The U.S. H-1B program caps new visas at 85,000 per fiscal year, a fixed number that anchors every conversation about skilled-worker migration. Pew Research Center's overview of the program lays out how that cap, the lottery that distributes it, and the employers who use it shape the specialty-occupation pipeline.

What does the H-1B visa actually do?

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa category for workers in specialty occupations. A specialty occupation is a role that normally requires a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific field, or an equivalent mix of education and experience. The visa is employer-sponsored; the worker cannot self-petition.

The employer files a petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Approval gives the worker an initial period of three years, extendable up to six.

Takeaway: H-1B lets U.S. firms hire foreign professionals for jobs that require specialized knowledge.

How does the annual cap work?

The statutory cap is 85,000 visas, divided into three pools:

• 65,000 visas in the regular pool
• 20,000 additional visas reserved for beneficiaries with a U.S. master's degree or higher
• A small allocation under free-trade agreements with Singapore and Chile

When registrations exceed available slots, USCIS runs a lottery. Pew Research's reporting has tracked demand at several hundred thousand registrations in recent years, well above the cap.

Takeaway: Demand routinely runs several times higher than supply.

Where do H-1B workers come from?

India accounts for the majority of approved petitions in every year Pew has examined. China, the Philippines, and Canada round out the top source countries, though none approach India's share. A small set of large U.S. technology, consulting, and engineering firms sponsors most petitions.

Takeaway: A few countries and a few large employers drive the program.

What does an employer have to show?

Two requirements shape every H-1B petition:

• The job must qualify as a specialty occupation
• The employer must pay the prevailing wage for the role and location, set by the Department of Labor

USCIS reviews the petition alongside the labor condition application. Misclassified roles and below-prevailing wages are common denial triggers. Falsified records can also lead to revocation after approval.

Takeaway: Compliance falls on the employer, not the worker.

How does the lottery function in practice?

USCIS introduced an electronic registration system in 2020 to manage oversubscription. Employers and their legal representatives first submit a brief registration during a March window. USCIS then runs a random selection from the registered pool and only invites winners to file full petitions within a set period.

The shift to registration-first reduced paperwork costs for unselected petitioners and made the oversubscription problem easier to measure. It did not change the underlying cap.

Takeaway: The lottery decides who gets to file, not who gets approved.

What stays the same, and what changes

The 85,000-visa cap has not changed since 2004, but the rules around it have shifted. Recent years have brought tighter scrutiny on third-party placement, higher minimum wage floors for certain levels, and growing policy debate about whether to reform the cap or replace the lottery with a wage-based selection. Pew Research frames H-1B as a fixed pipeline: a small statutory number, a high-demand pool, and a small group of dominant employers.

For the latest cap data and rule changes, USCIS publishes annual H-1B employer data reports and cap-count updates on its website.