According to a new analysis, Amazon won the most petitions in FY 2021, with the denial rate for H-1 B visa petitions falling sharply under the Biden administration to the lowest record level.
According to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, only 4% of petitions were denied in FY 2021, down from 13% in FY 2020 and 24% in FY 2018.
The controversial H- 1 B visa program is used mostly by the tech industry, because it claims to be a guest worker program for high-skilled workers. For years, it has been accused of being used by Big Tech companies to import cheaper foreign workers and displace American workers. Supporters of the program say it allows companies to get high-skilled workers in a tight labor market.
The Trump administration introduced a number of measures to crack down on fraud and abuse in the system, introducing new rules at the end of 2020 to change the methodology of how a prevailing wage is set and narrowing the definition of a specialty occupation. The rules didn't go into effect.
The analysis found that the denial rates in FY 2021 and FY 2015 were similar, concluding that the Trump years were an aberration due to the restrictive policies that were eventually blocked by the courts.
The analysis found that Amazon had the most approved H-1 B petitions approved in FY 2021, something that was also the case in FY 2020. Google, IBM and Microsoft were among the top petitioners, along with a number of Indian tech firms. The data was first reported by Axios.
Typically, companies can bring in up to 85,000 workers in a year, and the applicants are mostly from India and China. Chinese nationals employed by U.S. tech companies should be banned from H-1B visas because of concerns about the threats to American intellectual property and national security.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. In November a bill was introduced to reform the program. The bill would set a wage floor for recipients equal to that being paid to American workers in the same position.
The legislation would limit the ability of companies to partner with third-party companies to fill H-1 B visa spots.