Why FY2026 feels harder for H-1B employers despite record approval rates: Immigration experts say stricter scrutiny, more paperwork and rising costs are changing the game.
H-1B approval rates for fiscal year 2025 remain remarkably high, hovering near 98 percent. On the surface, the visa program appears healthy and welcoming, offering talented professionals a pathway to contribute their skills to the U.S. economy.
But immigration attorneys and employers say the real story lies beneath the headline numbers. As H-1B regulations and enforcement practices evolve, securing U.S. employment is becoming increasingly complex — even for workers already in the country on valid visas.
The challenge, they say, is no longer simply obtaining an approval. Instead, employers must navigate increasingly detailed documentation requirements, heightened scrutiny, and rising compliance costs. As a result, the burden has shifted from the outcome of the application to the process itself.
“The H-1B approval rate for FY2025 is steady at about 98 percent, but the operating environment for FY2026 looks materially harder. The friction has moved from adjudication to architecture,” says Maryland-based immigration attorney Kevin J. Andrews, founder of Kevin J. Andrews Law, LLC.
READ: Over 200,000 H-1B applicants paid for fast-track processing in FY 2026, DHS Secretary says (June 3, 2026)
In an interview with The American Bazaar, Andrews explains how employers are preparing for stricter documentation expectations, enhanced vetting procedures, and a proposed $100,000 fee on new offshore petitions that could affect the FY2027 H-1B cap season.
The American Bazaar: Has there been a shift in how adjudicators interpret specialty occupation, eligibility, and evidentiary sufficiency compared to 12 to 18 months ago?
Kevin J Andrews: Not at the regulatory level. The H-1B Modernization Final Rule, finalized in December 2024 and effective Jan. 17, 2025, actually relaxed several specialty occupation standards. It clarified that “normally” required does not mean “always” required. It defined “directly related” as a “logical connection” between a degree and job duties, replacing the more restrictive interpretation that required the degree title to closely match the job title. For third-party placements, it stated that the third party’s requirements are “most relevant” to the specialty occupation determination. It also codified deference to prior approvals.
What’s harder to pin down is implementation. The rule was finalized by the outgoing administration and inherited by the current one. Whether USCIS officers are interpreting the “logical connection” provision the way the rulemaking record contemplated remains an open question, and that gap between the text of the rule and its implementation is where some of the friction practitioners are experiencing may be coming from.
The aggregate data does not show a tightening trend. Per Manifest Law’s analysis of the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, the full-year FY2025 approval rate was 97.9 percent across 415,275 adjudications. The approval rate in the fourth quarter of FY2025 was 97.5 percent. There is no published USCIS policy memorandum or training directive in 2025 imposing a higher evidentiary standard.
So, if there is a coordinated effort to tighten H-1B adjudication, it has not yet shown up in the aggregate numbers the way it did during the first Trump administration.
What is happening, in my view, is that the friction has shifted from the legal standard to the operational process. 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.
READ: ‘Not able to approve your visa today’: Indian applicant rejected in 3-minute interview (March 4, 2026)
During the first Trump administration, the increase in Requests for Evidence (RFEs) on specialty occupation and Level 1 wage cases drove approval rates down dramatically. RFE rates ranged from 38 to 40 percent in FY2018 and FY2019. What’s happening now feels more subtle and sophisticated.
Are Indian professionals or India-based consulting firms facing differential scrutiny?
The data shows a real and dramatic shift in who is using the H-1B program. The most rigorous primary research attributes that shift to industry forces rather than targeted enforcement.
The National Foundation for American Policy, in its November 17, 2025 brief analyzing USCIS Data Hub records, documented that the top seven India-based IT firms received 4,573 initial-employment H-1B approvals in FY2025. That is a 37 percent drop from FY2024 and a 70 percent drop from FY2015. For the first time, the top four H-1B employers in FY2025 were all U.S. firms. (Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google.)
Amazon alone secured more initial approvals than the top seven Indian IT companies combined.
NFAP attributes the shift to three accompanying factors: increased local U.S. hiring by Indian firms, the ability to perform work outside the United States, and technology changes. The TCS CEO separately stated the company would not hire new H-1B employees in the coming year. NFAP is the most rigorous primary research available and has consistently argued the H-1B program serves the U.S. economy. The bottom line is a 37 percent year-over-year drop and a 70 percent drop from FY2015. AI investment and policy pressure are both at play.