Your Guide to the H-1B Visa in 2025: How to Work in the U.S. (by Actually Getting Sponsored)
A quick guide to the most popular, yet controversial, U.S. visa for tech professionals.
If you have been thinking about a tech career in the United States, you probably know that the H‑1B visa is one of the most widely accepted, and highly desired, paths. In 2024 alone, the U.S. issued more than 140,000 new H-1B visas and renewed a massive 260,000 existing ones.
Out of these allocations, major tech companies such as Amazon, Google, and Meta dominated the market, each receiving several thousand visas (in 2023, Amazon was granted more than 13,000 visas!) to sponsor overseas employees.
But right in the middle of what looked like another H-1B victory lap, the flak suddenly reached the program. Late in 2024 and early in 2025, associates of the new U.S. government disputed the initiative and more or less declared it a bank heist. The government even had an internal falling out regarding these visas, and the program came under scrutiny like never before. Actually, in July 2025, some outlets started reporting that the government was eyeing a big overhaul of the program.
So, yes: 2025 is a strange year to talk about the H-1B. But, apart from that weird funk around it, a truth still stands: The H-1B visa is a great first step towards permanent residency and just a great way to live and work in the United States. I’ll walk you through exactly how the H‑1B visa works in 2025, how you can find a sponsor, where to apply, and what’s happening behind the scenes that could affect your chances. Read this so you can start planning ahead for the next predicted registration starting March 2026.
What is the H-1B visa?
The H-1B visa is a visa which a U.S. employer files on your behalf so you can live and work there.
Designed as a temporary work visa for specialized workers, the H-1B is a temporary work visa that lets U.S. companies hire foreign professionals in “specialty occupations.” Yes, this includes software engineers, data scientists, and all tech related jobs. With this visa, you can stay for up to six years — three years at first, with a chance to renew. If things go well, you might even transition to a Green Card while you're there. Another very attractive feat: Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can join you in the U. S. under the visa. And since the U.S., like many countries in the Americas, adopts a jus soli nationality principle, if you’re living under the H-1B visa in the U.S. and your children are born there, then they’ll be American. (jus soli comes from Latin and means something like “the law of the soil.”)
There are different requirements you must meet depending on what category you’re applying to: specialty occupations, DOD researcher and development project worker or fashion model. Even so, the baseline to qualify is a Bachelors degree or equivalent experience.
One peculiarity of the H-1B visa is that applications follow the U.S. fiscal year. You can’t apply whenever you feel ready—there’s a specific registration window you have to wait for. In 2025, registration for FY 2026 closed on March 22. The next period is expected to begin in March 2026 and lasts about 2–3 weeks.
Unfortunately, there is a limit… 🧢
There is a cap on the number of new visas issued per year, which makes the H-1B visa one of the most competitive visa processes out there.
The limit is set at 85,000 visas per year: 65,000 for general applicants, and 20,000 extra for people with U.S. master’s degrees. (If you scroll through the article’s intro, you’ll notice this is well below the total number of awarded visas.) There are some employers like universities, non-profit, or government research organizations are spared from the cap. Naturally, this means that there’s an imbalance between supply and demand. So, how does the USCIS deal with this?
In comes the lottery! 🎰 And also, a very important tweak with the H-1B visa you should know about
When there are more registrations than visas—which there almost always are—the U.S. government runs a random lottery. If you’re selected, your employer can file the full visa petition. That’s why registration is so important.
Although there is a lot of confusion about the H-1B visa, there is one recent change that will help you if you want to apply. In 2024, even before the new government took office, the U.S. introduced a new rule: each person can only be registered once, even if multiple companies want to sponsor them. This stops people from gaming the system with duplicate entries, and everyone gets a more equal shot. (If you ever read this rule started out in 2025, it’s an understandable confusion; the thing is, it launched for the FY2025 cohort, which actually began in 2024.)
But being selected doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get the visa. The lottery usually selects a number of people above the cap. Why? Because getting selected doesn't mean you automatically get the visa. There are many people who pass through the lottery but: don’t file the full application, get denied, withdraw, change plans or go with another offer.
About the undergoing tweak (or overhaul)
The latest overhaul to the H-1B lottery was first reported in July 2025 by certain news outlets. According to them, and unless a lawsuit succeeds in blocking the rule, the new H-1B selection process could be in place by March 2026, before the FY 2027 H-1B cap selection.
📊 So, how many people were selected in the last window?
Let’s look at FY 2025 (the most recent lottery with full data). Keep in mind this data dropped in August 2024, almost a year ago, and during a different U.S. administration. But it’s still useful. Let’s see:
USCIS received ~470,000 valid registrations. In the first lottery, they selected 114,017 people (this covers 120,603 registrations, since a few people had more than one employer register them). But that didn’t fill the cap, so they ran a second lottery. In that second round, they selected 13,607 more people (which led to 14,534 more registrations). So the total number of selected people was 127,624, and the total number of selected registrations was 135,137
That means 127,624 unique people were invited to submit full applications, even though only 85,000 can ultimately be approved.
There are fewer visas being issued this year, but that's alright
The FY 2025 data was sourced roughly a year ago. So it's mostly 2024 data, and it came during a different government.
Predictably, for the current calendar year, data shows that there are fewer visas being awarded. But, even if the trend continues, the program is still strong.
Restricted countries for the lottery? Not this time
If you’ve been learning about U.S. immigration policies, you’ll have noticed that citizens from certain countries can’t sign up for a lottery system, specifically the Green Card (permanent residence) lottery. That list of countries is quite short, yet quite comprehensive, and it means that roughly 60% of the world’s population can’t apply for the Green Card lottery. But that’s just a Green Card limit. There’s no country restriction for the H-1B lottery.
💸 How much money does it involve?
The H‑1B visa comes with several costs, but most of them are paid by the employer, not the applicant. That’s important: U.S. law requires the sponsoring company to cover the majority of these fees. On average, the total cost can be around $2,500, based on the company’s size and the specifics of the petition.
This amount typically includes the H‑1B Registration Fee, Form I‑129 filing fee, Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee, and the new Asylum Program Fee introduced in 2024. Larger companies often pay more due to additional surcharges, while smaller employers pay slightly less.
You can also choose Optional Premium Processing, which involves an extra $2,805, to have your application processes within 15 days.
The bad news? These costs are non-refundable, even if your petition is denied.
Some Reddit users claim that the company asked them for a refund of their H-1B application fees. Those fees, in between attorneys and administrative charges, totalled at $6,000, above the stipulated $2,500. Is this even legal? It doesn’t look like it is, but I’m pretty sure it still occurs, and these testimonials are genuine.
Wait, what was that political controversy about?
Ah, yes. The H‑1B is kind of in the political spotlight (or crosshairs) right now.
In late 2024, MAGA faced struggles within its own units over a debate on H-1B work visas. Vivek Ramaswamy, entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, had joined Elon Musk’s newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). But just weeks into the job, Ramaswamy posted a controversial tweet dissing America’s work culture and ignited a firestorm. This is the X post I’m referring to. It’s almost longer than this newsletter, so I can’t insert it without disrupting this article.
The post was widely interpreted as a defense of the H‑1B visa and the foreign professionals who come to the U.S. under it, many of whom work in tech and are highly skilled. To parts of the MAGA base, though, the message came off as deeply unpatriotic, elitist, and offensive to American workers. (Also, that Vivek is of Indian heritage and that ~75% of H-1B visas are awarded to Indian citizens certainly didn’t help. It just fanned the myth that Indian tech workers operate as a clique that leaves some American citizens without jobs. This conspiracy theory, of course, is bogus, but it was still part of the discourse.)
This event pushed for Ramaswamy’s resignation, just 69 days after joining the project, plus it pushed a few rule changes for the H-1B visa.
Under the new guidelines, both the employer and the worker must now show that they have a degree or other qualifications that are similar to the job role they are looking to fill. This might mean, for example, that the person has such “unique experience” that no one else could fill the role.
How does this affect you? And why this year could actually be a more favorable year to file for the H-1B
Let’s look at the numbers again. During the FY 2024 period, nearly 760,000 people registered for the lottery. During FY 2025? Just over 470,000. That’s a 38% drop.
But here’s the catch: the number of unique people applying hasn’t changed much. What’s changed is how they apply. There are no more multiple registrations per person. In the end, that means less fake entries, more transparency, and a lottery that works the way it should. Also, if you have the degree, then you’re in a better position this year than last year.
About 135,000 applicants were selected in 2025—still way more than the 85,000 visas available, because some won’t end up filing. But your odds this year were better than last year, thanks to the new system.
So, bottom line: fewer total entries, but still high demand. And if you’re organized and know where to look for a sponsor, you’re in a great position. Again, if you’re still a bit disoriented after all the commotion surrounding the H-1B visa, you can check out some of my Employer Not Required or Job Seeker articles. In that series, I go through all the ways in which you can relocate without needing to find an employer sponsorship.
How do I get sponsored for an H‑1B?
You can’t apply for an H-1B on your own. You need a U.S. company to file the paperwork for you. That’s where your job search strategy matters.
One of the best ways to find companies that actually sponsor visas is to use Relocate.me. At Relocate.me, I handpick employers open to hiring tech talent overseas. You’ll find listings from tech companies across the U.S. that are actively looking for international talent. In addition, the site offers detailed articles on all visa types, for the US and many other countries.
Some U.S.-based companies looking for international talent right now include:
Ford
Grammarly
Anthropic
OpenAI (ever heard of it?)
Via
If you want a more unique experience, I do weekly hand curated tech jobs with relocation and even specific articles on U.S.-based companies sponsoring visas.
What kinds of companies sponsor the most?
Big tech companies are the obvious players—think Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, IBM, Salesforce. They file thousands of H-1B petitions each year and have in‑house legal teams to help you through the process. Tata, Cognizant and Infosys, three famous services companies from India, have also been historically favored, and occasionally rack up more visas than MAANG companies. But I’m not sure what their fate looks like now that LLMs have brought vibe-coding to the development game.
But mid‑sized and even startup companies also sponsor, especially if they’re hiring for hard‑to‑fill tech roles. You can visit specialized job boards to find roles at companies of all sizes that are already open to international hires.
🕑 A quick word about timing
The H‑1B process follows a strict calendar. Here’s what you need to know:
The lottery registration happens in March.
If selected, your employer files your petition by early April.
If approved, you can start working on or after October 1st.
So if you’re aiming for the 2026 fiscal year, you’ll want to secure a job by early 2026—ideally a few months before March, to give your employer time to prep. If you miss the window, don’t panic. Some companies can sponsor other visa types, or offer remote roles while you wait for next year’s cycle.
What if I don’t get selected?
That’s a real possibility. Selection rates are improving, but it’s still a lottery. In the meantime, you can work remotely for the company until the next H-1B cycle, apply for other visa types (like O‑1 or L‑1, if eligible), enroll in a U.S. master’s program to qualify for the “master’s cap”, or simply apply again next year—many people get selected on their second or third try.
Persistence pays off. And the more experience you accumulate, the stronger your future application will be. Since you’re considering an H-1B run, you should read my recent pieces on how to prepare your resume and how to spruce up your LinkedIn so that you can get hired right away. Also, my write-up into how Big Tech (including companies that procure thousands of H-1B visas) hires software engineers will serve you a sneak peek into how to get to that position.
Final thoughts: You’ve got this
The H-1B visa may seem complicated, but thousands of people successfully go through the process every year—and you can too. The key is to start early, target the right employers, and make sure you understand the timeline.
It is now easier than ever to find a sponsor and relocate to the United States with the help of resources like Relocate.me and a clear roadmap.
And remember, immigration policy shifts all the time.
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