The Trump administration has selected 120,141 H-1B visa applications for the fiscal year 2026, according to newly released data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump has previously expressed support for employment-based visas, especially the H-1B program. The announcement comes amid renewed scrutiny of employment-based immigration and signals a more restrained approach compared to previous years.
What To Know
The FY 2026 H-1B cap season experienced a notable decline in both total registrations and eligible applicants compared to previous years. USCIS received 358,737 H-1B registrations, of which 343,981 were deemed eligible. This represents a 27% drop in eligible registrations from the 470,342 reported for FY 2025.
Additionally, the number of unique applicants fell sharply. For FY 2026, approximately 336,000 individuals submitted applications, down from 423,000 the previous year, signaling either reduced participation or stricter eligibility criteria.
A detailed look shows that 336,153 eligible registrations came from individuals with only one registration, while just 7,828 registrations were from beneficiaries with multiple submissions. This is a significant decrease compared to prior years when multiple filings made up a larger share of total registrations.
In contrast, FY 2024 saw over 758,000 eligible registrations and 188,400 selections. The current decline suggests a tightening of eligibility scrutiny and potentially lower demand for H-1B visas, possibly reflecting recent policy changes.
Selected applications—approximately 35% of eligible registrations—were chosen through the lottery system that allocates the limited number of visas available under the annual cap.
The number of unique employers participating in FY 2026 was roughly 57,600, similar to the approximately 52,700 reported in FY 2025.
However, the number of eligible unique beneficiaries dropped significantly to about 336,000 this year, down from 423,000 last year.
Eligible registrations also fell sharply to 343,981 in FY 2026, compared to 470,342 in FY 2025—a decrease of nearly 27%.
On average, there were 1.01 registrations per beneficiary in FY 2026, down from 1.06 in FY 2025, indicating that most beneficiaries had only one registration submitted on their behalf.
Industries such as technology, finance, and academia remain some of the largest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program. In 2024, leading firms like Amazon, Google, and Meta were granted thousands of H-1B visas. Tesla, under the leadership of Elon Musk, reportedly used the program to bring hundreds of skilled workers to the United States.
The H-1B program operates under an annual cap of 65,000 new visas. However, an additional 20,000 petitions are exempt from this limit for applicants who hold a U.S. master’s degree or higher, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
What People Are Saying
U.S. Tech Workers said in a post on X: “H-1B visa numbers for FY 2026: Despite mass tech layoffs and voter backlash—especially after the Christmas H-1B uproar—the Trump team stays hands-off: 120,141 NEW H-1Bs selected for FY2026. Demand remains high despite layoffs—a clear sign U.S. workers are being replaced.
What Happens Next
Although Trump is ramping up his crackdown on immigrants, the full impact of his administration’s policies on H-1B registrations may not be evident until next year.
Whether the administration’s agenda leads to a decrease in unique applicants next year will largely depend on changes in the job market and shifts in U.S. immigration policies.
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