The United States’ new visa rules are likely to severely impact H1-B applicants from India. The US administration under President Donald Trump is set to scrap the decades-old lottery-based H-1B work visa system and replace it with a weighted model that favours higher-paid and more skilled foreign professionals. The move is likely to make it far more difficult for entry-level workers, including a large number of applicants from India, to secure employment visas in the United States.
The US Department of Homeland Security said that it is amending “regulations governing the process by which USCIS selects H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries for filing of H-1B cap-subject petitions”. “The rule implements a weighted selection process that will favor allocating 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. This final rule is effective February 27, 2026, and will be in place for the FY 2027 H-1B cap registration season,” the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a notification.
The change is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to reshape the H-1B programme. The DHS said the new rule will apply to around 85,000 H-1B visas issued each year, starting with the fiscal 2027 registration cycle.
Explaining the rationale behind the shift, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said in a statement: “The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by US employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,”
A press release announcing the overhaul said the policy aligns with other recent measures introduced by the administration, including a presidential proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa to be eligible.
Earlier this year, President Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, a move that is currently being challenged in court. He has also unveiled a $1 million “gold card” visa programme offering a pathway to US citizenship for wealthy individuals.
