Indians account for 74% of total H-1B visa requests in current US fiscal

New Delhi: Indians were the largest group of H-1B visa applicants, followed by China and Canada in the first nine months of the current US financial year, media reports said on Sunday.

With 2.47 lakh applications till June 30, 2017, the Indians were the largest group, followed by China with 36,362 and Canada 3,551. The number of Indian visa applicants accounted for 74% of the total applications collected.

The US financial year is from October 1 to September 30. In the 2015-2016 financial year, some three lakh Indians applied for H-1B visas.

The number of Chinese visa applications in the current US fiscal year is the highest ever over the past 10 financial years, India.com reported.

Applications on the basis of country of birth were not available until June 30, 2017, it said, adding 3.45 lakh applications were approved in 2015-2016.

Of the total, Indian applications stood at 21.83 lakh and Chinese at 2.96 lakh.

Indians applying for H-1B visas rose by 80.6% since 2006-07, it added.