It is estimated that close to 50% of the visas issued to India are taken by the top five IT companies, and in absolute numbers this figure could stand at about 12,000.
It is estimated that close to 50% of the visas issued to India are taken by the top five IT companies, and in absolute numbers this figure could stand at about 12,000. The existing situation may add more weight to the IT industry's long-standing demand to increase the H-1B visa ceiling. There may be a pressure to marginally increase the ceiling during the conference committee meeting of the Senate and the House on the issue of immigration legislation. Even if the cap remains at the level it is currently, India would gain as the outsourcing to the country may increase, given the visa crunch in the US.The USCIS has said that the 'final receipt date' for H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2007 annual cap was May 26, 2006. Affected H-1B petitions received on that date would be subject to a computer-generated random selection process, while those received by USCIS after the 'final receipt date' would be rejected.
The US Congress has established an annual fiscal year limitation of 65,000 on the number of available H-1B visas. Under the terms of the legislation implementing the United States-Chile and United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreements, 6,800 of the 65,000 available H-1B visas are annually set aside for the Chile/Singapore H-1B1 programme. As a result of reserving 6,800 H-1B1 visas for FY 2007, the H-1B cap for that fiscal year was 58,200. However, USCIS added back to the H-1B cap 6,100 unused FY 2006 H-1B1 visas, for a total of 64,300.
