Published by: The Times of India - February 12, 2026
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/the-2027-h-1b-season-revised-strategies-for-sponsoring-employers-and-implications-for-aspirants/articleshow/128256141.cms
Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv in the article:
Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com, told TOI, “Employers are trying to adapt. The immediate strategic response involves a comprehensive wage analysis for every potential registrant. Employers must now determine the SOC code, the area of intended employment, and the corresponding prevailing wage level before registration opens on March 4. This is new. Previously, that analysis happened only after selection, during visa application preparation. Now, it is front-loaded into the registration process itself.”
“Many employers are re-evaluating compensation structures to push candidates into higher wage tiers where feasible. However, there is an important caveat: if multiple employers register the same beneficiary, the lowest wage level across all registrations determines the number of entries. This means a single low-wage registration from any employer can drag down the selection odds for that individual across all registrations. That is a feature designed to prevent gaming, but it also creates coordination challenges that did not exist before,” Khanna explained.
“The practical reality is that employers must prepare dual budgets,” Khanna said. “If the fee survives, the total government filing cost for a single new H-1B petition could exceed $110,000. Employers are being forced to make bet-the-company decisions about whether to participate in the March registration without knowing whether the fee will stand or fall.”
Khanna was more blunt: “The combined effect of the wage-weighted lottery and the $100,000 fee is, to be direct, a pay-to-play system.”
“Whether any new hire who wins the FY 2027 lottery will make it to the US in time for key onsite projects is the moot question. The honest answer for candidates requiring consular processing in India is almost certainly not within a normal business timeline. A candidate selected in the March 2026 lottery would typically need a visa interview before commencing H-1B employment on Oct 1, 2026. With Indian consulates showing no availability through 2026 and into 2027, that timeline is broken,” said Khanna.
Canada, the UK, Australia, and the EU are the immediate beneficiaries of America’s increasingly restrictive policies,” said Khanna.
“The fundamental question for policymakers is this,” Khanna said.
“Is the United States still competing for the world’s best talent, or is it competing to make the process as difficult and expensive as possible?”
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