Where are H1-B visa holders from, who hires them and what do they earn - The Washington Post

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/24/h1b-countries-india-employers-sectors-companies-workers-map/

Where H-1B visa holders are from, who hires them and what they earn

See how President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visas affects countries, industries, employers and workers.

Adrián Blanco Ramos

September 24, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDTToday at 6:00 a.m. EDT

President Donald Trump’s newly announced policy of charging $100,000 for H-1B visas, which allow companies to temporarily hire nonimmigrant foreign workers for certain roles, in cases where employers cannot find those skills in the domestic workforce, came as an abrupt shift for U.S. employers and workers around the world — especially in a few key countries and sectors.

While the new fees and entry restrictions do not apply to current visa holders or those renewing them, and are not set to kick in until the next visa lottery cycle, the policy left companies and workers scrambling.

Here is where the most recent slate of H-1B visa holders originate, along with who employs them across which sectors and how much they earn.

Where most H-1B visa holders are from

About half-a-million people in the U.S. hold H-1B visas. India accounted for 71 percent of H-1B visa holders in the 2024 fiscal year, which began in October 2023 and ended in September 2024, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS agency that administers immigration and naturalization processes. Other countries are set to see a major impact, especially China, which accounted for 11.7 percent of total H-1B visas.

In a statement, India’s foreign ministry said that “skilled talent mobility and exchanges” have made major contributions to “wealth creation in the United States and India.”

Which industries and companies employ H-1B visa holders?

“Computer-related” occupations made up the bulk of H-1B employment in the 2024 fiscal year. Many of these jobs include systems analysis programming, according to a report released in August by DHS and USCIS.

Tech companies have a deeply entrenched culture of hiring immigrant workers. Uncertainty over the new policy has rattled Silicon Valley, as some companies advised immigrant employees on highly skilled visas not to leave the country.

Tech companies and outsourcing firms such as Tata and Cognizant employ the largest share of workers on such visas, but manufacturers, financial institutions and universities also import skilled workers from other countries.

Tech giants Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta are among the top employers of workers with H-1B visas. Amazon told employees that active or approved H-1B visas will not be affected by the new policy.

How much do H-1B visa holders make?

The fields with the highest median salaries for H-1B visa holders include law and jurisprudence — but data shows that fewer than 2,000 visas were given out for these jobs in 2024.

The median salary for computer-related occupations, which accounted for the bulk of H-1B visas in 2024, was $101,000 for those who had their visas approved for these jobs for the first time and $135,000 for those who have been working in their fields in the U.S. for longer.

These median salaries highlight the scale of the $100,000 fee — 99 percent of the median salary for new visa holders.

The real median household income in the U.S. was $83,730 in 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau reported in September.