Sharp drop in H-1B applicants
10 Apr 2009, 0237 hrs IST, Sujit John & Mini Joseph Tejaswi, TNN
BANGALORE: The slump in demand for IT, combined with protectionist pressures in the US, has led to a dramatic decline in the demand for H-1B visas. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has just announced it has received only 32,500 applications for H-1B visas — or about 50% of the available quota of 65,000 — during the five-day window that it had provided for. And since the quota is nowhere near being met, USCIS has said companies can continue filing these applications.
Just last year, it had received 1,31,800 applications — or twice the available quota — in the five days it accepted them. In 2007, the number of applications exceeded the quota on the first day the government began accepting them. H-1B visas have been used by companies to bring foreign workers into US mostly for IT work. In recent years, about 60% of the recipients of these visas have been Indians. Infosys, Wipro and Satyam together are said to have received 9,154 visas last year. The same for Microsoft was 1,037 and Intel 351.
The demand for these visas in last two years had encouraged many to call for an increase in the visa cap to at least 100,000. That move will now certainly falter. But it’s unlikely that the number of applications this year will fall short of 65,000, something that last happened 13 years ago. Navneet S Chugh, attorney in US-based The Chugh Firm, said he expects the quota to get filled by end of the year.
This year’s decline in demand for H-1Bs is seen to be on account of three reasons: one, the sharp decline in IT demand in the US; two, the preference to do the same work offshore, in locations like India, where it’s significantly cheaper; and three, the protectionist pressures in the US, which is pushing US companies to prefer Americans to do the same jobs.
10 Apr 2009, 0237 hrs IST, Sujit John & Mini Joseph Tejaswi, TNN
BANGALORE: The slump in demand for IT, combined with protectionist pressures in the US, has led to a dramatic decline in the demand for H-1B visas. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has just announced it has received only 32,500 applications for H-1B visas — or about 50% of the available quota of 65,000 — during the five-day window that it had provided for. And since the quota is nowhere near being met, USCIS has said companies can continue filing these applications.
Just last year, it had received 1,31,800 applications — or twice the available quota — in the five days it accepted them. In 2007, the number of applications exceeded the quota on the first day the government began accepting them. H-1B visas have been used by companies to bring foreign workers into US mostly for IT work. In recent years, about 60% of the recipients of these visas have been Indians. Infosys, Wipro and Satyam together are said to have received 9,154 visas last year. The same for Microsoft was 1,037 and Intel 351.
The demand for these visas in last two years had encouraged many to call for an increase in the visa cap to at least 100,000. That move will now certainly falter. But it’s unlikely that the number of applications this year will fall short of 65,000, something that last happened 13 years ago. Navneet S Chugh, attorney in US-based The Chugh Firm, said he expects the quota to get filled by end of the year.
This year’s decline in demand for H-1Bs is seen to be on account of three reasons: one, the sharp decline in IT demand in the US; two, the preference to do the same work offshore, in locations like India, where it’s significantly cheaper; and three, the protectionist pressures in the US, which is pushing US companies to prefer Americans to do the same jobs.
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