The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a 38.5% year-on-year decline in properly submitted H-1B visa registrations for fiscal year 2027.
Registrations dropped to 211,600 from 343,981 in fiscal year 2026.
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The Trump administration attributed this plunge to stricter wage guidelines and elevated application fees designed to eliminate systemic program exploitation.
Geographic Concentration of Approvals
An analysis of USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub figures from fiscal year 2025 and 2024 U. S.
Census Bureau population estimates shows approvals remain heavily concentrated in states with prominent technology, finance, and research sectors.
New Jersey led the country with 3.44 approvals per 1,000 voting-age residents. Virginia followed at 3.42, and Massachusetts at 2.49.
Puerto Rico recorded the lowest concentration at 0.02. Hawaii and Montana followed at 0.13 and 0.14 respectively.
California recorded the highest absolute volume with over 86,000 approvals. Its high population placed its per-capita rate fifth overall.
Policy Shifts Favor Highly Skilled Applicants
Officials stated that recent policy shifts, including a $100,000 petition fee introduced after September 21, 2025, purposefully favor higher-earning, highly skilled applicants.
Data shows 71.5% of selected immigrants now hold U. S.
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master's degrees or higher. Only 17.7% fell into the lowest-wage tier.
The federal immigration agency addressed the policy outcomes directly on social media.
"This data is a clear sign that the days of abusing the program with mass, low-wage registrations are over," stated the USCIS in a post on X.
Zach Kahler, USCIS Spokesman, reinforced the objective: "American workers must come first.
The $100,000 H-1B fee sends a clear message: we are prioritizing hiring American talent before hiring foreign labor."
Concerns Over Regulatory Burden
Policy experts noted that while enforcement measures target fraudulent registrations, increased regulatory scrutiny could inadvertently deter legitimate businesses.
"Employers fully complying with the law might avoid the program because worksite visits and government inquiries are too cumbersome," said Sam Peak, policy manager at the Economic Innovation Group.
Concurrent with these visa trends, enforcement data from the Department of Labor under Project Firewall revealed that nearly 200 investigations had been launched into corporate visa abuse.
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The department placed four employers on its H-1B disqualified sponsor list as of May 4, 2026.
