Tough Times Ahead for H-1B Hopefuls

US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ initiative seems to be working well on ground in favour of the government as the sweeping changes introduced to the immigration policy are finally taking effect according to the official data released by USCIS.

Last year, the Trump’s administration came up with a series of dramatic changes like stricter wage rules and a steeper Visa fee for new applications with the view to arrest the systematic abuse of US’s immigration rules which it believed has deprived Americans of white collar jobs.

While the stringent measures already created huge panic among immigrants due to shrinking job opportunities, the official data now confirms that there is a sharp decline in the number of registrations for H-1B Visa. USCIS says that the changes made to the H-1B Visa system had resulted in a significant decline in the applications this year.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said Thursday through a post on X- “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.”

As per USCIS, the number fell from 343,981 in fiscal year 2026 to 211,600 in 2027, which is a massive 38.5 percent drop.

The apex immigration agency said it had approved more applicants with advanced degrees and higher salaries: 71.5 percent of selected immigrants held U.S. master’s degrees or higher, up from 57 percent the year before.

USCIS says this data is a clear sign that the days of abusing the program with mass, low-wage registrations are finally 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.