H-1B visas vital for U.S. California's tech titans: report

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Of all the rich and powerful people cozying up to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, few have rushed to Mar-a-Lago faster than the crowned heads of big tech, including California's own chiefs of Google and Meta, reported the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday.

"And few have a stronger motive to curry Trump's favor than Silicon Valley: the fate of the H-1B visa program that permits foreign-born computer scientists, engineers and other highly skilled workers to migrate to the United States hangs in the balance," noted the report.

Support for retaining H-1B from Elon Musk, the incoming president's new closest associate, has stirred rage through much of Trump's MAGA base, which is against immigration in almost any form. But keeping the pipeline open for tech and other skilled workers is seen by many business leaders as critical for the American economy, especially in California, it said.

The state is by far the biggest user of the H-1B. More than 9,600 employers in California sought clearance for at least one H-1B worker in fiscal 2024, with 78,860 visa applications for new and continuing employment being approved, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

"They include all kinds of skilled work in various industries, including nurses and science teachers. But the top 10 beneficiaries of H-1B visas in California -- accounting for almost one-third of all the approvals -- were dominated by tech giants, most of them in the Bay Area," it added.