More than half of H-1B visas go to India nationals

by Patrick Thibodeau

January 16, 2008 —

More than half of H-1B visas issued are issued to Indian nationals, who received
54% of the total number of temporary visas approved in 2006, according to a
government
study released Tuesday. And an increasing number of foreign workers who
hold these visas -- more than half -- are in computer-related occupations.

China ranked a distant second, at 9%, among H-1B recipients. The next largest
group of countries, all with 3% each, were from Canada, South Korea, and the
Philippines, the report said.

Authored by the National Science
Board, which oversees the National
Science Foundation, the 588-page "Science and Engineering Indicators
2008" report examines the state of science and engineering training as
well as the ability of the U.S. to compete globally, and includes an analysis
of H-1B visa trends.

Some of its key takeaways concern education and research. The U.S. spent about
US$340 billion in research and development in 2006, a record high. But federal
support for basic and applied research has been on a multi-year decline, and
the report also warned that U.S. grade school students continue to lag behind
other developed countries in science and math.

Report meshes with other observations

The report's gloomy conclusions echo those reached by other observers. The
Association for Computing Machinery,
in its policy blog, recently looked
at federal spending earmarked for research this year. It concluded that
Congress is approving increases that do not match the inflation rate, and including
earmarks for construction projects that are outside of its basic research funding
mission. It charged that Congress has "abandoned its commitment to lead
in science and technology."

The NSB report warns that the growth of the U.S. science and engineering labor
force "may decline rapidly over the next decade because of the aging of
individuals with science and engineering applications." The number of baby
boomer-aged individuals eligible for retirement is expected to triple.

"If this slowdown occurs, the rapid growth in R&D employment and spending
that the United States has experienced since World War II may not be sustainable,"
the report said.

Regarding the H-1B program, this study said 51% of the approximately 110,000
H-1B visa recipients in 2006 were employed in computer-related occupations.
In 2002 about 25% were employed in computer-related occupations, a shift that
may be indicative of the rise of offshore outsourcing in the U.S.

Offshore firms are the largest users of the H-1B. In the 2006 fiscal year,
the top three employers of H-1B holders were India-based Infosys
Technologies, at 4,908 visas; Wipro
Ltd., at 4,002; and Tata Consultancy
Services at 3,046, according to data released by U.S. Sens Dick Durbin (D-Ill)
and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last year.

The bigger, dimmer picture

The H-1B data is just one aspect of various issues related to the science and
engineering workforce, but underlying the analysis is the question of whether
the U.S. will remain competitive in a global economy. Citing the economic output
in China, India and South Korea, what may be happening is "a slow shift
of the epicenter of the world economic growth toward that region."

But the U.S. remains far ahead today, and among the points made is that U.S.
output per worker "increased more steeply" over the last 20 years
"than that of any other economy."

The visa cap, which includes a special allotment for master's degree holders,
is set at 85,000. The NSB report also included H-1B visas issued to universities
and academic research exempt from the cap.

The education level of people receiving H-1B visas is generally high, with
44% of those receiving visas in 2006 holding a master's degree. But when it
comes to starting salaries, having a master's degree doesn't appear to deliver
any special advantage. The salaries reported to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services were different and generally higher than those reported to the U.S.
Department of Labor. The starting salary for both bachelor's and master's
degree holders was approximately $56,000, according to the report.

Computerworld