Indians corner nearly 38 per cent of H1-B visas in 2008: report

People of Indian origin cornered 157,726  (or 37.8 per cent) of the most sought-after H-1B work visas for highly skilled categories in the US last year totalling 409,619, an official report said.

In 2007 157,613 Indian citizens were admitted to the US on H-1B visas while in 2006 the figure was 125,717, according to the Annual Flow Report released by the Office of Immigration Statistics.

Canada is a distant second in terms of H-1B visa admissions  with as many as 23,312 Canadian nationals entering the US in 2008 under this visa category, followed by Britain (19,209), Mexico (16,382) and China (13,828).

''The leading countries of citizenship for H1-B admissions in 2008 were India (38 per cent), Canada (5.7 per cent), and the UK (4.7 per cent). Nationals from these three countries accounted for 48 per cent of H1-B admissions," the report said.

Indians also accounted for a major share of people entering the US on L-1 visa, which is primarily used for intra-company transferees.

However, Indians, the largest non-resident immigrants to the US for years, have now been overtaken by Mexicans, according to the latest official report for the year 2008.

In 2008, of the more than 3.6 million foreigners coming to the US on resident non-immigrant visas, Mexico topped the list with 440,099 followed by a close India with 425,826 admissions.

Japan has been a distant third with 257,401 admissions followed by South Korea (216,648), Britain (216,280) and China (163,433), the report said.

"The leading countries of citizenship for resident non-immigrant admissions to the United States in 2008 were Mexico (12 per cent), India (12 per cent), Japan (7 per cent), South Korea (5.9 per cent), and the UK (5.9 per cent).

"These five countries accounted for more than 40 per cent of resident non-immigrant admissions to the US," it said.