America’s big tech giants Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have occupied the top list of H-1B visa approvals for the first time. According to the report of the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), these companies have received the maximum approval for initial employment H-1B visas in FY25. On the other hand, H-1B approvals of Indian companies have reduced significantly since FY15.
Big Tech companies made new records
According to NFAP analysis, Amazon topped the list in FY25 with 4,644 approvals. Meta got 1,555 approvals, Microsoft got 1,394 and Google got 1,050 approvals. The report says that the reason for the huge recruitment of these companies is the investment of about $380 billion on AI in 2025. However, these figures do not reflect the actual number of individual employees because sometimes new approvals are filed even when the location changes.
Double decline in H-1B approvals of Indian companies
The report shows that only three companies from India could make it to the top-25 companies in FY25. Compared to FY15, H-1B approvals of top seven Indian companies have declined by 70% to 4,573. This number is also 37% less than FY24. This decline shows that the share of Indian IT companies in the American tech sector is decreasing.
H-1B limit too low, more than 300,000 applications rejected
Only 85,000 slots are available every year for H-1B visa, of which 65,000 are for general and 20,000 for US masters degree holders. There were 442,000 unique applicants in FY25, but more than 300,000 applications were rejected due to the limit. Experts believe that the cap of Rs 85,000 is much lower than the needs of the US labor market and it widens the talent gap in the tech sector.
Real picture of US job market
The report said that in FY25, 28,277 American employers got approval to hire at least one new H-1B. Of these, 61% companies got only one approval, while 95% got 10 or less approvals. 68,167 H-1B workers transferred to new companies in FY25, breaking the myth that H-1B workers are tied down.
The denial rate increased to 2.8% in FY25, which is slightly higher than 2.5% in FY24, but it had reached 24% during Trump’s first regime. The denial rate for H-1B continuing workers in FY25 was only 1.9%, which shows stability.
According to NFAP, the average H-1B tech salary was $136,000 in FY24, which clearly shows that H-1B workers are not cheap labor. The report also shows that the number of American-born workers in computer and mathematical fields has increased 141% over the past two decades, proving that foreign engineers do not take away American jobs. Rather, restrictive H-1B policies force American companies to move jobs abroad.
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