The Trump administration announced Thursday that it had seen a significant drop in H-1B visa applications this year, following widespread changes in allocating the work-based visa.
While President Donald Trump has frequently said he supports legal immigration, the H-1B has been a heightened focus of those seeking far tougher immigration reform. The Trump administration has responded with stricter wage rules and a steeper fee for new applications, in an effort the White House says aims to root out systemic abuse.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said Thursday that these efforts were working, posting to X, “This data is a clear sign that the days of abusing the program with mass, low-wage registrations are over, and that the program is better serving its intended purpose of attracting highly skilled foreign workers and protecting the wages, working conditions, and job opportunities of American workers.”
2027 H-1B Applications: What To Know
USCIS, which manages immigration applications and benefits within the U.S., said Thursday that it had seen a drop in “properly submitted” applications for the 2027 allocation of the H-1B. The number fell from 343,981 in fiscal year 2026 to 211,600 in 2027, a 38.5 percent drop.
The agency said this showed the days of abuse in the program were over.
It also pointed to other signs of a shift in who is being granted the visa, which has drawn criticism over employers allegedly gaming the system for cheaper labor, rather than highly skilled workers.
USCIS said in its X post that it had approved more applicants with advanced degrees and higher salaries: 71.5 percent of selected immigrants held U.S. master’s degrees or higher, up from 57 percent the year before. This means foreign students who have studied in the U.S. are then applying for and being granted H-1Bs.
The H-1B is also broken down based on salaries attached to the jobs immigrants head to the U.S. for, and USCIS touted how it was “closing the door” on low-skilled and low-wage workers, with 17.7 percent of all approvals in the lowest-wage category.
Are H-1B Reforms Working?
The Trump administration framed the data as a win, overall, for the president’s efforts to reform the visa, but that sparked backlash from those who would like to see new approvals halted altogether at a time when many tech workers already in the U.S. are losing their jobs.
“Data released by DHS [Department of Homeland Security] suggests its new H-1B weighted lottery has modestly shifted visas towards higher-skilled applicants. But we can still do so much better,” Connor O’Brien, fellow at the Institute for Progress who focuses on high-skilled immigration, told Newsweek.
“Replacing the H-1B lottery with a salary-based ranking would massively boost the average salary of new H-1B workers, better select for top talent, and protect American workers from potentially lower-wage competition. A salary-based ranking would increase average H-1B salaries so much that over time, it would raise tens of billions of dollars in additional federal tax revenue. Congressional Republicans can and should add an H-1B salary ranking provision to their reconciliation package set to be voted on soon.”
People responding to USCIS on X said that the jobs H-1B holders were getting should go to American-born workers—a familiar theme within debate around the program.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies—which advocates for a more restrictive U.S. immigration system—wrote on X, “These changes are all good, in the sense of being less bad — but only the real solution is to abolish the H-1B program altogether (along with OPT [Optional Practical Training], and more).”
The data also drew praise, including from Michael Taiwo, an entrepreneur who frequently posts about immigration. “Many people I know got it this year because they essentially stopped the competition from abroad with the $100K fee. I knew this was going to help those already in the States when it was rolled out. Good call from the administration on this one,” he said.
What Happens Next
Some lawmakers are making efforts to scrap the H-1B program altogether through legislation, but USCIS has given no indication that it will do so. The next year’s allocation is complete, with the next registration window likely to open early next year.