Indian work Visa help to improve US economy

Temporary visas for highly skilled workers, known as H-1Bs, help America's leading industries access the specialized talent they need to innovate and grow. The rapidly expanding and evolving needs of highly technical professions — vital across most industries — are experiencing a critical STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills shortage. H-1B visas are an essential resource to bridge the gap for jobs like data management and analysis, cloud computing and mobile app development, and they keep operations and innovation moving forward while we address our domestic STEM shortage at the systemic level.

Take Mike Krieger, the Brazilian-born co-founder of Instagram, who studied symbolic systems at Stanford University before creating his famous mobile app. Without an H-1B visa, Krieger could not have remained in the U.S. after college, and he might never have gone on to develop his renowned app.

"It took less time to build Instagram than it did for me to get my work visa," attests Krieger, who continues to operate Instagram, a 200-employee, $35 billion Silicon Valley company.

Each year on April 1, the U.S. issues only 65,000 visas, a cap that is reached in less than one day owing to the hundreds of thousands of applications submitted by businesses seeking talented professionals. Immigration — both permanent and temporary — is a linchpin of U.S. economic progress, American values, and national competitiveness.

Why high-skilled workers are rethinking H-1B visas?

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that lasts three years, though individuals can apply for an extension of an additional three years, for a total of six years. The visa allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign knowledge workers in specialty occupations. Holders cannot remain in the U.S. permanently and can only get additional extensions if their employer applies for their permanent residence (a green card).

Currently, only 7% of the total number of green cards can go to applications from a single country. That means H-1B holders from countries with high demand like China, India and Mexico have to wait longer than other applicants before permanent residence becomes an option. H-1Bs are not cheap -- they take a lot of financial commitment from the employer, it costs employers about $5,000 per employee. Plus, immigration lawyer fees cost $2,000 to $3,000, on average.

The key to permanent residence ultimately lies in the hands of the employer, who might not always be eager to apply for employees’ green cards. “Once these highly skilled employees have green cards, they become free agents, so employers aren’t jumping to apply on their behalf,” says Michael Wildes, managing partner at immigration law firm Wildes & Weinberg.

Though discussions around H-1Bs tend to go hand in hand with the tech sector, the kinds of industries that it impacts are far-reaching and include medicine, architecture and finance.

“We are in dire need to protect our homeland and reinvigorate our economy; immigration, if handled properly, could do both,” says Wildes. “Unfortunately, people are tired of waiting and oftentimes moving on. We have to remember that today’s H-1Bs could become tomorrow’s employers.”

In what countries in Europe is it the easiest to get a work permit?

If you need a work permit, you'll need a job with such requirement first. The job then gets you the company that sponsors you for the work visa. You want to target a country that has a low unemployment rate.

Germany, the Czech Republic, Malta, the United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Iceland and Norway and the Netherlands all have unemployment rates less than 7%. This means it should be easier to find employers who are more willing to hire and may find a shortage of skilled knowledge workers.
Such opportunities are rising at a steady rate all over the world. Apply to genuine foreign Employers abroad.

Indian students mark their presence in US universities

Indian students are a strong presence on U.S. campuses, contributing an estimated $3.3 billion to the U.S. economy as IIE reports, using U.S. Department of Commerce data. This year, the number of Indian students in the United States surpassed the 100,000 mark, ticking up to 102,673, keeping India the number two country of origin for foreign students in the United States.

As the fact sheet on India shows, India was the number one place of origin for foreign students in the United States for eight years, from the 2001-02 survey year through 2008-09. In 2009-10, however, China surpassed India as a place of origin, with more than 127,000 students in the United States that year compared with India’s nearly 105,000. The number of students from India then began to dip slightly, dropping to below 100,000 by 2012-13, although it was still the number two place of origin. By comparison, students from China have been rapidly increasing in numbers such that for the 2013-14 year just released, there were close to 275,000 Chinese students in the United States. 

An overwhelming number of Indian students in the United States are at the graduate level, 59.5%. Just 12.3% of the Indian students here are undergrads, and 27% are pursuing optional practical training (a year of work preceding or following degree completion). This profile differs substantially from the breakdown of Chinese students in the United States, of whom 40% are undergrads, 42% are graduate level and 12.2% are carrying out optional practical training. More interestingly, 78.6% of the Indian students in the United States are in the “STEM” (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. The only country sending a higher proportion of its students in the STEM fields is Iran, with 79.6%.

Indians form 2nd largest group of foreign students in US

The 1.32 lakh Indian students in the United States represent the second largest number of foreign nationality students studying there, Vice Consul, US Consulate Mumbai, Dustin Dockiewicz said. 

An increasing number of students from India are preferring to get admissions in academic institutions in USA, Dockiewicz said here yesterday at an event. 

Students from India make up about 13 per cent of the total foreign student population in the US, he said. 

Nearly 78 per cent students from India in the US opt to study in fields like science, technology, mathematics and engineering, he further said. 

Around 1.3 million of the international students are studying in the US schools, he said adding that about 9,000 academic institutions in his country are certified to enroll them.