The H-1B lottery is now wage-weighted, and it hurts new graduates

A DHS final rule published on 29 December 2025 and effective 27 February 2026 replaced the long-standing random H-1B cap lottery with wage-weighted selection. The first round has now run: registration for FY2027 was open 4–19 March 2026, USCIS announced the selections on 31 March, and on 17 July it said the 85,000 cap had been reached and there would be no second selection this year.

Weighting follows Department of Labor prevailing wage levels: a Level 4 offer is entered four times, Level 3 three times, Level 2 twice, Level 1 once, and the level comes from job duties and seniority, not from what the employer chooses to call the role. New graduates feel it most, since entry-level roles usually sit at Level 1 or 2, so their odds are lower than those of applicants with a few years of experience. Registrations also fell sharply in that first round: 211,600 were properly submitted for FY2027, about 38% down from 343,981 the year before. How much of that drop is low-wage-level registrations being discouraged by the new rule is not something to assume — USCIS has not published the breakdown by level.

The rule leaves OPT and CPT alone; what changes is the step after OPT. Factor it in when choosing a programme: the field sets the CIP code, the CIP code decides whether the 24-month STEM extension applies, and 24 extra months means two more rounds of the lottery.