H1b and F1 from India

U.S.Department of state has the data for the number of h1b (job) visas and f1 (student) visas from different countries and their total number.

Total number of H1Bs given for FY 09 is 110,367 while more than fifty percent of them is from India. The number has actually reduced from 72,517 to 55,886. This might be due to the economy and the strict policies US government is enforcing against H1B visa holders in particular. But still for the last 4 years one of the IT companies based in India, gets the most number of H1b visas.

What is suprising is the drop in the F1 - student - visas. It has gone down from 36,149 to 26,890. China and South Korea are the top contenders in this section. Looks like students from India are exploring other avenues like UK, Australia and Canada for higher studies, given the tougher H1b and Green Card (permanent residents) scenario in US.

FY 10 data is not out yet. It will be very nice to see how that shapes up.

Data Source: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/statistics/statistics_4582.html