- updated 11/6/2025 -
On September 24, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security-US Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS/USCIS) published a proposed rule titled Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions.
The proposed rule would replace the current random selection process for H-1B cap-subject registrations with a weighted selection process that would generally favor the allocation of H-1B visas to more senior and higher paid workers.
The University of Michigan recently submitted a comment letter arguing that the weighted lottery, as proposed, would have a significant, negative effect on the University and higher education in the US as a whole.
The University is “cap-exempt” and does not participate in the lottery for the H-1B petitions it submits for faculty and staff. However, many of our international students eventually hope to secure H-1B status based on employment with private sector employers, and so would be affected if the proposed rule becomes final. In fact, in 2024-25, 2357 recent University of Michigan graduates were on F-1 Optional Practical Training (OPT), STEM OPT or J-1 Academic Training. As of October 1, 2025, approximately 380 of these U-M graduates were approved for H-1B status through the 2025 H-1B lottery, based on a review of U-M’s SEVIS data. Thus, it was important to submit a comment letter to reflect the significance of this issue for the U-M international student population.