Changes to the professional employment visa (H-1B) selection process that prioritize high-wage, high-skill workers are causing confusion among Korean Americans, according to a report published in this newspaper’s December 24 edition.
The long-standing random lottery system has effectively been replaced with a wage-weighted selection method. Under the revised rules, applicants earning wages at the top 95th percentile within their occupation and region receive significantly higher odds of selection, while lower-wage applicants remain eligible but face reduced probabilities.
According to revised H-1B regulations released by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on December 24th, workers classified at wage level 1 receive one lottery entry, while those at wage level 4 receive four entries. As a result, visa selection probabilities differ by wage level, at 15% for level 1, 31% for level 2, 45% for level 3, and 61% for level 4.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the rule change is intended to encourage employers to seek higher job skills and academic credentials from foreign applicants, which the agency expects will increase workforce specialization and expand entry-level hiring of US workers. However, under the new system, even workers earning $100,000 annually may still fail to secure an H-1B visa.
Wage data from the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) under the US Department of Labor, based on Fiscal Year 2025, illustrate the elevated thresholds in LA County. For bachelor’s-degree computer programmers, one of the occupations with the highest H-1B demand, the level 4 wage—defined as the top 95th percentile—is $60.30 per hour, or $125,424 annually. This is nearly double the $62,754 annual wage set for level 1 workers.
Because bachelor’s degree holders typically find it difficult to earn top-95th-percentile wages in the same role, the H-1B visa—long used by international students as a pathway to employment and long-term settlement—has become more difficult to obtain. In other H-1B occupations where Korean Americans are heavily represented, level 4 annual wages also exceed $100,000, including graphic designers ($106,392), accounting professionals ($118,435), and computer systems engineers ($145,246).
Since most bachelor’s degree holders do not earn more than $100,000 early in their careers, and since meeting OFLC-defined level 4 wages generally requires extensive experience, the entry barrier for the H-1B visa has risen substantially.
While the government says the revised selection method aims to curb the inflow of low-wage foreign labor and attract highly skilled talent, concerns have been raised about its broader impact.
Heonseong Yoo, a researcher at UCLA, said, “If the visa selection system changes in this way, universities will find it harder to hire Asian faculty,” adding that “since wages and high-level talent do not necessarily correlate, this H-1B system change could have negative effects in several areas.”
Meanwhile, a federal court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the US Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities (AAU) challenging the Donald Trump administration’s decision to raise H-1B application fees to $100,000. The suit, filed in October, argued that the fee increase conflicted with federal immigration law and would lead to job losses at companies and hospitals, as well as reduced public services.
On December 23rd, Beryl Howell, a judge at the Washington, DC Federal District Court, ruled that the fee increase fell within the president’s broad authority over immigration policy, stating that “the intense political debate over the wisdom of the policy does not fall within the court’s scope of authority.”
BY HANKIL KANG [kang.hankil@koreadaily.com]
