional 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries who have earned a master's degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education are exempt from the cap."
Registration first. Employers that are subject to the cap must first register each prospective beneficiary electronically. A cap-subject petition may not be filed unless it is based on a valid and selected registration.
Randomness. A draw is still needed only if USCIS receives more registrations than it expects to need. The weighting paragraph begins: "If a random selection is necessary, USCIS will assign each unique beneficiary to the lowest OEWS wage level".
Unique beneficiaries. The regulation says registrations "will be counted based on the number of unique beneficiaries who are registered", and each beneficiary "will only be counted once toward the numerical allocation projections, regardless of how many registrations were submitted for that beneficiary or how many times the beneficiary is entered in the selection pool."

What changed is the content of the registration and the draw itself.

What a registration must contain: the wage level, the SOC code and the place

Under 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(4)(i), the registrant "must select the highest Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage level that the beneficiary's proffered wage equals or exceeds for the relevant Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code in the area(s) of intended employment."

The regulation then handles the cases that would otherwise be ambiguous:

Offer below level I. If the proffered wage "is lower than OEWS wage level I, because it is based on a prevailing wage from another legitimate source (other than OEWS) or an independent authoritative source, the registrant must select 'wage level I.'"
Several locations or positions. "If the beneficiary will work in multiple locations, or in multiple positions if the registrant is an agent, the registrant must select the lowest corresponding OEWS wage level that the beneficiary's proffered wage will equal or exceed."
A wage range. "If the beneficiary's proffered wage is expressed as a range, the registrant must select the OEWS wage level that the lowest wage in the range will equal or exceed."
No OEWS data for the job. Where there is none, the registrant "must select the OEWS wage level that corresponds to the requirements of the beneficiary's proffered position using the Department of Labor's prevailing wage guidance."

The registrant must also give the SOC code of the position, the area of intended employment that was the basis of the wage level, the beneficiary's passport or travel document information "and all other requested information", and make the certifications on the form. The regulation adds: "Each beneficiary must only be registered under one valid passport or travel document".

Two terms come from the Department of Labor. OEWS is the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, and its four levels (I to IV) are the Labor Department's tiers of prevailing wage for an occupation in an area. The registrant does not choose the level freely: it is the highest level the offered wage equals or exceeds, for that SOC code and place.

How the weighting works

If a draw is needed, USCIS first assigns each unique beneficiary "to the lowest OEWS wage level among all registrations submitted on the beneficiary's behalf". It then enters the beneficiary in the pool in this way, in the regulation's words: "a beneficiary assigned wage level IV will be entered into the selection pool four times, a beneficiary assigned wage level III will be entered into the selection pool three times, a beneficiary assigned wage level II will be entered into the selection pool two times, and a beneficiary assigned wage level I will be entered into the selection pool one time."

The same rule applies to the advanced-degree-exemption pool and to a second or later selection from registrations "on reserve" (8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(5)–(7)). Unselected, properly submitted registrations remain on reserve for the fiscal year, and if USCIS needs more it may select from them or reopen registration.

Entries are not the same as chances. Take four beneficiaries, one at each of levels I to IV. The pool holds 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10 entries, and the level IV beneficiary holds four of them. That is arithmetic about entries, not a probability of selection. The final rule's preamble explains why: "selections are made without replacement", because a unique beneficiary can be selected only once, so the remaining entries of a selected beneficiary drop out. The preamble also notes that DHS estimated the effect with a simulation rather than by multiplying entries, because the exact calculation without replacement "is intractable to compute explicitly." This page does not give odds, and any odds quoted elsewhere should be traced to the document they came from and the year they describe.

Several registrations for one person. Because the lowest level across a person's registrations governs, the preamble says this "prevents gaming" and gives people "less incentive" to have registrations filed at different levels. USCIS's registration page adds a practical rule for the fiscal year 2027 season: once the initial registration period closed at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on 19 March 2026, a duplicate registration could not be corrected, and USCIS stated, "We will remove all registrations submitted for the beneficiary by, or on behalf of, that prospective petitioner from the selection process."

The petition must match the registration

A selected registration lets the registrant file a petition for that beneficiary. It does not let the registrant file any petition for any job. The regulation, 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(D)(1), says a petitioner may file a cap-subject petition only if it is "based on a valid registration", which means the registration "was properly submitted" and "was submitted by the petitioner, or its designated representative, on behalf of the beneficiary who was selected for that cap season by USCIS." The paragraph adds:

"A petitioner may not substitute the beneficiary named in the original registration or transfer the registration to another petitioner."
The petition "must contain and be supported by the same identifying information and position information, including SOC code, provided in the selected registration and indicated on the labor condition application used to support the petition".
The petition "must include a proffered wage that equals or exceeds the prevailing wage for the corresponding OEWS wage level in the registration for the SOC code in the area(s) of intended employment".
Petitioners "must submit evidence of the basis of the wage level selected on the registration as of the date that the registration underlying the petition was submitted", and evidence of the passport or travel document used at registration.

USCIS "may find that a change in the beneficiary's identifying information in some circumstances would be permissible", for example a legal name change due to marriage or a renewed passport, and may in its discretion accept a change in the area of intended employment "consistent with the requirement of a bona fide job offer at the time of registration".

The consequences of a mismatch are in 8 CFR 214.2(h)(10)(ii): an H-1B cap-subject petition "will be denied if it is not based on a valid registration submitted by the petitioner (or its designated representative), or a successor in interest, for the beneficiary named or identified in the petition. A valid registration must represent a bona fide job offer." The same paragraph says a petition will be denied if the statements on the registration or petition were "inaccurate, fraudulent, or misrepresented a material fact, including if the certifications on the registration are determined to be false." Approval can also be revoked on listed grounds, including that the petition "was not based on a valid registration" (214.2(h)(11)(iii)(A)(6)).

Changing the wage afterwards. Section (h)(10)(iii) allows USCIS to deny a later new or amended petition if it "is part of the petitioner's attempt to unfairly increase the chance of selection during the registration or petition selection process, as applicable, such as by changing the proffered wage in a subsequent new or amended petition to an amount that would be equivalent to a lower wage level than that indicated on the registration". A matching ground for revocation is (h)(11)(iii)(A)(8).

Registration certifications, the fee and the timeline

Certification. Before submitting, registrants attest on the USCIS form: "I certify under penalty of perjury that I, or the organization on whose behalf this registration (or these registrations) is being submitted, have not worked with, or agreed to work with, another registrant, petitioner, agent, or other individual or entity to submit a registration to unfairly increase chances of selection for the beneficiary or beneficiaries in this submission."

Fee. The registration fee is $215 for each registration (8 CFR 106.2(c)(11)). The regulation says "This fee is not subject to the online discount provided in § 106.1(g)." USCIS's page says registrants must pay "the non-refundable H-1B registration fee for each beneficiary" before submitting, and that a fee for a deleted duplicate is not refunded. The fee is separate from the petition-stage charges listed on our page on H-1B fees an employer pays.

Period. The regulation sets a minimum registration period: "The annual initial registration period will last a minimum of 14 calendar days and will start at least 14 calendar days before the earliest date on which H-1B cap-subject petitions may be filed for a particular fiscal year". USCIS announces the dates on its website and "will announce the start of the initial registration period at least 30 calendar days in advance". USCIS announces the dates for each cap season on its cap-season page.

Filing. USCIS's cap page says a petition may be filed "no more than 6 months before the employment start date requested", and that for the fiscal year 2027 cap the start date must be 1 October 2026 or later. It says USCIS "will begin accepting online filing for H-1B cap petitions" for selected registrations from 1 April.

If registration is suspended. The regulation provides that if USCIS suspends the registration process, it will weight and select petitions instead, using the wage level the petitioner selects (8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iv)(B)).

What the government reported about the first weighted season

Proclamation 11069 of 18 September 2026 (91 FR 60497) gives figures that the White House attributes to the first weighted season. They are the government's statements, quoted here as reported, not conclusions from this page:

"the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms reducing their combined H-1B registrations from 24,946 to 2,055, a 92 percent decrease."
"registrations for beneficiaries with at least a U.S. Master's degree rising from 45.1 percent of total registrants for FY 2026 to 66.1 percent for FY 2027."
"Job offers with wages corresponding to the two highest wage levels accounted for approximately 46.3 percent of H-1B registration selections while those corresponding with the lowest wage level accounted for only 17.8 percent."

The proclamation also says the weighted process "was in effect for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 H-1B cap season" and links the change to the $100,000 payment, which our page on the $100,000 H-1B payment covers. These figures describe past registrations and selections. They do not say what will happen in a later season.

A related PROPOSED rule: how the Labor Department computes wage levels

The weighting depends on OEWS wage levels, which the Department of Labor computes. On 27 March 2026 the Department published a PROPOSED rule, "Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals in the United States" (91 FR 15454). Its summary says the Department proposes "to incorporate changes to the computation of wage levels under the Department's four-tiered prevailing wage structure based on the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage survey". The comment period closed on 26 May 2026. Proclamation 11069, signed on 18 September 2026, refers to it as a rule that, "once finalized," will change prevailing wage levels, and a Federal Register search by title on 10 October 2026 shows no final rule.

This matters because the registration asks for the level that a wage "equals or exceeds". If the Labor Department finalises a change to how levels are computed, the level that a given salary corresponds to could change. As at 10 October 2026 that has not happened, and the proposal is not in force.

What the weighted rule does not do. It does not change the 65,000 and 20,000 numbers. It does not say that a higher wage level guarantees selection or that a lower one rules it out: DHS's own summary speaks of "maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels". And it does not decide whether a job is a specialty occupation, which is covered on our page on H-1B requests for evidence. A proposed $103,265 fee for cap-subject petitions is also pending; see the page on the proposed H-1B cap fee.

The registration and petition are the employer's legal filings. If someone represents the employer before USCIS, 8 CFR 292.1 limits who may.

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Questions people ask

How does the H-1B weighted lottery work?

If USCIS receives more registrations than it needs, each unique beneficiary is assigned to the lowest OEWS wage level among that person's registrations and entered in the pool once for level I, twice for level II, three times for level III and four times for level IV (8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(4)(ii)). The registrant selects the highest level the offered wage equals or exceeds for the SOC code and area.

Does a higher wage level guarantee selection?

No. The regulation gives more entries to higher levels, but a draw is still random, and DHS describes the aim as "maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels." Selection is also without replacement, so entries are not the same as a probability.

How much does it cost to register for the H-1B lottery?

$215 per registration (8 CFR 106.2(c)(11)). USCIS describes it as non-refundable, and the online filing discount does not apply to it. Check the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055, for the current amount before paying.

What happens if the petition does not match the registration?

The petition can be denied. 8 CFR 214.2(h)(10)(ii) says a cap-subject petition "will be denied if it is not based on a valid registration" and that "A valid registration must represent a bona fide job offer." The petition must carry the same SOC code and position information and a proffered wage at or above the registered wage level (214.2(h)(8)(iii)(D)(1)).

Can an employer register the same person more than once?

More than one employer may register a person, and the lowest wage level across those registrations governs. For the fiscal year 2027 season USCIS stated that duplicate registrations by or for the same prospective petitioner could be deleted only while the initial period was open; after it closed, USCIS said it would remove all of that petitioner's registrations for the beneficiary from the selection process.

Is there a second H-1B lottery round?

The regulation lets USCIS select more beneficiaries from the registrations on reserve if it needs to reach the numerical limit, and to reopen registration if all are used (8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(7)). Whether that happens in a given year is announced by USCIS.

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-10.

Related guides

H-1B fees in 2026: every charge an employer pays, with the rule behind each one — For a new cap-subject H-1B, the fee schedule as at 10 October 2026 has a $215 registration fee, a $780 petition fee ($460 for a small employer or nonprofit), a $600 Asylum Program Fee ($300 or none for the same groups), a $1,500 ACWIA fee ($750 for 25 or fewer employees), a $500 fraud fee, and for some employers a $4,000 9-11 fee, plus optional premium processing at $2,965. The $100,000 payment and a PROPOSED $103,265 fee are separate items, covered on their own pages.
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