38 percent of H-1B visas grabbed by Indians in 2008
By Albert Smith | Wed, 04/15/2009 - 23:07
According to an official report, Indian nationals were at the top of H-1B work visas list for highly skilled categories which were issued by the US in the year 2008, and they accounted for an impressive 38 percent of the total issued visas.
The Annual Flow Report released by the Office of Immigration Statistics revealed that even the maximum number of people entering the US on L-1 visas were Indian. This particular visa is used mainly for intra-company transferees, the report said.
Of the total 409,619 H-1B visa workers admitted into the US in 2008, 157,726 (37.8 percent) were Indian nationals, the report said. However, there was a drop as far as the total number is concerned, as 3000 more Indians were admitted into US in 2007.
Canada came second in terms of total number of workers admitted through H-1B visas, but was second by a large margin. There were 23,312 (5.7 percent) Canadian nationals who were admitted into the US in 2008 on H-1B visa. United Kingdom was at the third position accounting for 4.7 percent of admissions in this category.
During the year 2008, a record number of people were naturalized in the US. Of the total 1,046,539 naturalized people, 231,815 from Mexico topped the list with 22 percent of the total. India was at the second position with 65,971, followed by Philippines, China and Cuba with 58,792, 40,107 and 39,871 being naturalized respectively.
The largest number of people naturalizing lived in California at 297,909, which was followed by Florida at 128,328 and then New York at 90,572.
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