H1-B visa applications dropped by 38.6% in Fiscal Year 2025 compared to the previous year, with 470,342 applications versus 758,994 in FY 2024, marking a 38% decline from the previous year’s total.
This big drop in skilled-worker visa lottery applications is due to tough new measures against fraud. Authorities are happy about this, calling it a ‘great success’ against exploitation.
This shows less fraudulent attempts were made compared to before, says USCIS. They made new rules limiting each worker to one application, aiming to stop fraud. Surprisingly, over 400,000 of last year’s 759,000 entries were duplicates.
The increase in fraud in the H1B visa application process was a result of the government shifting from extensive paperwork to a $10 online registration fee, as many Indian IT staffing companies flooded USCIS with multiple applications for each employee.
The numbers tripled during this 2021 to 2023, overwhelming both the industry and the government.
For example, in 2022, one person alone applied for 83 jobs. But the latest change of rules has stopped such fraudulent practices.
Indian tech workers have been getting most of the 85,000 H1B visa slots (nearly 70% of slots), making them the biggest group under the cap-subject category.
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