How the H-1B Visa Lottery Actually Works in 2026

The H-1B lottery stopped being a coin flip in February 2026. Here is exactly how the new wage-weighted entries work.

If you registered for the FY2027 H-1B lottery this spring, or you're gathering offers ahead of a future cycle, you've probably heard that "the lottery isn't random anymore." That's true, but it's also easy to get wrong. The H-1B lottery still involves a random draw — what changed is how many chances each person gets before that draw happens, and the number of chances now depends on the wage level tied to the job offer.

This piece walks through the mechanics: how entries are weighted, what the FY2027 calendar looked like, and where wage level actually comes from. For the strategic angle — how this rule specifically affects new grads with entry-level offers — see our breakdown of the wage-weighted lottery's impact on new-grad odds.

The rule that changed, and when

On December 29, 2025, DHS published a final rule in the Federal Register replacing the flat random selection process with a wage-weighted one. It took effect February 27, 2026. Before this rule, every registered beneficiary got exactly one entry into the random draw, regardless of salary or job level. That flat-odds system is gone for any cap season run under the new rule, starting with FY2027.

The core mechanism: each beneficiary's registration is now weighted by the OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage level associated with the offered position, as documented on the Labor Condition Application (LCA). Instead of one name in the hat, higher-wage-level beneficiaries get more copies of their name in the hat.

How the weighting actually works

The Department of Labor's OEWS wage survey assigns four wage levels to most occupations in a given geographic area, from Level I (entry, least experience/complexity) to Level IV (senior, most experience/complexity). Your employer's LCA specifies which level applies to your offered role and salary. Under the new rule, that level determines your entries:

USCIS still runs a random selection against the two statutory caps — 65,000 for the regular cap and 20,000 for the US advanced-degree (master's or higher) exemption — but a Level IV registration is now mathematically four times more likely to be drawn than a Level I registration for the same beneficiary pool. The caps themselves are unchanged; only the odds of clearing them shifted.

One nuance worth being precise about: entries are per beneficiary per registration, not per employer size or brand recognition. A well-known company offering a Level I role gives that candidate the same single entry as a small company offering a Level I role. Wage level, not employer reputation, drives the count.

Why this matters for who gets selected

Before February 2026, an intern-tier new-grad offer and a principal-engineer offer had identical odds of selection — one name, one chance, purely random. That's no longer true. A candidate with a Level III or IV offer now has proportionally more entries than a candidate with a Level I offer, which means, in aggregate across the full applicant pool, registrations skewed toward higher wage levels are more likely to be drawn.

This doesn't mean Level I candidates are locked out — they're still in the draw, just with fewer tickets. It does mean wage level has become a variable worth understanding rather than an afterthought. Because wage level flows from how the LCA documents the job's duties and requirements, it's shaped well before registration — during how the role gets defined and priced, a conversation between the employer and their immigration counsel, not something a candidate negotiates directly. If you're weighing a cap-subject role against a cap-exempt one to sidestep this math entirely, see our comparison of cap-subject versus cap-exempt H-1B paths.

The FY2027 cap season, step by step

The first full cycle under the wage-weighted rule ran on this calendar:

1. March 4–19, 2026 — Registration window. Employers (or their attorneys) submitted electronic registrations for each candidate, including the wage level tied to the intended position.
2. By March 31, 2026 — USCIS ran the weighted random selection and notified employers of selected registrations through their USCIS online accounts.
3. April 1–June 30, 2026 — Petition filing window. Employers of selected beneficiaries had this roughly three-month window to file the full I-129 petition with supporting evidence.
4. After filing — Standard USCIS adjudication proceeds, with premium processing available for those who paid for it, same as any other H-1B petition.

If you're mapping your own timeline against this cycle or planning for the next one, our lottery calendar post tracks the recurring structure year to year. Registration and selection happen once annually; there is no rolling or mid-year entry point outside this window.

What stayed the same

It's worth being explicit about what the wage-weighted rule did not touch, because a lot of adjacent H-1B mechanics are unrelated to this change:

• The annual caps. Still 65,000 regular cap plus 20,000 for the advanced-degree exemption. The rule changes who gets drawn, not how many visas exist.
• Cap-exempt employers. Universities, affiliated nonprofit entities, and government or nonprofit research organizations remain outside the cap and lottery entirely, regardless of wage level.
• The registration fee and process itself. Employers still register electronically before the petition stage; the weighting is applied inside that same system.
• What happens after selection. Once selected, the petition still has to independently satisfy specialty-occupation requirements — being drawn doesn't guarantee approval.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a Level I offer means you won't be selected. It means lower relative odds, not exclusion. Level I registrations are still entered and are still selected every cycle.
• Treating wage level as something you can unilaterally request. The LCA has to accurately reflect the actual job duties and requirements; wage level isn't a slider your employer flips to help your odds — it has to match the real position, and getting it wrong creates its own compliance risk.
• Confusing lottery selection with visa approval. Selection only means your employer can file the petition. USCIS still adjudicates specialty-occupation eligibility, wage, and other requirements after filing — for a sense of how those outcomes trend, see our look at H-1B approval and denial rate trends.
• Missing the registration window. Registration happens on a fixed annual window; there is no late entry once it closes. Mark the dates for the cycle you're targeting well in advance.
• Assuming the $100,000 H-1B fee applies to lottery registration. That supplemental fee was vacated by a federal court on June 8, 2026, and the First Circuit declined to reinstate it on July 24, 2026 — it is not being collected as of this writing, though the litigation is ongoing. It was never tied to the registration or selection step in any case.

What to do with this if you're mid-search

If you're an F-1 student on OPT or STEM OPT hoping to be sponsored, the lottery mechanics matter most in how they shape which offers are worth prioritizing and how a prospective employer talks about the role's wage level during hiring conversations. Neither of those is a decision to make alone — how a specific job should be leveled, and whether a particular filing strategy is sound for your situation, are questions for your employer's immigration attorney, and anything involving your F-1/OPT status specifically should also go through your DSO. This post explains the mechanism; it isn't a substitute for either of them reviewing your actual facts.

Frequently asked questions

Is the H-1B lottery still random in 2026? Partly. Selection is still a random draw, but since February 27, 2026 each registered beneficiary gets a different number of entries into that draw based on the OEWS wage level of the offered job — Level IV gets 4 entries, Level III gets 3, Level II gets 2, and Level I gets 1. A Level I candidate can still be selected, just with worse relative odds than a Level III or IV candidate.

How many entries do I get in the H-1B lottery? It depends on the wage level listed on the LCA tied to your registration. Level IV (the highest OEWS wage tier) gets 4 entries, Level III gets 3, Level II gets 2, and Level I gets 1. The entries are per beneficiary per registration, not per employer, so an entry-level offer at Level I still only gets one shot even with a large, well-known employer.

When is H-1B registration for FY2027? FY2027 registration ran from March 4 to March 19, 2026, with USCIS announcing selections by March 31, 2026 and petition filing open from April 1 through June 30, 2026. Registration and selection happen once per fiscal year, so if you missed FY2027, the next opportunity is the FY2028 cycle, and USCIS typically announces exact dates a few months ahead on its website.

Did the annual H-1B caps change under the new rule? No. The statutory caps are unchanged at 65,000 for the regular cap plus 20,000 reserved for beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher. What changed is not how many visas are available but how the pool of registrations is weighted before names are drawn against those caps.

Can I improve my wage level before the lottery? The wage level comes from the Labor Condition Application filed with the Department of Labor, which in turn reflects the job duties, requirements, and offered salary your employer documents. Whether a given role can legitimately support a higher OEWS level is a judgment call for your employer and their immigration counsel to make correctly, since the LCA has to match the actual job — not something to negotiate as a numbers game on your own.

Trying to figure out how a specific offer's wage level might affect your lottery odds, or building a shortlist of employers before the next registration window? F1Jobs can help you think through the job-search side of it.