US sees only 42,000 H-1B visa applications in first week

In a clear manifestation of the current financial turmoil in the US, it has received only 42,000 H-1B visa applications so far against the stipulated quota of 65,000 for the fiscal 2010, even as a debate on raising cap on this highly skilled workers' visa is going on.

Despite opening the programme for applicants a week ago on April 1, the agency has only got 42,000 applications, whereas last year, the quota was filled in less than two days.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services in a statement on Thursday said it has received "about 42,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap".

The agency would continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap.

Usually, Indians are among the major recipients of H-1B visas -- meant for highly skilled workers.

USCIS noted that it has received about 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

"...We continue to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable," the statement said.

Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.

The relatively cold response has been mainly due to the current economic turmoil and the general anti H-1B ambience in the US.

The Obama administration has barred companies receiving taxpayers' money from recruiting H-1B workers.

USCIS said for cases filed for premium processing during the initial five-day filing window, the 15-day premium processing period began April 7.

For cases filed for premium processing after the filing window, the premium processing period begins on the date USCIS takes physical possession of the petition, the statement added.

Earlier this week, US think-tank The Heritage Foundation in a report called for increasing the H-1B cap back to 1,95,000 visas per year -- the maximum allowed as recently as 2001.

"Raising the cap for H-1B visas will not steal American jobs but will help promote economic growth and generate much needed tax revenue," the report said.

According to official data, four Indian firms alone accounted for over 10,000 H-1B visas. Indian IT giant Infosys tops the list of companies which were issued H-1B visas, receiving as many as 4,559 visas.

Infosys was followed by Wipro (2,678), crisis-ridden Satyam Computer Services (1,917) and Tata Consultancy Services (1,539).