saw the new data USCIS published last week. it seems there were a lot fewer people trying to get an H1B this year. Is it the economy is bad or simply because the application fee raised from 10 to 210 dollars per candidate? What do you guys think? Is US still attractive to international students.
US is still attractive for its high salary, but after the immigration policies became tighten, a lot of ppl are considering Germany, Netherlands or other EU countries those are more welcome immigrants.
this economy kinda sucks mannnnn 
Yeah, I noticed that too — way fewer registrations this year. Honestly, I think it’s a mix of things:
The fee hike probably filtered out a bunch of spam/mass entries
Job market’s still shaky, especially for tech
And a lot of people are just tired of the constant visa stress
The U.S. is still attractive in some ways — but for many international students, it’s starting to feel like high effort, low reward unless you get super lucky with timing.
Curious if anyone here has actually decided to go elsewhere (Canada, UK, etc)?
I have a friend who’s planning to relocate to the UK after not getting picked in the H1B lottery. But honestly, anywhere with visa pressure isn’t easy. The salary potential in the US still feels more attractive compared to most places in Europe.
Still a lot of students come