H-1B Visa News: Why Employers Still Face Difficulties Despite Annual Approval Rates Nearly 98%

U.S. employers still get the most H-1B The petition was approved, but the climate for the visa program became increasingly difficult. New reports from american bazaar It said the overall H-1B approval rate is still close to 98%.

Immigration attorney Kevin J. Andrews told the media, “The H-1B approval rate in fiscal year 2025 has been stable at around 98%, but the operating environment in fiscal year 2026 looks much more difficult. The friction has moved from adjudication to architecture.”

Yet immigration lawyers and employers warn that tighter compliance requirements, higher costs and new lottery rules are making the process for companies hiring foreign talent more complicated.

According to the H-1B employer report released by USCIS in April, the approval rate for the first half of fiscal year 2026 “steadied at around 98%.”

The largest sponsors by volume include Microsoft, Amazon and Tata Consultancy Services.

The system is still approving most cases, with an approval rate of approximately 96.8% for initial petitions and 97.4% for extension petitions in fiscal year 2026, according to a tracking website linked to USCIS.

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For employers, the challenge is no longer just winning the lottery. It is preparing petitions that could withstand greater scrutiny under an ever-changing rulebook. Employers must contend with stricter paperwork requirements, increased scrutiny, and rising compliance fees. Therefore, the program itself now bears more of the burden than the results of the application.

The H-1B modernization rules, which take effect in January 2025, also tighten and clarify a number of standards, including the definition of a special occupation, evidence of the employer-employee relationship, and rules affecting entrepreneurs.

Fully subordinate and other immigration trackers said the rule forced companies to more closely scrutinize job descriptions, salary levels and third-party placement models.

“We’re asking for more documentation. The processing times are longer. There’s more scrutiny, more routing, and more questions about the details of the third-party placement. The legal hurdles haven’t changed. The amount of documentation required to clear it has,” Andrews said.

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India’s top seven IT companies received 4,573 initial-employment H-1B licenses in fiscal year 2025, according to a Nov. 17, 2025 briefing from the National Foundation for American Policy examining USCIS data center records. This is down 70% from fiscal 2015 and 37% from fiscal 2024. For the first time, the top four H-1B employers in fiscal year 2025 are all American companies.

This means there is a conflict in the data for fiscal year 2026. Chances of selection have improved and approval rates remain strong, but the program has become more expensive, more regulated, and less tolerant of weak applications.

NFAP attributes the move to three related factors: increased local hiring by Indian companies, the ability to work abroad, and technological advancements.

TCS’s CEO said in a separate statement that the company will not hire new H-1B workers next year.