The United States issues several hundred thousand work visas every year, but the exact figure depends on which programs you count. In fiscal year 2024, the State Department issued 167,394 employment-based immigrant visas, and roughly 400,000 H-1B petitions were approved when new selections and renewals are combined. The question of how many work visas are issued each year has no single answer because some categories carry hard statutory caps, others have no numerical limit at all, and even the capped programs are routinely expanded by administrative action.
The Capped Temporary Programs
Two of the best-known work visa categories operate under annual limits set by Congress.
H-1B Specialty Occupations
The H-1B regular cap is 65,000 per year, with an additional 20,000 reserved for workers holding a U.S. master’s degree or higher. That puts the effective cap-subject ceiling at 85,000.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-1B Cap Season Within the 65,000 general pool, 6,800 slots are set aside for the H-1B1 trade-agreement program: 1,400 for Chilean nationals and 5,400 for Singaporean nationals, with unused visas flowing back into the general pool.2U.S. Department of Labor. H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 Specialty (Professional) Workers
The 85,000 number badly understates real H-1B volume. Federal law exempts entire categories of employers from the cap. Petitions filed by institutions of higher education, related nonprofits, nonprofit research organizations, and governmental research organizations are cap-exempt, and so are renewal petitions for workers already in H-1B status.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1184 – Admission of Nonimmigrants Once you add renewals and cap-exempt filings to the 85,000 new cap-subject selections, total approvals reached roughly 400,000 in FY 2024.
Demand for cap-subject slots consistently exceeds supply, so USCIS runs a lottery. For FY 2027, the registration window ran March 4 through March 19, 2026, with results by March 31.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. FY 2027 H-1B Cap Initial Registration Period Opens on March 4 After USCIS tightened rules to allow only one registration per beneficiary, eligible registrations fell from roughly 759,000 in FY 2024 to about 344,000 in FY 2026, pushing the selection rate up to around 35 percent.
H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers
The H-2B program covers seasonal non-farm jobs such as landscaping, hospitality, and seafood processing. The statutory base cap is 66,000 visas per fiscal year, split evenly between the two halves of the year: 33,000 for start dates from October 1 through March 31, and 33,000 for start dates from April 1 through September 30.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers
Actual issuance regularly runs higher. The Department of Homeland Security can release supplemental H-2B visas when employers show irreparable harm from labor shortages, and the supplements are typically restricted to returning workers. For FY 2026, DHS authorized up to 64,716 additional H-2B visas beyond the base cap, nearly doubling the available slots.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Cap Reached for Second Allocation of Returning Worker H-2B Visas for Fiscal Year 2026
The Uncapped Temporary Programs
Several of the largest work visa categories have no annual numerical limit. Volume is driven by employer demand and adjudication outcomes, which is why year-over-year totals swing.
- H-2A temporary agricultural workers. The biggest uncapped work visa by volume. There is no statutory cap, and the program has grown steadily for three decades. In FY 2024, nearly 385,000 H-2A positions were certified nationwide, more than all the capped visa categories combined.7Congressional Research Service. H-2A and H-2B Temporary Worker Visas – Policy and Related Issues
- L-1 intracompany transferees. Used by companies moving executives, managers, or employees with specialized knowledge from a foreign office to a U.S. office. No annual cap. Roughly 77,000 L-1 petitions were approved in FY 2023.
- O-1 extraordinary ability. For workers with extraordinary achievement in sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. No numerical limit.
- TN USMCA professionals. Canadian and Mexican professionals in designated occupations can work in the U.S. under the TN classification with no annual quota.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. TN USMCA Professionals
Dependent family members traveling with these workers (H-4, L-2, O-3, and TD visa holders) are classified separately and do not count against any numerical cap that applies to the principal worker’s category.
Employment-Based Green Cards
Employment-based immigrant visas — the path to permanent residency through work — carry a worldwide baseline of 140,000 per fiscal year, plus any unused family-sponsored visas from the prior year.9U.S. Government Publishing Office. 8 USC 1151 – Worldwide Level of Immigration The 140,000 slots are divided across five preference categories with fixed percentage shares:10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
- EB-1 priority workers: 28.6 percent, about 40,040 visas.
- EB-2 advanced degree professionals: 28.6 percent, plus any unused EB-1 visas.
- EB-3 skilled workers and professionals: 28.6 percent, plus any unused EB-1 and EB-2 visas.
- EB-4 special immigrants: 7.1 percent, about 9,940 visas.
- EB-5 investors: 7.1 percent, about 9,940 visas.
Actual issuance can exceed the 140,000 baseline because unused family-sponsored visas carry over and unused higher-preference visas spill down. That is how the State Department reached 167,394 employment-based immigrant visas issued in FY 2024.11U.S. Department of State. Fiscal Year 2024 Table V – Immigrant Visas Issued
Per-Country Limits and Why Backlogs Form
Federal law caps the total immigrant visas available to nationals of any single country at 7 percent of the combined family-sponsored and employment-based preference total for the fiscal year.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1152 – Numerical Limitations on Individual Foreign States With the combined total at roughly 366,000 (about 226,000 family-sponsored plus 140,000 employment-based), the per-country ceiling comes out to approximately 25,620 visas across both categories.13U.S. Department of State. Appendix A – Provisions of the Law and Numerical Limitations
For high-demand countries like India and China, employment-based applicants far exceed the yearly per-country allotment, producing multi-year and in some categories multi-decade waits. Applicants from lower-demand countries often face no meaningful wait.
Note the boundary: the per-country limit applies only to immigrant visas. Temporary work visas like the H-1B, H-2A, H-2B, L-1, O-1, and TN are not subject to country-based quotas. The H-1B1 trade-agreement slots are reserved by nationality, but that reservation runs in favor of Chilean and Singaporean workers rather than against them.
Putting the Numbers Together
Add the pieces and the shape of the system becomes clear. Roughly 85,000 new H-1B cap-subject workers, another few hundred thousand H-1B renewals and cap-exempt filings, 66,000 base H-2B plus tens of thousands in supplements, close to 385,000 H-2A certifications, tens of thousands each of L-1, O-1, and TN admissions, and 140,000-plus employment-based green cards. The capped programs draw most of the public attention, but the uncapped agricultural, intracompany, and professional categories carry the bulk of the annual volume, and the year-to-year total moves with them.