Nearly three out of every four H-1B visa holders as of Oct. 5 are Indian citizens, an official U.S. report has said.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, there were as many as 419,637 foreign nationals working in the U.S. on H-1B visas as on Oct. 5.
Of these, 309,986 are Indians, the USCIS said in its report “H-1B petitions by gender and country of birth fiscal year 2018”.
The report reveals a massive gender disparity where only one out of every four H-1B visa holders is female. Of the 419,637 H-1B visa holders, 106,096 (or 25.3 percent) are females against 311,997 (or 74.3 percent males), it said.
Gender disparity is wider among Indians. Of the 309,986 Indians on H-1B visas in the U.S. this October, only 63,220 or 20.4 percent are females, while nearly 245,517 Indians on H-1B visas or 80 percent (79.2 percent to be precise) are males. As many as 1,249 Indians on H-1B visas have been characterised in the category of missing/others.
Indians, who account for 73.9 percent of the total H-1B visa holders in the U.S., are followed by a distant Chinese with 47,172 on H-1B visas, accounting for 11.2 percent of the total foreign nationals on these work visas.
But there is not much gender disparity among the Chinese on H-1B visas. According to the report, 21,342 or 45.2 percent are females and 25,718 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 1 percent (1.1 percent to be precise) each on H-1B visas.
After that all other countries constitute less than 1 percent of the H-1B visas as of Oct. 5.
The Philippines is the only country in top 10 H-1B visa holders, wherein there are more females (1,712 or 52.7 percent) on H-1B visas than males (1,519 or 46.7 percent). As of Oct. 5, as many as 3,250 professionals from the Philippines were on H-1B visas.
The H-1B gender report was released days after the Donald Trump administration came out with its unified fall agenda, in which it said that it plans to make changes in the definition of specialty occupation for the definition of H-1B visas and re-redefining the relationship between employees and employers.
The proposed regulations, it said, is aimed at attracting the best and the brightest from across the world, prevent the abuse of H-1B visas.
The USCIS is also proposing to introduce a pre-registration system for foreign students in the U.S. Technically, it is possible that if 85,000 such students succeed in getting H-1B visas, no overseas applicants could apply. (PTI)
