Business Immigration Insights

On September 24, 2025, DHS issued a proposed regulation to change the annual H-1B visa lottery from a random lottery of registrants to a weighted system favoring those offered higher salaries by US employers. 

In a rapidly evolving situation broadly impacting the business immigration community, the White House issued a proclamation on Friday, September 19, 2025, implementing significant restrictions on H-1B entry and introducing a $100,000 fee requirement. The situation has been marked by initial confusion followed by crucial clarifications.

The State Department has published the October Visa Bulletin, the first issue of Fiscal Year 2026. Priority dates in most employment-based categories make modest gains, ranging from 1 week to 7 months. All categories benefit from USCIS accepting the Dates for Filing chart in October—the first time the agency has done so since January of this year—allowing from 5 to 15.5 months of additional filing time, depending on nationality and category.