2026 H-1B Lottery Odds Calculator

Calculate H-1B lottery selection odds under the new wage-weighted system.

FY2027 Lottery (March 2026)

H-1B Wage Weighted Lottery

The H-1B lottery now prioritizes roles with higher salaries. Each position receives 1-4 lottery entries based on salary and location, with higher-paid roles getting better odds.

Read the final rule

Proclamation (Sept 19th)

The $100,000 H-1B Fee

A $100,000 fee now applies to H-1B visa stamping at U.S. consulates abroad. Employees already in the U.S. on work-authorized status (F-1 OPT, J-1, TN) can avoid this fee by filing for a status change instead.

This fee is expected to reduce total lottery registrations by roughly 50%, significantly improving selection odds for employees filing from within the U.S.

Read the proclamation

Methodology

How We Calculate
Your Lottery Odds

Here are our assumptions. Many of the numbers are based on lottery data from last year (FY2026), adjusted for the new wage-weighted selection system:

1

Total Registrations

Last year's lottery (FY2026) had 343,000 registrations. The new $100,000 consular processing fee only affects applicants filing from outside the U.S.

343,000

FY2025 baseline registrations

Expected breakdown

~171,500 consular processing affected by $100k fee

~171,500 status change filings not affected

Use the calculator above to adjust your assumption about registration volume.

2

Wage Level Distribution

How registrations are distributed across wage levels, based on last year's data.

WageLevel 1
40% of registrations1 entry per person
WageLevel 2
42% of registrations2 entries per person
WageLevel 3
11% of registrations3 entries per person
WageLevel 4
7% of registrations4 entries per person
3

Total Ticket Pool

All lottery entries are combined into a single pool. Since higher wage levels receive multiple entries per registration, the total ticket pool is larger than the number of registrations.

Formula

Total Tickets = (WL1 × 1) + (WL2 × 2) + (WL3 × 3) + (WL4 × 4)

where WL1-WL4 are the number of registrations at each wage level

4

Selection Probability Formula

Based on last year's data, USCIS needs to select approximately 120,141 unique people to fill the 85,000 available H-1B visas (accounting for denials and withdrawals).

Since higher wage levels have multiple tickets, USCIS must draw more tickets than selections to reach the target.

Formula

P(selected) = 1 - (1 - f)w

where:

f = per-ticket probability

w = number of tickets (1-4 based on wage level)

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