Three-fourths of US H1B visa holders in 2018 are Indians: Report

Nearly three out of every four H-1B visa holders as of October 5 are Indian citizens, an official US report has said. According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), there were as many as 419,637 foreign nationals working in the US on H-1B visas as on October 5.

Of these, 309,986 are Indians, the USCIS said in its report 'H-1B petitions by gender and country of birth fiscal year 2018'. The report reveals a massive gender disparity only one out of every four H-1B visa holders is female. Of the 419,637 H-1B visa holders, 106,096 (or 25.3 per cent) are females as against 311,997 (or 74.3 per cent males), it said.

Gender disparity is wider among Indians.

Of the 309,986 Indians on H-1B visas in the US this October, only 63,220 or 20.4 per cent are females while nearly 245,517 Indians on H-1B visas or 80 per cent (79.2 per cent to be precise) are males. As many as 1,249 Indians on H-1B visas have been characterised in the category of missing/others.

Indians, who account for 73.9 per cent of the total H-1B visa holders in the US, are followed by a distant Chinese with 47,172 on H-1B visas, accounting for 11.2 per cent of the total foreign nationals on this work visas.

But there is not much gender disparity among the Chinese on H-1B visas. According to the report, 21,342 or 45.2 per cent are females and 25,718 or 54.5 per cent are males. After India and China, Canada and South Korea are the only two countries which account for a little over one per cent (1.1 per cent to be precise) each on H-1B visas.

After that all other countries constitute less than one per cent of the H-1B visas as of October 5.

The Philippines is the only country in top 10 H-1B visa holders wherein there are more females (1712 or 52.7 per cent) on H-1B visas than males (1519 or 46.7 per cent) on H-1B visas. As of October 5, as many as 3,250 professionals from the Philippines were on H-1B visas.

The H-1B gender report was released days after the Trump administration came out with its unified fall agenda, in which it said that it plans to make changes in the definition of specialty occupation for the definition of H-1B visas and re-redefining the relationship between employees and employers.

The proposed regulations, it said, is aimed at attracting the best and the brightest from across the world, prevent the abuse of H-1B visas which is consentient with the hire American agenda of the Trump administration.

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The USCIS is also proposing to introduce a pre-registration system for foreign students in the US. Technically it is possible that if 85,000 such students succeed in getting H-1B visas, no overseas applicants could apply.

By: Lalit K Jha