NEW DELHI: As preparations continue for the second Donald Trump presidency, immigration remains a contentious issue, with the H-1B visa category — which permits employers to hire highly skilled foreign professionals temporarily — at the centre of a heated political debate.
Though Trump defended the H-1B visa program on Saturday in an interview with The New York Post, emphasizing that he has “always liked the visas” and has been a “believer” in them, confusing signals from various factions in the new President’s immediate ecosystem are anything but re-assuring.
Rather they send worrying messages to Indians who overwhelmingly secure this highly sought after visas. Over the past four years, more than 78% of the highest-paid H-1B applicants—those with proposed salaries exceeding $1 million per year—were from India. Of these high earners, more than 25% were women. And more than 65% of these well-heeled H-1B applicants from India were sponsored by smaller US-based companies.
The H-1B applicants sponsored by US companies generally had higher salary offers compared to those sponsored by companies based in India, who are anyway availing less number of visa in this category.
Here’s a look at the H-1B visa program and why it stirs a political pot and muddies the debate on immigration.
What is it all about
The H-1B non-immigrant visa allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, defined by statute as occupations that require highly specialised knowledge and a bachelor’s or higher degree in the specific specialty, or its equivalent.
The US Congress created the H-1B program in 1990. The law initially capped the number of H-1B visas issued per fiscal year at 65,000. Since 2004, the number of new H-1B visas issued has been capped at 85,000 per year. Out of this chunk, 20,000 are reserved for foreign students with master’s degrees or higher qualifications from American universities. Though granted for three years, these visas can be extended up to six years.
Individuals can apply for an H-1B visa only if they have secured a job with a US-based sponsoring company or institution. The US government also grants extensions for those already employed in the country.
How many are granted
As per the latest information available with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), some 3,86,000 H-1B applications were approved in 2023 (October 2022-September 2023). This includes nearly 1,19,000 new H-1B visas and approximately 2,67,000 extensions of existing visas. The total visa approved for 2023 is a decrease from over 4,74,000 in 2022. The latest data revealed that approximately 72% of visas were issued to Indian nationals, followed by 12% to Chinese citizens.
H1 B visas are always in high demand. The number of eligible registrations published by the USCIS showed 7,58,994 applications in 2024, compared to 4,74,421 in 2023. When the number of applications surpasses the available visas, the USCIS goes for a lottery system—a process many critics argue exposes a fundamental flaw in the system. Advocates of stricter immigration policies such as Eric Ruark, Director of Research at NumbersUSA, have been questioning how a visa program meant to bring in skilled workers can take the lottery route.
The majority of approved applicants work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. The largest group is in computer-related jobs, accounting for 65% of visa approvals in the 2023 fiscal year. Approximately 10% of those approved in 2023 were employed in architecture, engineering and surveying. Regarding employers, Amazon was the leading company for H-1B visa hires in 2024, employing over 13,000 staff through the program.
“American businesses rely on the H-1B visa program for the recruitment of highly-skilled talent, benefiting communities across the country,” said US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N Mayorkas on December 17 as he announced certain “improvements to the program provide employers with greater flexibility to hire global talent, boost our economic competitiveness, and allow highly skilled workers to continue to advance American innovation.”
While these changes are administrative in nature, the fear is that the special visa category could be headed for more changes under the weight of political compulsions during Trump 2.0.
How it benefits the US
Low unemployment rates in occupations that draw H-1B workers from 2004 to 2023 indicate that demand exceeds supply.
As per a study, restrictions on H-1B visas motivate US-based MNCs to decrease the number of jobs they offer in the country. Instead, they increase jobs at their existing foreign affiliates or open new foreign affiliates— particularly in India, China, and Canada.
A 2019 study revealed that higher rates of successful H-1B applications were positively correlated with an increased number of patents filed and patent citations. Such startups were more inclined to secure venture capital funding and achieve successful IPOs or acquisitions H-1B workers do not earn low wages.
In 2021, the median wage of an H-1B worker was $108,000, compared to $45,760 for US workers in general The rapid Covid response underlined that skills H-1B workers bring with them can be critical in dealing with emergencies.
Between FY 2010 and FY 2019, eight US companies that would later participate in the development of a Covid vaccine—Gilead Sciences, Moderna, GlaxoSmithKline, Inovio, Johnson & Johnson, Regeneron, Vir Therapeutics, and Sanofi —received approvals for 3,310 biochemists, biophysicists, chemists, and other scientists through the H-1B program.
(Source: American Immigration Council)
In the eye of a political storm
Restricting immigration has been a pressing agenda for the Trump administration. After an executive order in 2017 by President Trump to weed out fraudsters, the rejection rates of H-1B visas had showed more than a four-fold jump to reach 24%. So the debate around H-1B brings in a similar fear. But though political rhetoric was absent, the total number of approved applicants under the Biden administration was the same as that under Trump’s first term in office.
The political rhetoric surrounding the H-1B visa has become increasingly concerning and deeply disheartening with certain influential figures intensifying the debate. Additionally, the growing divide between the extreme and moderate factions of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement is equally troubling.
Both Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, highly successful American businessmen Trump chose to head the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, vociferously defended the foreign worker visa program. But their support evoked a strong backlash from MAGA fans who want to restrict immigration at any cost.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who is considered an intellectual fount of the Republican right in many ways called the H-1B visa a “scam” during an episode of his podcast. Bannon warned Musk that he and other MAGA diehards are going to “rip your face off” unless the Tesla boss smartens up and understands how the skilled immigrants are taking up the high paying jobs of the Americans.
Bannon termed Musk and Ramaswamy “recent converts” while underlining the importance of checking immigration for the diehards of MAGA.
The beeline of those who support the MAGA diehards on the issue include former Congressman and Trump ally Matt Gaetz and far-right provocateur Laura Loomer. And the power of this gang to raise a dust storm over an issue is immense.
The recent uproar over the H-1B debate started when some Trump supporters, including Laura Loomer, railed against the appointment of Sriram Krishnan, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, as the administration’s AI policy adviser.
“How will [we] control immigration in our country and promote America First innovation when Trump appointed this guy who wants to REMOVE all restrictions on green card caps in the United States,” she wrote.
“So that foreign students (which makes up 78% of the employees in Silicon Valley) can come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.”
Such voices have the power to swing political decisions in a polarised country. For many diehards of MAGA, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is a rank outsider. Born in South Africa and a Canadian citizen by descent, Musk came to the US as an international student and later worked in the country on an H-1B visa as well.
Musk has been passionately championing the H-1B visa program, underscoring its importance for the growth of tech companies, including his own and the American economy. He had declared that he would “go to war” to protect access to H-1B visas.
“The reason I’m in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong, is because of H-1B, I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
The resolution of the H-1B visa debate will be one of the key issues that could shape Trump’s second term as it has become an indicator on whether the administration will prioritise the interests of American workers or return to the traditional Republican stance, which views immigration primarily as a means to benefit employers, often at the expense of US workers.
