Even as there was a slump for US H-1B visas in the past two years, Indian professionals grabbed one-third of the total visas issued in 2009.

H-1B program is used by US business to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations requiring theoretical or technical expertise in fields, such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers.

In the wake of the general economic recession in the US, there has been a sharp drop in the number of Indian professionals receiving the most coveted H-1B work visas between the years 2007 and 2009, latest official figures have revealed.

For the consecutive second year, response to the US H-1B visas was low with only 24,200 applications being received until July 2. After the first five days of having started to accept applications, UCSIC – US Citizenship and Immigration Services -had received only 13,500 H-1B petitions in the general category and 5,600 in the advanced degree category. By May 14, total number of petitions received in  general category was 19,000 and in the advanced degree category was 8,100.

Though India accounted for 36.3 per cent of the total H-1B visas issued in 2009, the number of Indians issued H-1B visas in 2009 was dropped by more than one fifth since 2007.

India continues to be the leading country to get the maximum number of H-1B work visas for professionals, despite the drop of over 34,000 H-1B visas in two years, and is a way ahead of other nations of the world.

In the fiscal 2007, as many as 157,613 Indians were issued the H-1B visas, while in 2008, the number dropped to 154,725 and further dropped to 123,002 in 2009.

This sharp drop has also resulted in decrease in short-term resident non-immigrants. In 2009, 364,757 Indians were in the US in this category, as against 425,826 the previous year in 2008.

[Source: PTI]