H-1B visa applicants will face new rules in 2025

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The H-1B visa process is undergoing some significant changes. For business owners who hire foreign workers, this could mean a higher likelihood of a successful visa sponsorship application.

Last week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new rule that aims to prevent those seeking an H-1B from submitting multiple applications. Until now, a loophole allowed individuals to apply more than once as long as it was through different employers, which may have “unfairly increased their chances of selection,” the USCIS notes on their website.

The H-1B visa helps employers hire foreign workers with specialized skills for a set period of time and is the biggest temporary work visa program in the U.S. According to the Department of Labor, the program only accepts a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visa applications annually and an additional 20,000 for those with advanced degrees.

“The new rule is good news for smaller employers who may now have better odds of their workers securing visas.”

The selection process is known to be incredibly rigorous, especially given the number of large employers — including Amazon, Meta, and Google — that hire using these visas. In 2022, the top 30 H-1B employers, which included numerous large tech firms and outsourcing and consulting companies, hired more than 34,000 H-1B workers, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute. That’s roughly 40 percent of the annual cap.

The new rule is good news for smaller employers who may now have better odds of their workers securing visas, immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn told Business Insider, as the reform makes it “less attractive for applicants to secure multiple job offers.”

In addition to the crackdown on multiple applications, which takes effect in April, the USCIS says it will now deny or revoke an H1-B visa if the registration contains “a false attestation or was otherwise invalid.” Applicants for the 2025 fiscal year must also include a valid passport or travel document.

Immigrants are joining the U.S. workforce at much higher levels than normal