What we know about US H-1B visas, Trump supporters argue

An immigration conflict has erupted among supporters of Donald Trump over the long-standing US visa program.

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

Some immigration hardliners say the scheme undercuts American workers, but supporters say the visas allow the U.S. to attract the best professionals from around the world.

The president-elect weighed in, saying he supports the program — despite being critical of it in the past — and tech billionaire Elon Musk also defended it, saying it attracts “about 0.1% of the top engineering talents”.

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

H-1B visas for skilled workers were introduced in 1990. They are usually issued 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 for international students with a master’s degree or higher from a US university.

However, this limit does not apply to some institutions, such as universities, think tanks and other non-profit research groups, so more is often issued.

People can apply for an H-1B visa only if they have a job with a sponsoring US company or institution.

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

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

This 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 attempts in the past to further limit the H-1B program.

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

The rejection rate hit the all-time high under the first Trump administrationreaching 24% in fiscal year 2018, compared to deviation rates of 5-8% under the Obama administration and 2-4% under President Biden.

However, the total number of approved applicants under the Biden administration was the same as during the first Trump administration.

In the three years since President Trump’s executive order (2018-2020), about 1.1 million applications have been approved, with about 343,000 first-time applicants.

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

Demand often exceeds the number of visas issued – in most years thousands of applications are submitted than approved.

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

“Ultimately, if you’re going to have a skilled worker program for ‘skilled’ workers, you’re not going to give out those visas through a lottery,” said Eric Ruark, director of research at NumbersUSA, an immigration advocacy group. control elements.

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

We don’t yet have a full report on the numbers for 2024, but preliminary data suggests that the number of applications has increased dramatically.

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

When Trump returned to the White House in January, Mr. Ruark said he believed resolving the H-1B debate would ultimately be one of the defining factors of his presidency.

“Will this second term be pro-American worker, or will it revert to the old Republican establishment position that immigration is meant to help employers at the expense of American workers?” he said.

“It’s going to be a big fight in the second term.”

The vast majority of approved candidates work in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Most of them are in computer professions – 65% in FY2023.

This was followed by architecture, engineering and surveying – these fields employed about 10% of people approved in 2023.

As for companies, Amazon was a major employer people on H-1B visas in 2024, hiring more than 13,000 workers under the scheme.

Other familiar names such as Google, Meta and Apple rank high on the employer list at 4th, 6th and 8th respectively.

Tesla, one of the companies owned by Elon Musk that backed the program, ranked 22nd, employing more than 1,700 people on H-1B visas.

California and Texas were the states with the most H-1B workers in 2024.

The median annual income of people working in the US on an H-1B visa in 2023 was $118,000 (£94,046).

The average annual income for people in computer and math occupations in the U.S. is about $113,000 – slightly less than in similar H-1B sectors.

The average family income in the US is about $60,000 a year.

While opponents of the H-1B system often argue that H-1B holders lower the wages of American workers, some immigration lawyers and experts disagree.

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-Daney, senior director of government affairs for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the BBC that while the prevailing wages “are not a complete test of the labor market”, they indicate that H-visa holders 1B does not adversely affect the rest of the workforce.

“Let’s say you’re a software engineer in Washington, DC. You look at the current rate for software engineers in the District of Columbia and you have to certify that you’re paying at least that amount,” said Ms. Dalal-Daney, who also worked on H-1B issues while at USCIS.

“You’re not really taking a pay cut that way.”

In addition, Ms. Dalal-Daney said U.S. firms also have to pay significant fees for filing H-1B petitions, often in addition to attorneys’ fees.

“Companies that sponsor H-1B (recipients) are looking at $5,000 to $10,000 in costs on top of what you have to pay the American worker,” she said.

“The bottom line is that if they could find a skilled American worker, most companies would probably choose to hire that American worker because it would result in savings.”

The vast majority of those approved come from India.

The the latest data showed 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.

Approximately 70% of those entering the U.S. on H-1B visas are men, and the average age of visa holders is about 33 years old.

Additional reporting by Becky Dale.