Washington, Dec. 24 -- The US Department of Homeland Security has finalised a rule replacing the random H-1B visa lottery with a weighted selection process that prioritises higher-paid and higher-skilled foreign workers, a change expected to make it significantly harder for entry-level professionals, particularly from India, to secure American work visas. The final rule, announced on Tuesday and effective February 27, 2026, will govern the allocation of approximately 85,000 H-1B visas annually beginning with the fiscal 2027 registration season. Under the new system, applications for higher-paid workers will receive greater weight in the selection process, while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels. "The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by US employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers," said US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser. "The new weighted selection will better serve Congress' intent for the H-1B programme and strengthen America's competitiveness by incentivising American employers to petition for higher-paid, higher-skilled foreign workers." The change marks a fundamental restructuring of how America allocates work visas to foreign professionals....