American companies spent more than N3 billion in the 2024 fiscal year to sponsor Nigerian professionals under the H-1B specialty worker visa programme, official US immigration data shows.

Data from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, analysed by Nigerian data firm Intelpoint, reveals that 880 Nigerians received H-1B visas during the period, making Nigeria the largest African beneficiary of the programme.

The estimate is based on mandatory employer fees for each application, which cover filing, training, fraud prevention, and asylum-related charges, amounting to about $2,630 per petition. At the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market rate of N1,396 to the dollar as of January 30, this totals roughly N3.23 billion.

While employers cover most costs, Nigerian applicants also pay fees, including a $190 visa application charge to the US Embassy, medical examinations, and travel expenses for mandatory consular interviews. In total, the 880 Nigerian workers likely spent around $167,200 (approximately N233 million) on visa fees alone.

Nigeria led Africa in H-1B visa issuances, accounting for 26.7 per cent of the continent’s total. Other African countries on the list included Ghana with 499 visas, Egypt with 364, Kenya with 320, South Africa with 208, and Ethiopia with 156.

Despite this, Nigerian recipients represented just 0.4 per cent of the 219,813 H-1B visas issued worldwide in FY 2024. Globally, India dominated with nearly 150,000 visas, followed by China with 31,900. Only 1.5 per cent of all H-1B visas were issued to Africans.

The H-1B programme, created under the Immigration Act of 1990, allows US employers to hire foreign professionals in specialised occupations requiring at least a bachelor’s degree. Employers must certify that they will pay at least the prevailing wage and that hiring foreign workers will not harm the wages or working conditions of US employees.

H-1B visas are initially granted for three years and may be extended to six. Some workers later apply for permanent residency through employer-sponsored green cards, although long backlogs, especially for Indian and Chinese nationals, can cause delays of several years.

From September 21, 2025, a new $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions took effect for workers outside the US, potentially raising costs for employers and affecting their ability to hire highly skilled foreign professionals.