H-1B Visa Renewals Near Record After 273,026 Approvals in Nine Months

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 273,026 H-1B petitions for continuing employment through the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, according to analysis of government data reported by Newsweek. The figure covers October 2025 through June 2026 and leaves three months remaining in the fiscal year.

Fiscal year 2025 recorded 291,542 such approvals. With fewer than 19,000 additional approvals needed in the final quarter, fiscal year 2026 would surpass that total and set a new record. The Trump administration has sought to tighten parts of the program.

It attempted to impose a $100,000 fee on many new H-1B petitions for workers outside the United States, but a federal judge blocked the measure in June 2026. The administration has also moved to replace the existing lottery system with a wage-weighted selection process that prioritizes higher-paid applicants.

USCIS separates approvals into initial-employment petitions, which fall under an annual cap of 85,000 visas, and continuing-employment petitions, which are not capped.

The reported figures cover only the latter category. LayoffHedge compiled the data from USCIS records and historical figures published by the Pew Research Center. Pew reported almost 400,000 total H-1B approvals in fiscal year 2024, of which 258,196 were renewals or extensions.

Jiaxin He, a research assistant with the Economic Innovation Group, told Newsweek that continuing-employment approvals combine multiple petition types and that only 118,194 of the fiscal year 2025 total represented actual renewals. "Only 118,194 of those are actual renewals," He said. Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S.