US employers are still getting most H-1B petitions approved, but the climate around the visa program is getting tougher. New reporting from The American Bazaar says the overall H-1B approval rate remains close to 98%.
Immigration attorney Kevin J. Andrews told the outlet, “The H-1B approval rate for FY2025 is steady at about 98 per cent, but the operating environment for FY2026 looks materially harder. The friction has moved from adjudication to architecture.”
Yet immigration lawyers and employers are warning that tougher compliance demands, higher costs and new lottery rules are making the process more complex for companies hiring foreign talent.
According to a USCIS-based H-1B employer report released in April, approvals were "holding steady near 98%" in the first half of FY2026.
The top sponsors by volume included Microsoft, Amazon, and Tata Consultancy Services.
The system is still granting the majority of cases, as seen by the FY2026 approval rates of roughly 96.8% for initial petitions and 97.4% for extensions, according to USCIS-linked tracking sites.
Securing employment in the United States is growing more difficult as H-1B regulations and enforcement procedures change, even for workers who are already in the nation with legitimate visas.
For employers, the challenge is no longer just winning the lottery. It is preparing petitions that can survive closer review under a changing rulebook.
Employers have to deal with more stringent paperwork requirements, more scrutiny, and growing compliance expenses.
Consequently, the procedure itself now bears more of the burden than the application's result.
The H-1B modernisation rule that took effect in January 2025 also tightened and clarified several standards, including the definition of a speciality occupation, evidence for employer-employee relationships and rules affecting entrepreneurs.
VisaVerge and other immigration trackers say the rule has forced companies to review job descriptions, wage levels and third-party placement models more carefully.
Andrews said, “More documentation is being requested. Processing times are longer. There is more vetting, more routing, and more questions about the specifics of third-party placements. The legal bar didn’t move. The amount of paper required to clear it did.”
The stakes are especially high for Indian professionals, who continue to dominate H-1B demand across tech, consulting and engineering roles.
The top seven Indian IT companies earned 4573 initial-employment H-1B permits in FY2025, according to the National Foundation for American Policy's November 17, 2025, brief that examined USCIS Data Hub records.
This means conflicting data for FY2026. Odds of selection have improved, and approval rates remain also strong, but the programme is becoming more expensive, more regulated and less forgiving of weak filings.
