Interstride’s H1-B Wage and Lottery Insights
There have been recent changes to the allocation of H-1B visas for Federal Fiscal Year 2027 where these allocations will be determined by foreign hire’s salary range and experience/skill level.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) will adopt the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) wage level as a proxy for skill and experience, and when prioritizing the selection of higher skilled and more experienced H-1B workers.
“While entries will still be selected at random, petitioners seeking to hire Level IV H-1B workers will get four entries into the lottery. Level III workers will receive three entries. Level II workers will be entered into the lottery twice, and Level I workers only once.” You can view this information here.
Interstride has implemented wage and lottery insights where students and alumni can now explore prevailing wage benchmarks, H-1B wage levels (I–IV) by role and location, and estimated lottery insights directly in the portal. You will see that the salary range level is more competitive in more populated cities (E.g. New York City, Boston, Chicago) when compared to smaller ones. That means you have to earn more to increase your chances in the lottery for those cities.
Who should use this resource?
These changes may impact international students who are on OPT and will be seeking H1-B visas to continue working in the United States. This change only impacts lottery based H1-B hires and currently does not impact cap-exempt employers. Cap-exempt employers are organizations that can bypass the annual H-1B visa lottery, allowing them to sponsor foreign workers at any time of the year. These are: Institutions of higher education (universities and colleges), Nonprofit entities affiliated with or related to higher education institutions, Nonprofit research organizations, and government research organizations.
Why it’s helpful:
This information is helpful for international students who will be graduating soon as well as alumni who plan to work in the United States and will be seeking an H1-B visa. This information can help students determine what salary levels they will need to seek to be more competitive in the lottery. Students can look for jobs in locations where they could be considered for a higher salary range and aim to increase their salary range through negotiating with the employer.
