Nearly 90,000 Chinese received the same visa during the period
By Dileep Thekkethil
Outside of America, nowhere does the U.S immigration debate resonate more than in India. The legislation that is being debated also includes a number of measures on H-1B and L-1 visas. For instance, a bill the U.S Senate passed recently, and if it were to become law, would impact the bottom line of Indian information technology companies’ to bring employees from India on these visas, even though the same bill increases the annual H-1 cap.
That India is the biggest beneficiary of the H-1B visa program since its inception has been no secret. A majority of Indian immigrants to the United States in the past two decades were on this non-immigrant visa at some point.
A review by The American Bazaar of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data shows that, on an average, 51,000 Indians came to the United States on H-1B every year from 2003 to 2011. Of the more than 961,000 H-1B visas approved during that nine-year period, Indians received more than 459,000 of those visas. China was the second largest recipient during the period: close to 90,000 visas.
Here is a breakdown of the number of visas approved and distribution of petitions country of birth:
Year 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 India 55,972 34,617 33,961 61,739 66,504 59,612 57,349 60,062 29,269 China 10,165 7,480 8,989 9,157 10,890 9,859 10,643 11,365 11,144 Total 106,445 76,627 86,300 109,335 120,031 109,614 116,927 130,497 105,314