9% drop in H-1B visa holders in the US, highest in a decade

The number of immigrants under the H1-B visa program holding high-tech jobs dropped by 9% in the United States, the highest drop in a decade, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of data from the US Department of Labor.

Foreign engineering and mathematics workers on H-1B visas fell 12.6% in the fiscal year ending September 2021 compared to the previous year, it said.

This is the second consecutive annual decline for this segment, which had traditionally been growing consistently, and has been largely on account of travel and visa restrictions on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The combined metric for all job categories totalled more than 497,000 during fiscal year 2021, a 9% decrease from 2020 and 17% decline from 2019. Bloomberg News analysed data from 2011 to 2021.

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“The drop in H-1B workers is clearly attributed to the Covid travel bans and the inability of non-immigrants to get visas and come to the US under approved H-1B petitions,” said Cyrus Mehta, managing partner, Cyrus D Mehta & Partners.

Former US president Donald Trump had banned the entry of certain visa holders including H-1B visas, in a bid to protect American jobs for local workers in the early days of the pandemic.

Further, the pandemic resulted in embassy closures across the world, resulting in a temporary halt and then a slowdown in visa processing.

Compared with pre-Covid levels in 2019, this year's number of H-1B employment cases was down 19% for the engineering and mathematics job category.

“Another way of looking at it is that many in the US who have been in H-1B status may have adjusted to permanent residence over the past year,” Mehta said.

“Also, many who have pending adjustment applications, and have not yet received the green card, may have decided to remain in the US as pending adjustment applicants with work permits rather than remain in H-1B status,” he said. “Pending adjustment applicants find it easier to remain without an H-1B and have only a work permit as they can exercise job portability more easily.”