The U.S. allots 85,000 new H-1B visas per year, mostly to workers in technology, engineering, science and research. Demand typically far exceeds the cap.
Applications for specialty-worker visas opened Wednesday, kicking off a high-stakes race for foreigners hoping to enter or temporarily stay in the U.S.
The U.S. allots 85,000 new H-1B visas per year, mostly to workers in technology, engineering, science and research. Demand typically far exceeds the cap.
Last year, employers filed 172,500 petitions during the application window, which was closed after one week. The available visas were allocated through a random lottery, meaning many people were turned down.
A large inflow is expected again this year, so the drama is set to repeat. Here’s a cheat sheet on what the current high-skilled visa workforce looks like, and who is potentially being turned away by the U.S.
Where are they going? Half of all approved H-1B petitions nationwide went to only nine metropolitan areas, with the New York area leading the list, based on a new analysis of fiscal year 2014 data by Neil Ruiz and Jill Wilson, analysts at the Brookings Institution.
Places like Durham, N.C., a hub for education, research and development, had the highest ratio of skilled visa approvals per 1,000 workers.
Where are they coming from? Workers from India dominate the H-1B visa category, with China next in line, followed distantly by Canada. The total number of visas approved actually exceeds the 85,000 cap because of various exemptions.
Who is employing them? Consulting firms and Indian technology companies are among the biggest applicants for the visa category, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data released Tuesday.
That’s a big source of controversy, in part because there’s concern that a handful of large firms crowd out smaller companies’ applications. You can read additional criticism of this aspect of the program here.
What are they doing? Most H-1B workers are in technology jobs, with systems analysts and programmers leading the pack, according to federal data on newly approved petitions for fiscal year 2014.
What does this mean for the economy? The literature is polarized. One recent National Bureau of Economic Research study found that winning a higher number of H-1B petitions doesn’t cause companies to file more patents and crowds out other workers.
Separate research released last year reached an opposite conclusion, that H-1B workers do not displace — and actually complement —- Americans in computer-related occupations.
What is clear: We’ll be hearing more about H-1B this year as U.S. senators push to expand and change the program.