Your lottery selection is tied to the petitioning employer. Understand your options before making any moves.
Being selected in the FY2027 H-1B lottery is a major milestone, but what happens if you receive a better job offer or your relationship with the sponsoring employer changes before the October 1 start date? The short answer is that lottery selections cannot be transferred between employers. This guide explains exactly what you can and cannot do, the risks involved, and alternative paths if you want to switch.
| Company | Total H-1B Filings | Industry |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 55,150 | Technology |
| Microsoft | 34,626 | Technology |
| 33,416 | Technology | |
| Infosys | 32,840 | IT Consulting |
| Tata Consultancy | 28,950 | IT Consulting |
| Cognizant | 26,700 | IT Consulting |
| Apple | 15,800 | Technology |
| JPMorgan Chase | 12,400 | Finance |
The H-1B lottery selection is fundamentally tied to the employer-employee relationship established during registration. When your employer registered you in the FY2027 lottery, they submitted a beneficiary registration form with their company details, your passport information, and the proposed position. USCIS selected that specific registration — not you as an individual. This means the selection cannot be detached from the registering employer and reassigned to a new company.
If your new desired employer is a cap-exempt organization — such as a university, nonprofit research institution, or government research entity — they can file an H-1B petition on your behalf at any time without going through the lottery. This is the only way to switch employers and still begin H-1B employment by October 1 of the same fiscal year. The cap-exempt petition is filed independently of any lottery process, so your existing selection remains unaffected.
For cap-subject employers, the situation is more restrictive. The new employer cannot use your existing lottery selection. They would need to register you in the next fiscal year's lottery (FY2028) and hope for selection. In the meantime, you could continue working under OPT or your current status. Withdrawing your current petition to take a different role is extremely risky — if the new employer's future lottery registration is not selected, you could lose your work authorization entirely.
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Search H-1B Sponsors on Wisa →Yes, if your new employer qualifies as a cap-exempt organization (university, nonprofit research entity, or government research organization), they can file an H-1B petition on your behalf at any time regardless of the lottery. This petition would be completely independent of your existing cap-subject selection. You can even have both petitions pending simultaneously. However, you can only work for the employer whose petition has been approved and whose H-1B status is active.
If you are on OPT or STEM OPT, withdrawing your H-1B petition before October 1 does not immediately affect your OPT status. Your OPT continues based on its own end date. However, you lose the cap-gap extension that would have bridged your OPT expiration to October 1. If your OPT was set to expire before October and you were relying on the cap-gap extension, withdrawing the petition means your work authorization ends when OPT expires. Consult an immigration attorney before withdrawing.
Yes, and this is often the safest approach. You can negotiate salary, title, location, and other terms with your current sponsoring employer while the petition is pending. If the changes are material (different job duties, different work location), an amended petition may need to be filed. Simple salary increases typically do not require an amendment as long as the wage still meets prevailing wage requirements. This avoids the risk of losing your lottery selection entirely.
Once your H-1B status activates on October 1, you can transfer to a new employer at any time under H-1B portability rules established by the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act (AC21). The new employer files a transfer petition, and you can begin working for them as soon as the petition is received by USCIS — you do not need to wait for approval. This is generally the safest path if you want to switch employers, as it preserves your H-1B status throughout the process.