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An immigration row has broken out between Donald Trump supporters over a long-standing U.S. visa program.
The dispute centers on H-1B visas, which allow U.S.-based companies to bring in foreign skilled workers in certain sectors.
Some immigration hardliners say the plan hurts American workers — but its supporters say the visas allow the United States to attract the best skills from around the world.
The president-elect spoke out, saying he supported the program — even though he had criticized it in the past — and tech billionaire Elon Musk also defended it, saying it attracted “about 0.1 % of engineering talent.
Here’s what the data tells us about people entering the United States on these visas.
How many people are approved each year?
H-1B visas for skilled workers were introduced in 1990. They are generally 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, of which 20,000 are reserved for foreign students with master’s degrees or higher from American universities.
However, this cap does not apply to certain institutions such as universities, think tanks, and other nonprofit research groups, so others are often published.
People can only apply for an H-1B visa if they have employment with a sponsoring company or institution based in the United States.
The U.S. government is also approving 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 latest year for which we have complete data, according to figures from Citizenship and Immigration Services of the United States (USCIS).
This includes nearly 119,000 new H-1B visas and approximately 267,000 extensions of existing visas.
The 2023 total is down from more than 474,000 in 2022.
There have been efforts to restrict the H-1B program in the past.
In 2017, then-President Trump signed an executive order increasing scrutiny of H-1B visa applications. The order was intended to improve fraud detection within the system.
Rejection rates reached an all-time high under the first Trump administration, reaching 24% in fiscal year 2018, compared to rejection rates of between 5 and 8% during the Obama administration and between 2 and 4% under the President Biden.
However, the total number of approved candidates under the Biden administration has been similar to that under the first Trump 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.
During the first three years of the Biden administration (2021-2023), approximately 1.2 million applications were approved, of which nearly 375,000 were new applicants.
Demand often exceeds the number of visas granted: in most years, there are thousands more applications submitted than approved.
In cases where the number of applications received exceeds the number of visas available, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) runs the H-1B program like a lottery – which critics say highlights a fundamental flaw in the system.
“Ultimately, if you’re going to do a skilled worker program, you’re not going to award these visas through a lottery,” said Eric Ruark, research director at NumbersUSA, an organization that advocates for for stricter control of immigration. controls.
“Clearly, that’s not how you find the best and brightest.”
We don’t yet have a full report on the 2024 numbers, but preliminary numbers suggest applications are up sharply.
The number of eligible records released by USCIS showed 758,994 applications in fiscal year 2024, up from 474,421 in 2023.
With Trump returning to the White House in January, Ruark said he believes resolving the H-1B debate will ultimately be among the factors that define his presidency.
“Will this second term be pro-American for workers, or will it 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 huge fight in the second term.”
What sectors and companies do they work in?
The vast majority of approved applicants work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
Most work in IT-related professions – 65% for FY 2023.
This is followed by architecture, engineering and surveying – around 10% of those licensed in 2023 worked in these sectors.
In terms of businesses, Amazon was the top employer of people on H-1B visas in 2024, hiring more than 13,000 people through this program.
Other household names like Google, Meta, and Apple feature prominently on the employer list, ranking 4th, 6th, and 8th, respectively.
Tesla, one of the companies owned by Elon Musk – which supported the program – ranked 22nd, employing more than 1,700 people on H-1B visas.
California and Texas were the states with the most people working on H-1B visas in 2024.
How much do they earn?
The median annual income for people working in the US on an H-1B visa in 2023 was $118,000 (£94,046).
The median annual income for people in computer science and mathematics occupations in the United States is about $113,000, slightly less than that of people working in similar industries through the H-1B program.
The median household income in the United States is around $60,000 per year.
While opponents of the H-1B system often make the argument that H-1B holders undercut the wages of American workers, some lawyers and immigration law experts object to this notion.
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 workers in similar jobs 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 prevailing wages “are not a complete test of the labor market,” they are indicative of the fact that H-1B visa holders are not. negatively affecting the rest of the workforce.
“Let’s say you’re a software engineer in Washington, D.C. You look at the going rate for software engineers in Washington, D.C., and you have to certify that you’re paying at least that amount,” said Ms. Dalal-Dheini, who has also worked on H-1B questions while he was a USCIS official.
“That way you’re not really cutting salaries.”
Additionally, Ms. Dalal-Dheini said U.S. companies also must pay significant fees to file H-1B petitions, often in addition to attorney fees.
“Companies that end up sponsoring H-1B beneficiaries have to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 on top of what would be paid to a U.S. worker,” she said.
“Ultimately, if they could find a qualified American worker, most companies would probably choose to hire that American worker because it would save money.”
Where do people come from?
The vast majority of those approved are from India.
The latest data shows that around 72% of visas were issued to Indian nationals, followed by 12% to Chinese citizens.
About 1% came from the Philippines, Canada and South Korea, respectively.
About 70% of those who enter the United States on an H-1B visa are men, with the average age of those approved being about 33 years old.
Additional reporting by Becky Dale.
