It is always good to have a historical perspective about anything in life…In the context of H1B Visas, it is H1B Visas Cap numbers and their availability from beginning until now….if you are new to the term cap, don’t be confused. Read What is H1B Visa Cap ? Masters vs Regular Cap ? Before we dive in, let’s explain how we got these numbers…
How was H1B Cap Historic Data Gathered ?
We have been tracking H1B related information from 2009 and have done a lot of research on this topic over the years… All the information is gathered from USCIS Reports, their legacy web pages, and current web pages. USCIS gives out data in the form of PDF reports and they are basically images for older versions of reports…you cannot read like text, it is an image…We went through all such research reports to get the data. Hope it helps you all to have a broader vision about the H1B cap numbers availability from 1990 until today…
Year | Maximum H1B visas Cap | Description for changes |
| 1990 | 65,000 | The H1-B category enacted |
| 1999 | 115,000 | Under ACIWA( American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act) in 1998, increased number of H1B visas to 115,000 |
| 2000 | 115,000 | Stays same for year 2000. |
| 2001 | 195,000 | AC21 Act ( American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first century act ) and increased |
| 2003 | 195,000 | Continued to be in 195,000 range |
| 2004 | 65,000 | H1B Cap reverted back to 65,000, which was the original number. |
| 2004 | 65,000
+ 20,000 | Additional 20,000 visas for aliens with U.S earned Masters or Higher degree. |
There have been no changes to the H1B Quota Cap since 2004. If we were to put in a table and graph, this is how it would look.
Fiscal Year | Regular Quota | Masters Quota |
| 2005 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2006 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2007 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2008 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2009 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2010 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2011 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2012 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2013 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2014 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2015 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2016 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2017 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2018 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2019 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2020 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2021 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2022 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
| 2023 | 65,000 | 20,000 |
History of H1B visa Maximum Cap Statistics from 1990 to FY 2023
No changes to the H1B cap numbers since 2004. Below is the graph that illustrates the same.
Proposals to Change H1B Visa Cap Counts
Many have proposed many rules and tried to change the quota, but they all went nowhere. The most recent one was the Obama Comprehensive Immigration Reform that proposed to increase the H1B Quota like below.
- The regular quota H1B Visas cap from 65,000 per year to 110,000 per year.
- The advanced degree H1B cap for STEM degree holders from US schools from 20,000 to 25,000 visas.
- Also, some provisions to increase H1B quota to 180,000 per year, if there is extreme demand for highly skilled workers that fiscal year.
As of FY 2023, the CIR has not gone anywhere and no changes to H1B for FY 2023 season. New Trump Administration has not yet passed anything. You should check out H1B Visa Cap reached dates by year from 2000 to today
For complete detailed information, you may visit the USCIS website and look at H1B visa Research reports
Flat out lies. Many years the government issues over 300,000 H-1B visas.
sam,
These numbers are not made up, they directly come from USCIS regarding New H1B Filings. You can check USCIS website.
very useful post, thank you!
Hi Kumar,
Is there a delay in getting LCA nowadays (post September 2010)?
My employer says despite going for Premium, the LCA itself will take 2 months to recieve and I can get it filed only in January, 2011.
Im worried that the quota shouldnt get full by then.
Thanks.
Kumar, what is your first and last name, along with qualifications? I am writing a paper and need to cite you since I am using a source from one of your pages, but cannot find this information.
Lauren, you can just quote it as Kumar. Honestly, you should not quote blogs as official references because they reflect personal opinion and not citation eligible.
Hey……Please tell us what is Master Quota and General Quota ?
MS consider in Master Quota or General Quota?
And if possible please tell us about the term ‘cap’?
It is difficult to understand those facts for newbies like me
Regards
Ankit Sharma
Ankit, I will do a post with Basics of H1B visa and terms like cap, lca, rfe…
That data doesn’t say much. The cap itself doesn’t provide any useful information.
What would be useful would be a plot of when the cap was reached in each year. In some years, it wasn’t reached at all (including the years when the cap was increased to 195K.)
Joe, Very good point, your question is answered here with this post. Let me know what you think on the article with analysis.
http://redbus2us.com/2010/01/h1-b-visa-petitions-cap-reached-dates-by-year-from-2000-to-2010-recession-impact-and-trend-analysis-plot-from-2000-%E2%80%93-2010-for-2011-decision.html