Travel bans, plus fallout from Trump era policies have led to a 9% drop in H1B visas [1].But could it also be that now companies are more remote-friendly, there is less of a need to sponsor workers? Companies a few years ago based in big population centers like SF, NY, LA had lots of competition for workers within reasonable commute distance. There was a need to sponsor workers to meet demand. But with covid, more companies are hiring remote workers (my 2 previous companies ditched offices completely and went 100% remote. TrueCar went from all workers in Santa Monica to all over the country, and Cameo went from LA/Chicago to worldwide. No need to sponsor someone to come from another country when you can just hire them to work from where they are.

1. https://m.economictimes.com/nri/migrate/9-drop-in-h-1b-visa-...