Debate Over H-1B Visas Continues, PA Companies Employ Nearly 13,000 From Program

President Trump signaled his support for H-1B visas, saying he has used the program for his various companies.

As Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy posted on social media in support of work visas for “highly skilled” foreign workers, questions arose from Democrats about the visa program’s value and its impact on American workers.

H-1B visas are for foreign nationals with technical skills or specialized training in non-agriculture fields. The companies that employ visa recipients must attest they could not fill the positions with American workers. Recipients typically can stay in the United States for up to 6 years, including extensions. An H-1B visa does not allow for permanent residency. More than 70% of H-1B recipients hail from India, with 10% from China.

In Pennsylvania, there are nearly 13,000 H-1B visa holders according to the Employer Data Hub maintained by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Among the companies with the most H-1B employees are Deloitte, Comcast, SAP, and Vanguard. Higher education also rounds out the top of the list: University of Pittsburgh, UPenn, and Penn State employ several hundred H-1B recipients combined.

Musk and Ramaswamy, wealthy entrepreneurs tapped by incoming President Donald Trump to run an outside-of-government effort to slim down the federal bureaucracy, defended companies that employ foreigners through H-1B visas, with Musk saying, “you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.”

This past weekend Trump, who previously restricted visa programs like H-1B, said he agrees with Musk and that he has used the skilled foreign worker visa program “many times” for his various Trump-branded properties. 

The program is not without its detractors: Among those calling for reforms of the H-1B visa program are progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California.

The number of H-1B visas given out annually is capped at 65,000. The vast majority of them are used by tech companies with Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Google receiving thousands each year.