H-1Bs for Dummies
The criticism of immigrant workers across the world is nothing new; however, lately I’ve noticed what I can only describe as a suspicious pattern of discussion related to skilled workers specifically in the United States: snippets of media sent to me about H-1B holders from channels I don’t watch, Tweets (Xs?) appearing in Google Alerts I have set up for a variety of topics, and proposed legislation from representatives in other states.
The version you hear on cable news and in comment sections often says that there is a flood of foreign workers who work for cheap, taking jobs that Americans should have. It is an easy story to tell that stirs up a lot of emotion when some folks feel like they deserve more (which is another story for another day). Coupled with the rising costs of simply living, I understand why people look for someone to blame. I understand it, but I do not agree with it. And the blame is misplaced entirely (also another story for another day). This version is also wrong in most ways, and the people getting hurt by it are radiologists, software engineers, research scientists, and professors who followed every rule set for them, and ultimately, the Americans they serve.
I want to walk through what an H-1B actually is, who holds one, the data, and what is genuinely worth criticizing. My hope is that this information makes it to those of you who may not be familiar with the H-1B program, immigration regulations, or international education at all. This is not to win an argument but shared so that the next time it comes up at your dinner table or on your back porch, you have a better understanding of the process, and, maybe, why education is important to all of us.
What is an H-1B?
An H-1B is a work visa. It lets a U.S. employer hire someone from another country for a specific job that requires highly specialized knowledge and at least a bachelor's degree in that field, like a software developer, electrical engineer, physician, or university researcher.
More precisely, from the USCIS webpage, “this nonimmigrant classification applies to people who wish to perform services in a specialty occupation, services of exceptional merit and ability relating to a Department of Defense (DOD) cooperative research and development project, or services as a fashion model of distinguished merit or ability.” Aside: I find it funny that it is still noted as DOD on this government website.
It is not a free pass to come to America. A person cannot apply for one on their own. A company has to sponsor them for a particular role, prove the job requires the degree, and commit to paying them properly.
It is also temporary. An H-1B is granted in three-year increments, usually capped at six years total unless a green card is already in process. H-1B sponsorship is a lawful and highly regulated process designed for positions requiring specialized knowledge and advanced expertise. It does not constitute outsourcing or a preference against U.S. citizens.
The number of H-1B applications is capped, and the cap is small. Congress allows 65,000 new H-1Bs a year, plus another 20,000 for people who hold a U.S. master's degree or higher, a number that has barely moved in twenty years. Demand runs so far past supply that the government holds a lottery just to decide whose application even gets looked at. USCIS has published registration numbers from 2021 - 2026 here. In 2026, out of 343,981 eligible registrations, only 120,141 were selected to proceed.
You may have seen media share the publicly available information on Labor Condition Applications to highlight how many applications are in process. Public Labor Condition Applications (LCA) data reflect federal compliance with the Department of Labor regulations. Employers are required to file Labor Condition Applications as part of the H-1B process, and those records are publicly available as part of federal transparency and compliance measures. An employer has to pay what is called the prevailing wage, meaning the going rate for that job in that place, certified to the Department of Labor before the petition is even filed (the LCA). This process cuts directly against the cheap labor argument.
Who Actually Holds One
In fiscal year 2025, the government approved just over 400,000 applications. The total H-1B workforce in the country is somewhere around 730,000 people. For perspective, the U.S. labor force is more than 160 million. We are talking about a fraction of 1% of the U.S. labor force.
About 70% of those approvals went to people born in India and another 12% to people born in China. Almost two-thirds of the jobs were in computer-related fields, with architecture, engineering, surveying, education, healthcare, mathematics, physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and others making up the rest. (Ibid, Page 5.)
These are not unskilled or uneducated workers. Of all approved H-1B petitions in FY 2025, 70% of the beneficiaries completed advanced education (58% master’s, 8% doctorate, and 4% professional) and 31% held a bachelor’s degree. Contrast this with a 2022 U.S. Census report sharing the highest level of education of the population age 25 and older in the United States ranged from less than high school to advanced degrees beyond a bachelor’s degree where 23% had a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree and 14% completed advanced education including a master’s degree, professional degree, or doctorate. (Note that I can’t find data on the educational attainment of U.S. citizens specifically.) By definition, nearly everyone in the program holds a college degree and many hold advanced degrees from American universities.
These are also not low-wage workers. The median annual compensation was $133,000 in FY 2025.
The real picture is a relatively small number of highly educated professionals, concentrated in fields where employers say they cannot find enough people with the education, knowledge, and skillsets needed, who earn solidly middle-class to upper-middle-class wages, not a flood of unskilled labor. Again, it does not constitute outsourcing or a preference against U.S. citizens. For those who might criticize the H-1B program, perhaps some inward reflection on the reality of one’s education and skills is needed, rather than demonizing highly skilled workers whose skills complement the American workforce and bring global talent and economic development to the United States.
Mythbusting
Here are some myths out there about H-1Bs:
"They take American jobs."
The purpose of the program is to address labor shortages in specialized fields like research, engineering, and computer programming by allowing American companies to hire skilled workers from around the world. This fosters innovation and growth in the U.S. economy. Employers must demonstrate that the position they are hiring for requires specialized knowledge and skills that are not readily available in the U.S. labor market. This involves submitting detailed documentation and evidence about the job role, the company, and the qualifications of the foreign worker.
"They work for cheap and drag down wages."
The prevailing-wage rule and the six-figure salaries I just mentioned are the short answer. It is also important to note that the visa ties the visa holder to one employer, which limits the leverage the rest of us use to negotiate a raise or walk to a competitor. Any wage gap is a symptom of how the visa is built not proof that the workers are undercutting anyone.
"They're low-skilled."
The education and salary numbers answer this on their own. Simply put, H-1B sponsorship is a lawful and highly regulated process designed for positions requiring specialized knowledge and advanced expertise.
“It’s an open door.”
The cap has been frozen for two decades while demand exploded. There is no open door. There is a lottery, and most people lose it.
All that said, no system or process is perfect. Some of the critique involves a handful of large outsourcing firms have learned to game the lottery by flooding it with applications for lower-level jobs, which crowds out the higher-skilled hires the program was meant for. The wage rules have tiers, and the lowest tier can come in below what a job is really worth in the local market. There have also been recent stories of fraudulent documents stating untrue education levels. There are so many steps involving governmental review and oversight that any application with fraudulent documents I can’t imagine all end in an approval. These may be genuine problems, but they are ultimately arguments for fixing the program.
There is a difference between saying the program has flaws worth fixing and treating the people inside it as villains. The outsourcing loophole is not the fault of the researcher in a cancer lab or the engineer who has been here legally for six years and is raising kids in your school district. You can want reform and still refuse to scapegoat the human beings who played by the rules as written.
Current Changes
While the online and media argument gains visibility, the program itself is being rewritten.
In September 2025, a presidential proclamation added a $100,000 fee for certain new H-1B petitions that request consular notification, port of entry notification, or pre-flight inspection. There was a wave of panic then clarification. As it stands, the fee mainly hits people who are outside the United States without a valid H-1B visa when their petition is filed. People already here, including students moving from an F-1 student visa to an H-1B after they graduate, are generally exempt. Renewals and extensions are exempt too. As of June 8, 2026, a federal judge overruled this and disallowed the $100,000 fee. The federal government says it will appeal. More to come on this.
Universities and nonprofit research institutions have always been treated a little differently under this program, with no annual cap; however, none were spared the new $100,000 fee when a petitioner or scholar was still abroad. For a university trying to recruit a researcher or a specialized faculty member from overseas, a six-figure fee could end the hire. When people cheer this kind of change online, I do not think they picture the genetics researcher or the engineering professor we lose, the research that could save their child’s life, the professor who inspires them to dream big and become an engineer themselves, or the biology researcher whose child is your child’s best friend in first grade.
Starting with the next lottery cycle, the random draw is being replaced by a system that favors higher salaries. The stated goal is to prioritize higher-skilled workers, which sounds reasonable on its face. The catch is that it pushes recent international graduates, the ones taking entry-level jobs at normal entry-level pay, to the back of the line, right after we spent four years educating them at our own universities.
If anything, remember:
The program is small. Well under a million people, a fraction of 1% of the U.S. workforce.
It is not cheap labor. Employers must pay the prevailing wage, and the typical technology salary is over $120,000.
It is not an open door. The cap has been frozen for twenty years, and entry runs through a lottery that most people lose.
The workers are highly educated. A college degree is the baseline, and many hold U.S. graduate degrees.
If Americans feel as if their jobs are being taken, they should pursue degrees in highly specialized fields like computer science and engineering.
The visa holder is not an abstraction in a policy fight. She is the colleague who runs a lab, the doctor in a rural hospital that could not fill the job locally, the friend who has waited a decade for a green card and still gets asked when she is going home.
Making it easier for highly skilled international workers to live and work in the United States should not be controversial. Talent is global. Opportunity should not be trapped behind outdated assumptions about who belongs here.
In international education, we see the full arc of this issue. We welcome students and scholars to our campuses, ask them to contribute their intellect, labor, culture, tuition, research, and talent, and then too often make it painfully difficult for them to remain and serve the very communities and industries that need them.
The H-1B program helps employers access skilled professionals from around the world, filling critical needs in specialized industries and supporting innovation, research, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. But the value of international workers is not limited to what they produce. They enrich workplaces and communities through their perspectives, languages, networks, resilience, and lived experience.
When the United States creates reasonable pathways for highly skilled international workers to stay, we are making a smart investment in our own future, and we are acknowledging something international educators have always known. People who cross borders to learn, work, and build something meaningful often become the strongest bridges we have.