India accounted for 22% of all visa-related searches to US in 2018: Survey

Overall, the top 10 countries accounted for nearly 56.5 per cent of all foreign visa-related searches in 2018, the report added

India accounted for 22 per cent of all visa-related searches to the US from abroad in 2018, according to a survey.

This is not surprising given that nearly 62.7 per cent of initial H1B approvals in the fiscal year 2017, were for Indian nationals, according to a report by job site Indeed.

The report is based on data on job searches on Indeed platform in 2018.

The number of visa-related searches from outside the US peaked in November 2018.

In August 2019, the share of the US visa-related searches from abroad were 75.6 per cent, more than double its August 2017 level of 36.5 per cent.

Overall, the top 10 countries accounted for nearly 56.5 per cent of all foreign visa-related searches in 2018, the report added.

"In 2018, job searches from India to the US that contained visa-related terms like 'H1B visa' or 'work visa' surged. When broken out by region we see that, for 2018, the Maharashtra region accounted for 11.3 per cent of all visa- related job searches from India to the US," Indeed Hiring Lab chief economist Jed Kolko said.

This was followed by the Delhi region at 9.6 per cent and Gujarat at 8.5 per cent, he said.

"When looking at changes between the first half of 2018 against the latter, the share of visa-related searches from the Tamil Nadu region increased the most (up 3.1 percent), followed by Gujarat and Punjab," Kolko added.

H1B visa denials are at a record level, while quotas for H2B visas have been raised, according to the report.

Both visa types allow the US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers H1B for speciality occupations and H2B for seasonal work, it added.