H-1b visa is the most restrictive category of immigration

Government data show that H-1B visa is the most restrictive category in the US immigration system, questioning efforts to impose additional rules on employers and visa holders. Employers use H-1B visas to hire scientists, engineers and other capable individuals. Taking H-1B status is usually the only practical way that a high-profile foreign citizen, including an international student, can function long-term in the United States. However, due to the numerical boundary and high demand of the company, US citizenship and immigration services should be included in a process of selecting the case each year. USCIS announced the initial HB registration period for FY 2026 H-1b lid ranges from 7 to 24 March 2025.

H-1B is the most limiting visa category in the US immigration system

In 1990, the Congress set an annual limit of 65,000 for new H-1B petitions for high-quality foreign nationals. In 2004, the annual H-1b border became 85,000 after lawmakers expelled 20,000 individuals a year who earned a master’s degree or higher from an American university. Companies have exhausted the supply of new H-1B visas since FY 2004. Before 1990, employers can hire H-1 visa professionals without a numerical ceiling. In 2000, Congress excluded H-1B petitions for US universities and non-profit and governmental research institutions from the annual border.

Due to the 85,000 numerical ceiling, getting permission to sponsor a very skilled worker is difficult. “The low annual limit for the new H-1B petitions makes the category the most restrictive visa in the US immigration system,” according to a new National Foundation for American Policy Analysis. “In FY 2025, employers submitted at least 423.028 acceptable H-1B records, but USICS can allow only 85,000 new foreign nationals to obtain H-1B status below the annual limit, an approval rate of only 20%.”

More than 300,000 high-skilled qualified individuals cannot acquire H-1B status to work in the United States in FY 2025 due to the annual limit. Analysts say the low H-1B ceiling has stretched employers and has made it more difficult for the United States to keep talented individuals, including international students.

The analysis revealed that getting another big visa is much easier than an H-1b visa. Although only 20% of new H-1B applications are turned into workers below the 85,000 limit, the US government approved 72% of individuals who applied for visitors’ visas (B1/B2) in FY 2024 and 89% of J-1 visas, which include exchange visitors as researchers and wine workers.

For a country as large as America, 85,000 annual ceiling for new H-1B petitions is low, the equivalent of only 0.05% of the US labor force. Companies worry that being able to hire skilled foreign talent will harm them in him and other areas of competitive technology. Employers also have to fight with a new Memorandum of the Department of Justice that obliges lawyers want to prosecute prosecution related to immigration.

Immigration critics bypass high tariffs and annual H-1B limit

In January 2025, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) criticized the category after Elon Musk defended H-1B visas. Sanders reiterated the arguments he had used since at least 2009, including that H-1B visa holders are “low-paying wage workers”. The data show that the reality is quite different.

The average annual salary for an H-1B visa holder in computer-related professions in 2023 was $ 132,000, and the average salary was $ 122,000, according to USCIS statistics. “USCIS data show that H-1B visa holders are paid high salaries, and this opposes the idea that these are low-skilled people as employers would not pay people with low skills of such high salaries,” Mark Regets of NFAP said.

The law requires employers to pay the highest predominant or current salary paid for similar American workers with similar levels of experience. Companies indicate that legal and governmental tariffs for submitting an initial H-1B petition and an extension can cost employers up to $ 34,900 and much more to sponsor a permanent residence professional.

The annual limit makes the H-1B visa the most restrictive category in the US immigration system and produces results of lawmakers who are likely to never aim. According to the NFAP study, “a European young man is four times more likely to receive a visa to work in a summer amusement park than a graduate student is to receive H-1B status to work for an American artificial intelligence company.”