H-1B visa holders are not ‘cheap labour’ - why foreign workers are important for US

H-1B visas, connected which the Donald Trump medication is imposing expanding restrictions, are really beneficial for the US system and dissimilar immoderate radical who assertion that they represent ‘cheap labour’, grounds seems to suggest otherwise, says National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) successful its latest report.US President Donald Trump had successful September announced a $100,000 interest for caller H-1B visa applicants, a determination that has added increasing uncertainty to the employment prospects of respective overseas nationals, including Indians, who privation to enactment successful America. The Trump medication is besides mulling a caller wage-weighted strategy arsenic enactment criterion for H-1B visas, doing distant with the existent lottery-based system.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has released guidance confirming that the $100,000 interest would beryllium levied lone connected caller H-1B visa holders coming into US and not radical alteration from 1 visa class to different without leaving the United States; for illustration it would not beryllium applicable if an idiosyncratic moves from F-1 pupil presumption to H-1B status. A projected regularisation by the Trump government, published successful September 2025 would disadvantage planetary students successful the H-1B lottery selection, NFAP says, arguing that expanding restrictions whitethorn beryllium counter-productive. But archetypal let’s recognize wherefore H-1B visas are important:

Why are H-1B visas important?

H-1B visas are important: they are the way to getting highly skilled overseas nationals to enactment successful the US. They service arsenic the main pathway for these overseas nationals, including planetary students, to get semipermanent employment successful America, physique their careers and perchance get imperishable residency and citizenship successful the US.

The excavation from which employers prime highly skilled professionals with caller precocious degrees successful cardinal method fields is composed mostly of overseas nationals, says NFAP.Statistics quoted successful the NFAP study amusement that planetary students really constituted a immense 71% of full-time postgraduate enrolment successful machine and accusation sciences programmes and 73% successful electrical and machine engineering courses astatine US universities! USCIS information indicates that astir two-thirds of caller H-1B visa holders person master's degrees oregon higher qualifications.

Without the H-1B visa status, overseas nationals often indispensable relocate to countries similar China, India, Canada oregon different nations, the study says. The NFAP investigation indicates astir 700,000 individuals presently reside and enactment successful the United States nether H-1B status.

Who benefits from H-1B visas successful the US?

Importantly, critics of the H-1B visa strategy and proponents of expanding curbs connected employing overseas nationals successful the US reason that it is majorly ‘outsourcing’ firms that gully the maximum benefits from this class of visas. However the FY 2025 numbers contiguous a wholly antithetic picture!In fiscal twelvemonth 2025, Amazon bagged the highest fig (4,644) of approved H-1B petitions for archetypal employment, whilst Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Google followed with 1,555, 1,394 and 1,050 approvals respectively, arsenic per NFAP's introspection of USCIS records.

H-1B petitions for archetypal employment are chiefly for caller employment.

This is really the archetypal clip erstwhile these 4 large American exertion firms person dominated the apical positions for caller H-1B petition approvals. According to NFAP, the recruitment activities are connected the backmost of $380 cardinal concern successful AI and associated superior expenditure successful 2025.A notable inclination has emerged: lone 3 India-based firms appeared amongst the apical 25 employers for archetypal employment H-1B petition approvals successful FY 2025.

The 7 starring India-based companies secured lone 4,573 archetypal employment H-1B approvals successful FY 2025, showing a 70% simplification from FY 2015 and 37% alteration from FY 2024. Regarding continuing employment H-1B petitions successful FY 2025, Amazon led with 14,532 approvals, followed by TCS (5,293), Microsoft (4,863), Meta Platforms (4,740), Apple (4,610) and Google (4,509). These figures bash not correspond to idiosyncratic employees, arsenic H-1B holders whitethorn person aggregate continuing employment approvals wrong a twelvemonth owed to determination changes.

Combining archetypal and continuing employment figures for employers presents an inaccurate representation, says NFAP.

Given the FY 2025 H-1B numbers, H-1B critics volition apt request a caller argument, says NFAP.NFAP is of the presumption that the cardinal contented with the H-1B class of US visas lies not successful its organisation-wse distribution, but alternatively successful its restrictive yearly headdress of 85,000! This headdress is conscionable 0.05% of the American workforce! This bounds has consistently proved insufficient for implicit 20 years, NFAP says.

Do H-1B visa restrictions truly assistance the US? No!

NFAP points retired that Trump’s first-term policies look to beryllium shaping the ongoing determination for enhanced restrictions for overseas nationals moving successful the US. This could pb to higher denial rates for H-1B visas, causing challenges for businesses, cautions NFAP.

According to USCIS data, H-1B professionals successful computer-related roles earned an mean yearly wage of $136,000 and a median of $125,000 successful FY 2024, contradicting assertions that these workers represent ‘cheap labour’.“Some policymakers who favour restrictive migration policies person argued that foreign-born scientists and engineers whitethorn beryllium “cheap labor.” However, the mean yearly wage for an H-1B visa holder successful computer-related occupations successful FY 2024 was $136,000, and the median wage was $125,000, according to USCIS statistics,” it says.The USCIS information amusement H-1B visa holders are paid precocious salaries, and it contradicts the thought that these are low-skilled radical since employers would not wage radical with debased skills specified precocious salaries,” says Mark Regets, economist astatine NFAP.Data and economics bespeak it is simply a mistake to presume a fixed fig of jobs and that foreign-born scientists and engineers forestall US engineers and machine specialists from gaining jobs. “The fig of US-born workers employed successful machine subject and mathematical occupations accrued by implicit 2.7 million, oregon 141%, betwixt 2003 and 2024,” according to a National Foundation for American Policy investigation of Bureau of Labor Statistics information quoted by NFAP.Industry experts person emphasised that IT work providers that utilise H-1B visas really lend positively to US companies and consumers done enhanced productivity and competitiveness. NFAP notes that determination is simply a valid crushed wherefore US companies are consenting to wage specified ample sums for acquiring endowment done H-1B visas - “The services provided, peculiarly by much established companies, are specialized and often impact important project-oriented contracts for respective 100 cardinal dollars oregon adjacent $1 cardinal to supply method skills, services oregon cognition that US companies bash not person in-house oregon that bash not marque consciousness to unit in-house,” says NFAP.In a May 2020 survey by the National Foundation for American Policy, economist Madeline Zavodny concluded, "H-1B visa holders bash not adversely impact US workers. On the contrary, the grounds points to the beingness of H-1B visa holders being associated with little unemployment rates and faster net maturation among assemblage graduates, including caller assemblage graduates."Limiting H-1B visas appears to propulsion employment and innovation beyond US borders.

"[A]ny policies that are motivated by concerns astir the nonaccomplishment of autochthonal jobs should see that policies aimed astatine reducing migration person the unintended effect of encouraging firms to offshore jobs abroad," says probe by Britta Glennon, an adjunct prof astatine the Wharton School of Business astatine UPENN."When US firms are denied H-1Bs, they spell abroad, mounting up caller overseas affiliates and hiring endowment determination alternatively of successful the US," Glennon notes.

"For the astir planetary multinational companies, this is astatine astir a 1:1 rate. The results show an important unintended effect of migration restrictions: the question of jobs and endowment abroad, with large implications for US competitiveness."Research by economist Giovanni Peri and colleagues indicates that the existent debased H-1B caps forestall firms from generating hundreds of thousands of positions for US workers by limiting concern enlargement and different opportunities.“Policies toward high-skilled overseas nationals successful America stay much restrictive than those of different countries that the United States competes with for talent. The Trump medication is making US migration policies much restrictive by implementing measures that officials projected oregon enacted during Donald Trump’s archetypal term. The policies could pb to less planetary students attending US universities and much companies sending enactment and resources extracurricular the United States,” NFAP says.Though Donald Trump seems to person taken a U-turn a fewer days ago, contending that US needs 'certain talent', it remains to beryllium seen whether the stance connected H-1B visa restrictions volition change.