The United States approved nearly 98 percent of H-1B petitions in fiscal year 2025, yet the path from temporary work visa to permanent residence has grown longer and less predictable, according to two new reports from the American Immigration Council released in Washington, D.C. on August 18.

The reports analyze a decade of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data covering both nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions for high-skilled workers. Their central finding: demand for foreign talent remains strong and approval rates for temporary categories stay high, while the permanent residence system is straining under record backlogs, statutory visa caps, longer waits, and heightened scrutiny in certain categories.

Temporary visas: high approvals, growing strain

USCIS continued to approve large numbers of petitions for temporary high-skilled workers in FY2025. Nearly 98 percent of H-1B petitions were approved, and approval rates for the L-1 and O categories remained above 90 percent.

The volume, however, is testing the agency. USCIS received more than 456,000 H-1B petitions in FY2025 alone and is increasingly failing to keep pace with rising demand, which contributes to a growing backlog.

Green cards: backlog quadrupled in a decade

The situation is more difficult for workers seeking employment-based green cards. The backlog of pending employment-based green card petitions has more than quadrupled over the past decade, reaching a record 180,439 cases by the end of FY2025. At USCIS's current processing pace, clearing that backlog would take more than 9 months — before any new petitions enter the queue.

Many applicants are paying additional fees for faster processing. Those premium-processing payments generated an estimated $300 million for USCIS in FY2025.

Denial rates rising in key categories

Scrutiny has also tightened. At one point in FY2025, USCIS was denying roughly 1 in 6 employment-based immigrant petitions. In two categories intended for especially accomplished workers — EB-1A and EB-2 National Interest Waiver — denial rates almost doubled during the fiscal year.

The visa number bottleneck

Approval of an immigrant petition does not end the process. Employment-based green cards are capped by law, so workers can spend years waiting for a visa number to become available even after USCIS has approved their application. By the end of FY2025, more than 642,000 approved workers were still waiting for a visa number.

Who is affected

The findings affect three groups in different ways. Employers in technology, engineering, and health care face continued uncertainty in retention planning for foreign staff. Current temporary visa holders — H-1B, L-1, and O — still see high approval rates but longer processing queues. Workers with approved immigrant petitions face the longest horizon: a combination of the 180,439-case processing backlog, statutory visa caps, and a queue of more than 642,000 approved workers ahead of visa availability.

What the researchers say

"The United States continues to recruit and rely on high-skilled workers from around the world, but for many of those workers, building a permanent future here means navigating years of uncertainty," said Nan Wu, director of research at the American Immigration Council. "If the United States wants to compete for the world's best talent, it needs an immigration system that allows employers and workers to plan for the long term with greater confidence."

"These findings show a system in which employers and workers have to spend years navigating a backlogged system. That kind of uncertainty makes it harder for workers to build their lives here and for employers to retain the talent they need," said Steve Hubbard, senior data scientist at the Council.

Wu summed up the core tension: "The U.S. government is basically telling high-skilled workers, we want your talent to build companies, conduct research, treat patients, and grow the U.S. economy, but we can't tell you whether you'll be able to build a future here. That is not a serious approach for competing for global talent."

The underlying figures come from USCIS data covering a ten-year period. Readers tracking an individual case should consult USCIS official processing announcements and the Visa Bulletin published by the U.S. Department of State, which governs visa number availability under the statutory caps.