US Customs and Immigration Services released a report that found there were 583,420 such workers in the US as of Sept. 30, 2019, the end of the last federal fiscal year. The number was unknown until last week.  

USCIS’ report notes the data takes into account those who received an H-1B but left the US permanently, never entered the US or were denied entry when they tried to enter the US.

The report, “H-1B Authorized-to-Work Population Estimate,” came out June 26. Previously, the number of H-1B workers had not been tracked.

One comment in the report is the number of workers on H-1Bs is expected to be 10% higher during the first two quarters of the current federal fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2019.

However, an article in Forbes said the number of workers with H-1B visas would likely drop to fewer than 300,000 if those waiting in immigrant backlogs received employment-based green cards sooner rather than waiting years or decades.