[vsskanth]

No. You previously had to fill the entire H1B petition and pay full fees (including lawyer fees to prepare the petition) just to enter the H1B lottery. Your fees get refunded if you do not get selected in the lottery. You're still out lawyer fees though.

The $10 fee to enter your name and later fill the entire petition is a fairly recent change

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/11/08/2019-24...

[lolinder]

Fair, but this isn't a new change this year. If the catastrophe that you say will happen was going to happen, we should already be seeing it since at least 2020.

[vsskanth]

Yeah it's been pretty bad ever since then. You can see the massive rise in registrations from 2020.

https://redbus2us.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/H1B-Visa-Re...