The Donald Trump administration has selected 120,141 H-1B visa applications for 2026, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services revealed in their recently published data. This is the lowest since 2021, after H-1B became a contentious issue even before Donald Trump’s January inauguration.The Make America Great Again camp was ideologically split over the issue, with Elon Musk pitching for H-1B reforms and increasing the cap, while old-MAGA activists like Steve Bannon, Laura Loomer said H-1B should be stopped and Americans should be hired.H-1B is the visa program that allows US companies to hire skilled immigrants from outside. Donald Trump said he is in favor of increasing the H-1B cap but the USIS data shows that almost two-thirds of applications were rejected due to the low annual H-1B limit. The immigration service makes selections by lottery every year the agency receives more H-1B electronic registrations than permitted by the annual limit. The H-1B annual limit is 65,000 plus a 20,000 exemption for individuals with an advanced degree from a US university. For the past two decades, employers have exhausted the quota every year.For 2026, USCIS received 343,981 eligible registrations, a decline of 27% from 470,342 for FY 2025. A Forbes report blamed higher immigration fees for the drop in registrations. A Biden administration fee rule raised the cost of filing an H-1B registration for FY 2026 from $10 to $215, the report said.

Year-wise data on H-1B registrations. (Courtesy: USCIS)

Industries such as technology, finance, and academia remain some of the largest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program. In 2024, leading firms like Amazon, Google, and Meta were granted thousands of H-1B visas. Elon Musk’s Tesla also used the program to bring hundreds of skilled workers to the United States. “H-1B visa numbers for FY 2026: Despite mass tech layoffs and voter backlash—especially after the Christmas H-1B uproar—the Trump team stays hands-off: 120,141 NEW H-1Bs selected for FY2026. Demand remains high despite layoffs—a clear sign US workers are being replaced,” X handle of US Tech Workers posted.