- U.S. officials introduced a $100,000 supplemental fee for new H-1B petitions for workers outside the country.
- The random lottery was replaced by a wage-weighted selection system favoring higher-paid roles.
- Hospitals and tech firms warn of reduced recruitment and offshoring due to rising costs.
(UNITED STATES) — U.S. officials reshaped the H-1B visa program over the past year with a $100,000 supplemental charge on some new petitions, a wage-weighted selection system for the annual cap, and higher premium processing fees, changes that employers and industry groups say are pushing skilled foreign workers to reconsider staying in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services cast the steps as integrity measures meant to change the economics of the program. Business groups and hospital leaders, however, say the new costs and lower odds for entry-level candidates are already affecting hiring plans.
At the center of the overhaul are two policy changes. One is the $100,000 Supplemental Fee, which took effect on September 21, 2025. The other is a wage-weighted selection system announced on December 23, 2025 and effective February 27, 2026, replacing the long-running random lottery for H-1B cap cases.
Under a Presidential Proclamation titled “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” the new fee applies to new H-1B petitions filed for beneficiaries outside the United States or for those requesting consular processing. It does not apply to H-1B renewals or change-of-status filings for people already in the country, including F-1 students.
That distinction has split the H-1B visa program into two tracks. Employers seeking to bring in workers from abroad now face a far higher upfront cost, while companies filing for people already in the United States avoid the additional payment.
USCIS also changed how it selects registrations in the annual cap season. For the FY 2027 cycle, which concluded selection on March 31, 2026, the agency weighted registrations by Department of Labor wage levels rather than using a random draw.
The structure favored higher-paid jobs. Wage Level IV registrations received 4 lottery entries, while Wage Level I registrations received 1 lottery entry.
Matthew Tragesser, USCIS Spokesman, defended the new system when the rule was announced. “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. strengthen America’s competitiveness by incentivizing American employers to petition for higher-paid, higher-skilled foreign workers.”
That rationale reflects the administration’s broader argument that the changes protect U.S. workers and reduce incentives for lower-wage hiring. USCIS and DHS have repeatedly framed the H-1B changes as a way to eliminate what officials describe as “cheap labor” incentives.
Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem tied the visa changes to the administration’s wider immigration agenda in remarks on Feb. 24, 2026. “Over the last 13 months, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump Administration’s crackdown. Meanwhile, we have saved taxpayers more than $13.2 billion. and the American people have been put first again.”
By the end of March, USCIS said it had completed enough selections to meet the annual limit. In an official alert on March 31, 2026, the agency said, “USCIS has received enough electronic registrations for unique beneficiaries during the initial registration period to reach the fiscal year 2027 H-1B numerical allocations (known as the H-1B cap). USCIS selected enough beneficiaries. to reach the H-1B cap and notified all prospective petitioners.”
A third change, though less sweeping, added to the cost pressure. USCIS raised premium processing fees effective March 1, 2026, describing the increase as an inflation adjustment.
Taken together, the measures have altered both price and probability in the H-1B visa program. Employers now must weigh a six-figure added payment for some overseas hires, while lower-wage and early-career registrations face reduced odds under the wage-weighted selection system.
Industry groups say the effect is already visible in sectors that depend on international recruitment. The American Hospital Association reported on April 1, 2026, that 64% of hospitals have “paused, deferred, or limited recruitment” because of the $100,000 fee.
The hospital group said the strain is especially acute in rural areas, where providers rely heavily on H-1B physicians. Those areas face worsening shortages if hospitals pull back from sponsoring doctors trained abroad.
Technology advocates have raised a different concern. On October 24, 2025, the Consumer Technology Association said the wage-weighted selection system would “disproportionately harm the F-1 pipeline,” because entry-level graduates classified at Wage Level I saw their selection probability drop by an estimated 48% .
That warning goes to the heart of how many foreign graduates move from U.S. universities into the workforce. A system that rewards higher wage levels gives more weight to established or senior positions and less to recent graduates starting their careers.
Analysts have also pointed to a knock-on effect outside the United States. A February 2, 2026, report by CSIS said corporations now hire between 0.4 and 0.9 employees abroad for every rejected H-1B visa, accelerating the offshoring of research and development and AI jobs to countries including Canada and Germany.
Those trends have fed talk of a “brain drain” as companies and workers reassess the value of staying in the U.S. market. The combination of higher hiring costs, lower odds for junior applicants, and operational uncertainty has changed planning for employers that once treated the H-1B process as routine.
Some of that uncertainty has come from outside the visa rules themselves. A shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security began on February 14, 2026, and by April 3, 2026 had lasted 49 days, making it the longest in U.S. history.
The shutdown has hit agencies unevenly. USCIS has remained largely operational because it is fee-funded, but programs tied to other parts of the immigration and labor system, including PERM labor certifications and E-Verify, have faced disruptions.
That has complicated decision-making for employers already adjusting to the fee and lottery changes. Even when USCIS continues processing, interruptions elsewhere in the hiring chain can delay recruiting plans and add to uncertainty for foreign nationals and their sponsors.
The department also changed leadership during the funding lapse. Markwayne Mullin was sworn in as DHS Secretary around March 31, 2026, taking over a department dealing with staffing departures and a 47-day funding lapse.
For employers, the overlapping changes create a new hierarchy inside the H-1B system. The most favorable position now belongs to candidates already in the United States, in jobs at higher wage levels, and backed by companies willing to pay more for faster processing if needed.
Lower-wage candidates and workers applying from abroad face a steeper path. In practical terms, the $100,000 Supplemental Fee can deter sponsorship before a case even reaches adjudication, while the wage-weighted selection system narrows the path for recent graduates and lower-paid specialties.
That shift matters because the H-1B visa program has long served several different pipelines at once: U.S.-educated foreign students moving into professional jobs, companies transferring global talent into American offices, and hospitals and other employers recruiting in shortage fields. The new rules do not affect each group equally.
Hospitals have focused on recruitment gaps. Technology groups have focused on early-career hiring. Policy analysts have focused on offshoring. Each points to a different pressure point, but all describe the same broad result: a system that now favors fewer, higher-paid petitions and makes other hires harder to justify.
The administration has made clear that this is the point. In Tragesser’s words, the government wants employers to “petition for higher-paid, higher-skilled foreign workers.”
USCIS has directed employers and applicants to its Newsroom and its FY 2027 H-1B cap season updates for official notices on the cap and registration process. DHS has also published statements through its press releases page.
The fee change itself stems from the White House proclamation on entry restrictions, published in the briefing room. Those official notices now form the baseline for employers trying to track a fast-changing system.
As the FY 2027 cap season closes and the new rules begin to take hold, the debate has moved beyond whether the H-1B visa program is changing. The question now is how many employers will absorb the $100,000 added cost, how many entry-level candidates will lose out under the wage-weighted selection system, and how many skilled workers decide that their future lies somewhere other than the United States.
