> stay --survival-odds --rules=2026
Will this job actually keep you in the country?_
Every other tool tells you whether a company sponsors. Stay scores every job by your real odds of building a lasting career here — under the rules as they exist today, not last year.
> your_situation
A $78,000 offer is a DOL Level I wage — single-draw odds 15%. STEM gives ~3 lottery cycles, so your multi-year odds land near 39%.
↑ raise your odds
A $85,000 offer reaches Level II — lifting each draw 15% → 30% (just $7,000 more). Negotiating up, or targeting a higher-band title, literally buys you better odds.
open roles that skip the lottery entirely
universities · research nonprofits · hospitals · national labs
> paste any job or type a company
> timeline_copilot
Race your OPT clock — how many H-1B draws you really have, and what to do this week
// why now — the playbook broke in one year
Three federal shocks, one year, stacked on entry-level talent
effective feb 27, 2026
Wage-weighted lottery
The random lottery is gone. Entries now scale with salary level — so a typical new-grad offer drops from ~35% odds to roughly 15%. The rule targets entry-level talent directly.
effective sep 21, 2025
The $100,000 fee
A six-figure fee chilled employer appetite to sponsor — even though it mostly does NOT apply to students already here filing a change of status. The fear is doing damage the fine print doesn't.
effective sep 15, 2026
The 30-day rule
Duration of Status is over. Stays are capped at 4 years, the grace period is halved to 30 days, and every extension is now a formal USCIS filing that can be denied.
> lottery_skip_list --cap-exempt
The escape hatch: 544 employers that skip the lottery
Universities, nonprofit research orgs, and teaching hospitals file H-1B year-round — no cap, no lottery. Post-wage-weighting, this is the single smartest path for entry-level talent.
University of Miami
University
2,076
roles
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
University
1,094
roles
UNIVERSITY OF VALLEY FORGE OF THE
University
896
roles
THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE AT NATIONWIDE CHILDRENS HOSPITAL
University
707
roles
University of Mississippi Medical Center
University
627
roles
Ivy Tech Community College
University
487
roles
University of Wisconsin - Platteville
University
473
roles
University of Wisconsin - River Falls
University
471
roles
University of Wisconsin - Parkside
University
471
roles
// the moat — a data engine competitors can't clone in a quarter
The sponsorship graph
Entity-resolved DOL LCA + PERM + USCIS outcomes, normalized to the role level. Tedious infrastructure — which is exactly why nobody has cleanly joined “this live req” to “this employer's entry-level sponsorship behavior.”
The only live 2026 survival model
First to encode the Feb-2026 weighted-lottery math and the Sep-2026 runway into a live per-candidate number. Being first on rules that are weeks old is a lead measured in months.
The outcome flywheel
Every “got sponsored / got auto-rejected / won the lottery” report sharpens the model. Better scores → more trust → more shares → more outcomes — a compounding data loop.
// join the first cohort
Know your real odds before you waste 500 applications
Free forever to score jobs and browse lottery-free roles. Early members get the timeline copilot first.
Odds and scores are modeled from public DOL/USCIS data and the 2026 rule changes (weighted-selection final rule eff. Feb 27 2026; Duration-of-Status final rule eff. Sep 15 2026). Not legal or immigration advice.