USCIS Reports 38 Percent Drop in H1B Visa Applications

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Thursday, May 21, 2026, that H-1B visa applications for the fiscal year 2027 allocation fell by 38.5 percent following major structural changes to the selection process.

According to data from the federal agency, properly submitted registrations dropped to 211,600 from 343,981 in the previous fiscal year.

The Trump administration attributed the decline to the implementation of America First policies, including a new wage-based weighted selection system that replaced the traditional random lottery, beneficiary-centric modeling, and an increased electronic registration fee of $215 per applicant.

Official records show that 71.5 percent of the selected applicants held a U.S. master’s degree or higher, an increase from 57 percent last year, while only 17.7 percent of approvals fell into the lowest-wage category.

“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,” the agency posted to X.

USCIS noted that the revised measures successfully targeted the low-wage and low-skilled foreign labor pipeline approved under previous Biden administration policies.

“These skilled workers are making a real impact on our economy and we’re closing the door on the low-wage and low-skilled foreign labor pipeline approved under Biden administration policies. This year, only 17.7% of all selected registrations were in the lowest wage category,” the USCIS stated.

The policy shift drew mixed reactions from immigration policy experts and researchers who monitor high-skilled labor trends.

“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,” said Connor O’Brien, fellow at the Institute for Progress.

O’Brien noted that replacing the lottery entirely with a salary ranking would generate tens of billions of dollars in federal tax revenue and urged congressional Republicans to add such a provision to their upcoming reconciliation package.

“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,” O’Brien said.

Other advocacy groups argued that the current modifications do not go far enough to protect domestic employment.

“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),” wrote Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, on X.

However, some entrepreneurs noted that the financial disincentives introduced by the administration effectively protected foreign professionals who are already residing within the country.

“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,” said Michael Taiwo, an entrepreneur.

The initial fiscal year 2027 H-1B cap selection process concluded before the agency opened formal petition filings on April 1, 2026, for the chosen beneficiaries.