Trump supporters clash over what we know about US H-1B visas
getty imagesAn immigration controversy has erupted among Donald Trump’s supporters over the long-running US visa program.
The dispute is over H-1B visas, which allow US-based companies to bring in skilled workers from abroad in certain industries.
Some immigration hard-liners say the plan undercuts American workers — but supporters say the visas allow the US to attract the best expertise from around the world.
The president-elect has said he supports the program – despite being critical of it in the past – and tech billionaire Elon Musk has also defended it, saying it attracts “the top ~0.1% of engineering talent”.
Here’s what the data tells us about who enters the US on these visas.
How many people are approved each year?
The H-1B visa for skilled workers was introduced in 1990. These are usually granted for three years, but can be extended up to six years.
Since 2004, the number of new H-1B visas issued has been limited to 85,000 per year – 20,000 of which are reserved for foreign students with master’s degrees or higher from U.S. universities.
However, that limit does not apply to some institutions such as universities, think tanks, and other non-profit research groups, so more are often issued.
People can apply for an H-1B visa only if they have a job with a US-based sponsoring company or institution.
The US government also approves extensions for people already working in the country.
More than 386,000 H-1B applications were approved in the 2023 fiscal year (October 2022-September 2023), the latest year for which we have complete data. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data,
This includes approximately 119,000 new H-1B visas and approximately 267,000 extensions of existing visas.
The total number in 2023 is reduced by more than 474,000 in 2022.
There have been efforts in the past to restrict the H-1B program.
In 2017, then President Trump signed an executive order This has increased the scrutiny of H-1B visa applications. The order sought to increase fraud detection within the scheme.
Rejection rates affected All-time high under the first Trump administrationIt reached 24% in the 2018 fiscal year, while rejection rates ranged between 5-8% under the Obama administration and 2-4% under President Biden.
However, the total number of approved applicants under the Biden administration has remained the same as under Trump’s first administration.
In the three years following President Trump’s executive order (2018–2020), approximately 1.1 million applications were approved, of which approximately 343,000 were first-time applicants.
In the first three years of the Biden administration (2021-2023), approximately 1.2 million applications were approved, including approximately 375,000 new applicants.
Demand often exceeds the amount of visas granted – in most years thousands more applications are filed than approved.
In cases where more applications are received than visas are available, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) effectively runs the H-1B program as a lottery – which opponents believe is a flaw in the system. exposes a fundamental flaw.
“After all, if you’re going to have a skilled worker program for ‘skilled’ workers, you don’t give out these visas through a lottery,” said Eric Ruark, research director for NumbersUSA, an organization advocating stricter immigration. . Control.
“Obviously, that’s not how you find the best and the brightest.”
We don’t have a full report on the numbers for 2024 yet, but preliminary data suggests that applications have increased rapidly.
Number of eligible registrations Published by USCIS The 2024 fiscal year showed 758,994 applications, compared to 474,421 in 2023.
After Trump returned to the White House in January, Mr. Ruark said he believed the resolution of the H-1B debate would ultimately be one of the defining factors of his presidency.
“Is that second term going to be pro-American activist, or revert to the old establishment Republican position that immigration is designed to help employers at the expense of American workers?” He said.
“It’s going to be a big fight in the second term.”
What industries and companies do they work in?
The majority of accepted applicants work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Most are in computer-related occupations – 65% in the 2023 fiscal year.
This was followed by architecture, engineering and surveying – about 10% of those accepted in 2023 worked in those fields.
In the context of companies, Amazon was the top employer Number of people on H-1B visas in 2024, hiring of more than 13,000 workers through the scheme.
Other familiar names like Google, Meta and Apple are ranked fourth, sixth and eighth respectively in the employer list.
Tesla, one of the companies owned by Elon Musk – which has supported the program – ranked 22nd, employing more than 1,700 people on H-1B visas.
California and Texas were the states where the most people were working on H-1B visas in 2024.
How much do they earn?
The median annual income of people working in the US on an H-1B visa in 2023 was $118,000 (£94,046).
average annual income of people There is approximately $113,000 in computer and mathematical occupations across the US – slightly less than similar fields through the H-1B program.
median household income That’s about $60,000 per year in the US.
While opponents of the H-1B system often argue that H-1B holders take a bite out of the wages of American workers, some immigration lawyers and experts reject that notion.
The vast majority of H-1B holders earn more than the “prevailing wage” for their occupation – a figure set by the Labor Department that calculates the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a particular part of the country.
Shev Dalal-Dheny, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the BBC that, although the prevailing wages are “not a complete labor market test”, they are indicative of the fact that H-1B visa holders are not. negatively impacting the remaining workforce.
“Let’s say you’re a software engineer in Washington, D.C.. You look at the going rate for software engineers in D.C., and you have to certify that you’re getting paid at least this much amount,” Ms. Dalal-Dheny. Said, who also worked on H-1B issues while as an official at USCIS.
“You’re not really taking a pay cut that way.”
Additionally, Ms. Dalal-Dheny said U.S. companies often have to pay significant fees, in addition to attorney’s fees, to file an H-1B petition.
“Companies sponsoring H-1B (recipients) are looking at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 on top of paying an American worker,” he said.
“The bottom line is that if they find a qualified American worker, most companies would probably want to hire that American worker because it would be a cost savings.”
Where are people coming from?
The majority of those accepted come from India.
Latest data shown About 72% of the visas were issued to Indian nationals, followed by 12% to Chinese nationals.
About 1% came from the Philippines, Canada and South Korea respectively.
About 70% of those entering the US on H-1B visas are men, with the average age of those accepted being about 33 years old.
Additional reporting by Becky Dale.
