H1B  VISA

Among the various work visa types in the United States, the H1B speciality occupation visa is the most popular. This temporary work visa is available to foreign nationals who work in speciality occupations such as engineering and computer science. Because of the high demand, US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS)  applies a yearly cap of 85000 petitions to the H1B, of which 20000 are reserved for individuals with a master’s degree.

The number of applications for the H1B visa is increasing every year even if the criteria and qualifications for getting H1B visas are becoming tougher. In the fiscal year 2019-20, total number of applications received were 2.01 lakh i.e 10000 more than the previous year. It means the tougher norms are not discouraging the professionals from applying for H1B visas. As the number of applications are more than double the total available visas in this category, a lottery system is used to allocate visa to the eligible applicants.

significance of H1B visa for Indians

According to an official US report, nearly three out of every four H1B visa holders are Indian citizens. According to the US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS), there were as many as 419,637 foreign nationals working in the US on H1B visas as on october 5, 2020. Of these, 309,086 are Indians. the report also reveals a massive gender disparity- as only one out of every four H1B visa holders is female. Of the 419,637 H1B visa holders, 106,096 (or 25.3 percent) are females as against 311,997 (or 74.3 percent males). Gender disparity is wider among Indians as only 20 percent of Indian H1B visa holders are female.

Indians are the largest beneficiary of the H1B visas. Indians account for 73.9 percent of the total H1B visa holders in the US, followed by a distant chinese with 47,172 H1B visas, accounting for 11.2 percent of the total foreign nationals on this work visas. But there is not much gender disparity among the chinese on H1B visas. According to the report, 21,342 or 45.2 percent are females and 25,178 or 54.5 percent are males. After India and China, Canada and south korea are the only two countries which account for a little over one percent each on H1B visas.  

How US elections affect policy on H1B visas

The republicans especially under Trump are very tough on policy regarding H1B visas and continuous efforts are being made to reduce the number of visas to be granted. currently, the process of issuing H1B visas has been cancelled since the start of the pandemic. other measures have also been taken like increasing the minimum wages of the professionals which are eligible for the application of H1B visas. so that american companies can be encouraged to hire more and more americans instead of foreign professionals which is the core of the trump’s America first policy. But the Democrats especially under Joe biden have a more liberal policy on H1b visas.