Resource
Re: “Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions” (USCIS-2025-0040-0001)
Dear Secretary Noem and Director Edlow:
The American Council of Engineering Companies (“ACEC”) submits this letter in response to the Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS” or “the Department”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions,” published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2025 (“NPRM”).
Founded in 1906, ACEC is a national federation of 51 state and regional organizations representing more than 5,500 engineering firms and over 600,000 engineers, surveyors, architects, and other specialists nationwide. ACEC member firms drive the design of America’s infrastructure and built environment, including roads, bridges, water and wastewater systems, energy, aviation, commercial buildings, and data centers. According to the ACEC Research Institute, the engineering industry contributed $685 billion to U.S. GDP in 2024, including $262
billion in direct value added and $423 billion from supply chain and household spending impacts.1
The proposed rule seeks to overhaul the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) selection process for registrations for H-1B cap-subject petitions by transitioning away from a random selection process (“the lottery”) to a weighted system that favors petitions with a higher prevailing wage level. Under the proposed rule, each H-1B registration would be assigned a number of entries into the H-1B selection pool based on Department of Labor Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) wage levels, with a Level IV receiving four entries and a Level I receiving one entry. While each beneficiary would still only be selected once, the odds of selection would heavily favor more senior roles.