Indians hold three-fourths of H-1B visas issued by the US to speciality foreign workers in 2021, continuing their dominance of the professional ticket to work and settle down in America.
According to the latest report by the Department of Homeland Security, the US approved 407,071 H-1B petitions in 2021. 301,616 of them (74.1 per cent) were for Indian workers. Last year, Indians were also the highest, with 74.9 per cent of the approved petitions.
The US H-1B visa programme allows American employers to hire speciality foreign workers for positions they are unable to be filled with local Americans.
Top American companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook are among leading users of this visa programme. US subsidiaries of Indian IT companies, such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro also use this programme.
Google has filed a legal brief with over 40 companies including Apple, Amazon, Twitter and Microsoft to protect the spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the US. While Trump had withheld support for the spouses of H-1B holders, the Biden administration has permitted dependents of H-1B visa holders to continue working in the country.
These foreign workers are hired either from their countries of birth, residence or from US colleges and universities.
Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO, was hired on H-1B when he was studying in the US. They can live and work here for three years and, if approved, another three years. Majority of them go on to residency sponsored by their employers.
Whilst Indians have had the highest hold on H-1B visa programme for years, people from China have been a distant second with 12.1 per cent. Followed by Canada with 0.9 per cent, South Korea also with 0.9 per cent, and Philippines with 0.7 per cent. The line-up was the same in 2020, with almost the same numbers.