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According to the United States Government Accountability Office (GOA), 47 percent of all H-1B visa holders between 2000 and 2009 were born in India.
"Between fiscal year 2000 and fiscal year 2009, the majority of approved H-1B workers (initial and extensions for both employers subject to the cap and cap-exempt employers) were born in Asia," GOA said in a report.
"Over the last decade, the top four countries of birth for approved H-1B workers were India, China, Canada and the Philippines," GOA added. "Across all 10 years, about 64 per cent of approved H-1B workers were born in these four countries, with the largest group from India."
Most workers were hired for technology positions and held advanced degrees.
Each year, 65,000 H-1B visas are made available for workers with at least a bachelors degree. An additional 20,000 visas are set aside for workers with at least a Masters degree or higher.
When the US economy is doing well all H-1Bs visas are snatched up in as little as one day. The US has still not fully recovered from the economic downturn in 2008 which means reduced demand for H-1B visas.
As of 7 January 2011, less than 7,000 H-1B visas were still available.
