Nearly 90,000 Chinese received the same visa during the period
By Dileep Thekkethil
Outside of America, nowhere does the U.S immigration debate resonate more than in India. The legislation that is being debated also includes a number of measures on H-1B and L-1 visas. For instance, a bill the U.S Senate passed recently, and if it were to become law, would impact the bottom line of Indian information technology companies’ to bring employees from India on these visas, even though the same bill increases the annual H-1 cap.
That India is the biggest beneficiary of the H-1B visa program since its inception has been no secret. A majority of Indian immigrants to the United States in the past two decades were on this non-immigrant visa at some point.
A review by The American Bazaar of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data shows that, on an average, 51,000 Indians came to the United States on H-1B every year from 2003 to 2011. Of the more than 961,000 H-1B visas approved during that nine-year period, Indians received more than 459,000 of those visas. China was the second largest recipient during the period: close to 90,000 visas.
Here is a breakdown of the number of visas approved and distribution of petitions country of birth:
Year     2011      2010      2009     2008      2007       2006       2005       2004      2003 India     55,972    34,617    33,961    61,739    66,504     59,612    57,349    60,062     29,269 China    10,165    7,480     8,989     9,157     10,890     9,859      10,643    11,365      11,144 Total     106,445   76,627   86,300   109,335    120,031    109,614    116,927   130,497    105,314  Â