The U.S. government today said it received 199,000 H-1B visa petitions for the upcoming 2018 fiscal year — 37,000 less than in 2016.
The government will issue 85,000 visas distributed via a computer-generated lottery. The winners will be able to use their visas at the start of the federal fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Industry analysts see President Donald Trump’s actions and campaign rhetoric as having had an impact on the offshore outsourcing industry, which includes the largest users of H-1B visa workers. Firms considering shipping IT jobs overseas appear now to be more cautious than in recent years.
