H2B Visa Stamping Statistics: Approval, Refusal Rates Worldwide, by Country

H2B Visa is a visa issued to perform temporary or any seasonal non-agricultural work. It is limited to individuals from a certain set of designated countries. There are some exceptions to this country rule, if they are in the interest of the United States. The H2B visa also requires that a petition is filed with USCIS and is approved before they apply for a H2B visa stamping a US Consulate or Embassy. In some cases, they can directly seek to enter the US with CBP at a US Port of entry, where there is no requirement for H2B visa

Last Updated: June 2026

Getting H2B Visa depends on various factors. Having an understanding of the overall approval and refusal rates globally for H2B Visa will give you an idea on what to expect. The approval and refusal/ rejection rates that you see on this page correspond to applicants who applied for H2B Visa stamping, which is to get a H2B Visa stamp (foil that is glued in passport), at a US Embassy or Consulate. On this page, you can explore worldwide approval, rejection rates for H2B Visa, including data by country.

*H2B Visa Refusals are also called as H2B Visa Rejections by many users and are used interchangeably. The US Dept. of State officially calls it H2B Visa Refusal, so we have used this term for presenting data. But, both mean the same.

H2B Visa Approval and Refusal Rates Worldwide by Fiscal Year

Below is the H2B Visa approval and refusal rate worldwide by fiscal year. The approval and refusal rates for H2B Visa are derived based on the total number of approvals and refusals shared by US Department of state. All the data you see on this page for H2B Visa is from the official visa statistics released on US Department of State website.

Scroll horizontally to see the full chart.

https://visagrader.com

Fiscal Year*	Approval Rate	Refusal Rate
2013	85.23%	14.77%
2014	86.61%	13.39%
2015	88.35%	11.65%
2016	88.15%	11.85%
2017	89.4%	10.6%
2018	89.13%	10.87%
2019	93.34%	6.663%
2020	90.75%	9.248%
2021	94.15%	5.855%
2022	94.89%	5.11%
2023	95.13%	4.872%
2024	95.83%	4.17%

*Fiscal Year for US Dept of State & USCIS starts from Oct 1st, ends Sep 30th.
E.g. Fiscal Year 2023 Starts Oct 1, 2022, ends Sep 30, 2023.

Total H2B Visa Approvals and Refusals Worldwide by Fiscal Year

Below is the total number of approvals and refusals for H2B Visa worldwide by fiscal year (FY). You can see the graph to see the trend of approvals and rejections. The same data is displayed as a table for easy review.

Scroll horizontally to see the full chart.

https://visagrader.com

Fiscal Year	Approvals	Refusals
2013	57,600	9,981
2014	68,102	10,533
2015	69,684	9,188
2016	84,627	11,375
2017	83,600	9,915
2018	83,774	10,218
2019	97,623	6,969
2020	61,865	6,304
2021	95,053	5,911
2022	124,644	6,712
2023	131,704	6,745
2024	139,541	6,072

*Fiscal Year for US Dept of State & USCIS starts from Oct 1st, ends Sep 30th.
E.g. Fiscal Year 2021 Starts Oct 1, 2020, ends Sep 30, 2021.

Browse H2B Visa Issuances/ Approvals by Country & Nationality

You can also explore H2B Visa approvals & refusals data by country & by nationality, by clicking on the country specific links. Click on any of the country flag icons or the blue links to view H2B Visa approvals/ issuances for that country & individuals with that nationality.