Tag Archives: h-1b

US Visa & Immigration Statistics For 2008

Immigration News, , , , ,

The US Immigration Statistics office has released figured about US non-resident immigrantion (i.e. non-immigrants) in 2008.

There are some interesting results such as India’s declining share of the H-1B visas and Mexico being the No. 1 LEGAL immigrant country to the US among others. Both of these main points of course are contrary to what you hear from politicians and much of the media 🙂

Top 6 Non-Immigrant Countries
Mexico 440,099 visas
India 425,826 visas
Japan 257,401 visas
South Korea 216,648 visas
Britain 216,280 visas
China 163,433 visas

Top 5 Countries Citizens Who Became US Citizens (represents over 40% of new US citizens)
Mexico (12%)
India (12%)
Japan (7%)
South Korea (5.9%)
UK (5.9%)

Top 5 F-1 Visas (Student) Countries
South Korea (15%)
China (11%)
India (9.9%)
Japan (6.8%)
Mexico (6.3%)

Notable Changes From 2007 to 2008 US Visa Admissions
China (19% visa increase)
Mexico (16% visa increase)
India (5.6% visa increase)
UK (4.4% visa decrease)
Japan (4.3% visa decrease)

There are some interesting results in all of this and will interesting to compare this year to 2009 especially in the light of many professional workers and others not being hired like with the lack of quota filling at this stage for the H-1B visa.

USCIS Mini Update on April 20 for H-1B Visas in FY 2010

Immigration News, , , , , , , ,

The USCIS noted today they have received 44,000 petitions now for H-1B visas for Financial Year 2010 which is still over 30% short of the 65,000 general H-1B visa quota.

They also announced that although they have recieved 20,000 applications for the US Advanced Degree extra quota which represents the full amount of the quota, the USCIS are continuing to accept applications given that many of these applicated may not be deemed suitable or may be withdrawn later.

Additionally to note those foreigners who hold US Masters Degrees will have their applications form part of the general quota if they don’t get a H-1B as part of the additional 20,000 quota.

If you filed your application in the intial 5 filing day window after April under Premium Processing then your processing began on April 7 and thus the 15 day processing time will end on April 22 and you will probably be notified of your success or otherwise in your H-1B visa soon after that date.

If your H-1B petition was filed after the intial 5 days and you opted for Premium Processing, then the 15 day processing time begins once the USCIS physically receives the application.

(to read the USCIS press release for April 20 on the H-1B visa click here)