H1B Visa: New Report Finds Three-Fourths Of All H1B Visa Holders In 2018 Are Indians

Amid news that President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to rewrite rules for the H1B visas, a new official U.S. report has found that about three-fourths of all H-1B visa holders in 2018 are Indian citizens.

According to the data released by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in its report ‘H-1B petitions by gender and country of the birth fiscal year 2018’, there were about 419,637 foreign nationals working in the US on H-1B visas and of these 309,986 are Indians, as of October 5.

The Chinese are second on the list with just 47,172 working on H-1B visas. They are just 11.2 percent of the total foreign nationals on this type of visa. Canada and South Korea are the next two countries following India and China accounting for a little more than one percent of H-1B visas. All other countries account for less than one percent of the H-1B visas.

Notably, only one-fourth of all H-1B visa holders are found to be female. As per the report, out of the total 419,637 H-1B visa holders, only 106,096 are females as against 311,997. Out of the 309,986 Indians on H-1B visas, only 63,220 or 20.4 percent females hold H1B visas as compared to 245,517 or 79.2 percent males. Around 1,249 Indians on H-1B visas have been put in the category of missing/others.

In the case of China, there is no gender disparity as 21,342 or 45.2 percent are females and 25,718 or 54.5 percent are males. The Philippines gets a special mention as it is the only country in top 10 H-1B visa holders to have more women working on H-1B visas (1712 or 52.7 percent) than males (1519 or 46.7 percent). A total of 3,250 professionals from the Philippines were working in the U.S. on H-1B visas, as of October 5.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering tightening provisions for allotment of H1B visas as part of its ‘America First’ initiative.