What Is the H1B Visa?
The H-1B is a nonimmigrant work visa. It lets U.S. employers hire foreign workers for "specialty occupations," which is government-speak for jobs that require at least a bachelor's degree in a specific field. Think computer science, engineering, finance, accounting, architecture, medicine.
Congress created it in 1990. Over 30 years later, it's still the main visa that skilled foreign professionals use to work in the United States. The system has problems (more on that below), but if you're a foreign national with a job offer from a U.S. company, this is probably the visa you're looking at.
Key Numbers for 2026
- 85,000 new H1B visas per fiscal year: 65,000 under the regular cap, plus 20,000 reserved for people with U.S. master's degrees
- 239,477 Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) filed in the most recent fiscal year, with a 90.5% certification rate
- Median prevailing wage on certified LCAs: $123,000
- 70.2% of H1B holders were born in India; 12.8% in China
Who Can Apply?
Employees must:- Have a job offer from a U.S. employer
- Hold a bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in a specialty field
- Have the employer file on their behalf. You can't self-petition. Your fate is literally in your employer's hands.
- File a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the Department of Labor
- Pay at least the prevailing wage or actual wage, whichever is higher
- Submit Form I-129 to USCIS during the filing window (April 1 for October 1 start)
The H1B Timeline
| Step | Timing |
|---|---|
| Employer registers in lottery | March 1–18 |
| USCIS notifies selected registrants | Late March |
| Petition filing window opens | April 1 |
| H1B employment start date | October 1 |
You get 3 years initially, extendable to 6. If your green card process is underway, you can extend beyond 6 years. Some people end up on H1B for a decade or more this way (especially Indian nationals waiting on EB-2/EB-3 backlogs).
Lottery or Cap-Exempt?
If your employer is a university, affiliated nonprofit, or nonprofit/government research organization, they're cap-exempt. No lottery. No April filing window. No October 1 wait. USCIS approves the petition, you start working.
For everyone else, it's a random computer lottery when registrations exceed the 85,000 cap. That's happened every single year since 2014.
Costs
The employer pays. Government fees alone run $3,000–$5,000 per petition (the $600 ACWIA training fee, $500 fraud prevention fee, and premium processing if they opt for it). Attorney fees add another $2,000–$5,000. You, the worker, should not be paying these fees. If an employer asks you to, that's a red flag.
What VisaTrack Covers
VisaTrack publishes data from 239,000+ certified LCA filings so you can:
- Search any employer's approval history and salary ranges
- Compare prevailing wages by job title and state
- See which employers file the most H1Bs
Data sourced from DOL OFLC disclosure files and USCIS annual reports.