H-1B visa: Number of new Indian beneficiaries drop, USCIS report reveals

Washington: United State Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) prepared a report titled “Characteristics of H-1B Specialty Occupation Workers”.

According to the news published in The Hindu, as per government report, in 2016, 74.2 percent of the total H-1B visas were received by technology professional from India. This number increased to 75.6% in 2017. However, the number of new H-1B Indian beneficiaries decreased.

It may be mentioned that China is second in terms of number of H-1B visas.

It may be noted that 70,737 Indians had got the initial H-1B visas in 2016. Overall, 256,226 Indians were on H-1B visas in 2016 which increased to 276,423 in 2017. Compared to 2016, in 2017, the number of H-1B petitions submitted increased by 1.24% whereas the number of petitions approved increased by 5.9%.

In 2017, the number of H-1B petitions approved for workers who are in the age group of 25-34 was 66.52 percent whereas for workers with bachelor’s degree it was 45.2 percent. Workers with master’s degree account for 44.5% of approved petitions. 6.8 percent and 3.3 percent of approved petitions were of workers who are doctorate and professional degree holders respectively.