Get 70 % of total H-1B visas.
According to the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Michele Bond, the number of H-1B visa’s issued to Indian’s remains high and it constitutes 70% of the total H-1B visa’s issued worldwide by Washington, The Indian Express reported.
“Indian citizens receive almost 70% of all the H-1B visa issued worldwide,†Bond said. “Overwhelmingly, Indian applicants are the ones who are successful in qualifying for these visas.â€
Bond, who was in India to hold fifth annual Consular dialogue with her counterpart in MEA, said that 11, 0000 Indian citizens were issued H-1B visas between October 2014 and September 2015.
The US doubled the visa fees to $4000 for H-1B and to $4,500 for L-1 at the end of last year.
“These specific visa where the fees changed – the H and L visas – we have seen no drop in the number of applications for those visas, no lessening of interest in obtaining those visas. It was a legislative change, so we were implementing that law,†the senior official further informed.
These remarks come in the backdrop of the two US lawmakers introducing a new bill in the House of Representatives.
Issues like facilitating tourism and business and other travel between two countries, visa assessing, protection of US citizens in India, transparent international adoption, and preventing international parental child abduction cases were also discussed in the annual bilateral consular dialogue held on Monday.
P Kumaran, Join Secretary (Consular, Passport, visa) in the Ministry of External Affairs headed the Indian side.