What we know about US H-1B visas Trump supporters are clashing over

The H-1B visas for skilled workers were introduced in 1990. They are typically granted for three years, but can be extended for up to six years.

Since 2004, the number of new H-1B visas issued has been capped at 85,000 per year – 20,000 of which are reserved for foreign students with master’s degrees or higher from US universities.

However, that cap does not apply to some institutions such as universities, think tanks and other non-profit research groups, so more are often issued.

People can only apply for an H-1B visa if they have a job lined up with a US-based sponsor company or institution.

The US government also approves extensions for those already working in the country.

Just over 386,000 H-1B applications were approved in the 2023 fiscal year (October 2022-September 2023), the latest year we have full data for, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) figures, external.

That includes almost 119,000 new H-1B visas and about 267,000 extensions to existing visas.

The 2023 total is down from more than 474,000 in 2022.

There have been efforts to restrict the H-1B further programme in the past.

In 2017, then-president Trump signed an executive order, external that increased scrutiny of H-1B visa applications. The order sought to enhance fraud detection within the scheme.

Rejection rates hit an all-time high under the first Trump administration, external, reaching 24% in the 2018 fiscal year, compared with rejection rates of between 5-8% under the Obama administration and between 2-4% under President Biden.

However, the total number of approved applicants under the Biden administration has been similar to that under Trump’s first.

In the three years that followed President Trump’s executive order (2018-2020), about 1.1 million applications were approved, with about 343,000 of those being first-time applicants.

In the first three years of the Biden administration (2021-2023), about 1.2 million applications were approved, with almost 375,000 being new applicants.