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How many H-1B visa holders are there in US? What to know as Trump's fee hike kicks in today
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order which mandated that H-1B visa petitions be accompanied with a payment of $100,000.
President Donald Trump, on Friday, signed an executive order bringing about changes to the H-1B visa fee structure. Now, visa petitions have to be accompanied by a payment of $100,000. The attempt is to curb the ‘abuse’ of the program, the proclamation notes.
“The high numbers of relatively low-wage workers in the H-1B program undercut the integrity of the program and are detrimental to American workers’ wages and labor opportunities, especially at the entry level, in industries where such low-paid H-1B workers are concentrated,” it states.
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Further, the proclamation adds, “These abuses also prevent American employers in other industries from utilizing the H-1B program in the manner in which it was intended: to fill jobs for which highly skilled and educated American workers are unavailable.”
The move has sparked fears among many, with a price rise in airfares being reported. Further, companies like JP Morgan, Amazon, and Microsoft have instructed their workers on H-1Bs to remain in the US or return right away. As the move kicks in today, here's a look at how many total H-1B visa holders are there in the US.
How many H-1B visa holders are there in the US?
There is no official data that gives out the total number of H-1B visa holders in the US at any given point of time. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data tells the number of people who have registered and how many were selected.
For example, in 2024, there were a total of 780,884 registrations, of which 758,994 were eligible. Ultimately, 188,400 were selected, as per USCIS data.
However, as per FWD.us, there are a total of as many as 730,000 H-1B visa holders in the US. This report is from January 2025. FWD.us is an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
The report continues that there would be an additional 550,000 dependents – spouses and children. In total, it represents around 1.3 million US residents. Indians make up the largest share of H-1B holders in the US, accounting for 70 percent of the total.
What H-1B visa holders add to US economy
The report states that H-1B holders and their spouses, together, contribute $86 billion per year to the US economy. They pay around $24 billion in federal and payroll taxes, along with $11 billion in state and local taxes, every year. H-1B holders also reportedly have 300,000 homes and almost 1 million vehicles, FWD.us noted.
HT.com has not independently verified the information in this report.
Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick remarked that the fee change was being brought about so companies would not ‘train’ and ‘bring in’ foreign workers, who might take ‘jobs’ from Americans.
