What we know about H-1B visas Trump supporters clash

An immigration row has erupted between Donald Trump’s supporters over a long-running US visa program.

The feud is over H-1B visas, which allow US-based companies to bring in skilled workers from abroad into certain industries.

Critics say the scheme undercuts American workers – but supporters say the visas allow the US to attract the best expertise from around the world.

The president-elect has weighed in, saying 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 talents”.

Here’s what the data tells us about who is entering the United States on these visas.

H-1B visas for skilled workers were introduced in 1990. They are typically granted for three years, but can be extended for up to six years.

Since 2004, the number of new H-1B visas issued has been capped at 85,000 per year — 20,000 of which are reserved for foreign students with master’s degrees or higher from American universities.

However, that cap 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 lined up at a US-based sponsoring company or institution.

The US government also approves extensions for those already working in the country.

Just over 386,000 H-1B applications were approved in fiscal year 2023 (October 2022-September 2023), the most recent year for which we have complete data, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) figures.

That includes nearly 119,000 new H-1B visas and about 267,000 extensions of existing visas.

The total in 2023 is down from more than 474,000 in 2022.

There have been efforts in the past to further limit the H-1B program.

In 2017, then-President Trump signed an executive order that increased scrutiny of H-1B visa applications. The order aimed to improve the detection of fraud within the scheme.

Rejection rates hit one all-time high during the first Trump administrationand reached 24% in fiscal year 2018, compared to rejection rates of between 5-8% under the Obama administration and between 2-4% under President Biden.

However, the total number of approved applicants under the Biden administration has matched that under Trump’s first.

In the three years following President Trump’s executive order (2018-2020), about 1.1 million applications were approved, of which about 343,000 were new applicants.

In the first three years of the Biden administration (2021-2023), about 1.2 million applications were approved, with nearly 375,000 new applicants.

Demand often exceeds the amount of visas granted – in most years, thousands more applications are submitted than approved.

In cases where more applications are received than visas are available, USCIS effectively runs the H-1B program like a lottery — which opponents say highlights a fundamental flaw in the system.

“At the end of the day, if you’re going to have a skilled labor program for ‘skilled’ workers, you don’t award these visas through a lottery,” said Eric Ruark, director of research at NumbersUSA, an organization that advocates for tighter immigration controls.

“Obviously, that’s not how you find the best and the brightest.”

We do not yet have a full report on the 2024 figures, but preliminary figures suggest that the number of applications has increased sharply.

The number of eligible registrations published by USCIS showed 758,994 applications in 2024 compared to 474,421 in 2023.

With Trump heading back to the White House in January, says Mr. Ruark said he believes resolving the H-1B debate will ultimately be among the defining factors of his presidency.

“Will the second term be pro-American worker, or return to the old Republican position that immigration is designed to help employers — at the expense of American workers?” he says.

“It will be a huge battle in the second period.”

The vast majority of approved applicants work in natural sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Most are in computer-related occupations – 65% in the financial year 2023.

This was followed by architecture, engineering and surveying – around 10% of those admitted in 2023 worked in these sectors.

With regard to companies, Amazon was the best employer of people on H-1B visas by 2024, employing more than 13,000 employees through the scheme.

Other well-known names such as Google, Meta and Apple are high on the employer list – 4th, 6th and 8th place respectively.

Tesla, one of the companies owned by Elon Musk — which has backed the program — ranked 22nd, employing more than 1,700 people on an H-1B visa.

California and Texas were the states with the most people working on an H-1B visa in 2024.

The average annual income for people approved to work in the US on an H-1B visa in fiscal year 2023 was $118,000 (£94,000).

The median annual income of people in computer and math occupations across the US is about $113,000 (£90,000) – slightly less than those in similar sectors via the H-1B program.

The median household income in the US is around $60,000 (£48,000) a year.

While opponents of the H-1B system often make the argument that H-1B holders undercut the wages of American workers, some immigration lawyers and experts push back against that view.

The vast majority of H-1B holders earn more than the “prevailing wage” for their occupation—a figure determined by the Department of Labor that calculates the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a particular part of the country.

Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the BBC that while the prevailing wages are “not a full labor market test”, they are indicative of the fact that H-1B visa holders are not adversely affected by the rest of the workforce.

“Let’s say you’re a software engineer in Washington, DC. You look at the going rate for software engineers in DC, and you have to confirm that you’re paying at least that amount,” says Ms. Dalal-Dheini, who also worked on the H-1B -question while he was an official at USCIS.

“You don’t really undercut wages that way.”

In addition, Ms. Dalal-Dheini says, U.S. firms also have to pay significant fees to file H-1B petitions, often in addition to legal fees.

“Companies that end up sponsoring H-1B (recipients) are looking at costs of up to $5,000 to $10,000 over and above what you would pay an American worker,” she says.

“The bottom line is that if they could find an American worker who was qualified, most companies would probably choose to hire the American worker because it would be a cost savings.”

The vast majority of those approved come from India.

The latest data showed around 72% of 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, and the average age of those approved is about 33.

Additional reporting by Becky Dale.