The states with the most and least H-1B visa recipients

Updated September 22, 2025

Economists are sounding the alarm on President Donald Trump’s move to hike the cost of skilled-worker visas to $100,000, saying it will jeopardize economic growth at an already difficult time for the economy.

Trump said Friday that the government is hiking the fee for new H-1B visas to $100,000, about 60 times the previous cost. The new rules for the visas, which let companies hire foreign workers in jobs such as IT, healthcare, and engineering to work in the U.S. for six years, are an example of “anti-growth policymaking," Atakan Bakiskan, an economist at Berenberg investment bank, said in a note Monday.

“Deportation efforts, attempts to strip work permits from existing employees, and a hostile environment for foreign workers have already caused labour force growth in the U.S. to nearly flatline,” he said.

“The future of economic growth now depends almost exclusively on productivity gains,” Bakiskan added. “However, by making it very expensive for companies to attract foreign talent, and by forcing some international students to leave the country after graduation, the brain drain will weigh heavily on productivity.”

Kathleen Brooks, research director at investment broker XTB, added, “Although these companies [Amazon $AMZN and Microsoft $MSFT] have the money to afford the visas, other sectors who also rely on H-1B visas may struggle with future recruitment, for example the health care and education sectors.”

To figure out which states will be most affected by the changes, we've compiled a list of the states with the most new H-1B visa recipients in the 2025 fiscal year. Continue reading to see which made the list.

Alex Daniel contributed to this report.