US Visa denial stats
By Bala Shah

The US had set up the H-1B visa program to hire on a short term basis highly skilled workers not available in America. While most Indian tech firms win contracts based on their quality computing skills and competitive costs and treat their H1B techies well, there are others which exploit Indians and the H1B Visas at every opportunity.  There has been some misuse of the B-1 Visa as well.  The US Govt has announced huge fines for some such firms.  In 2011, the US Government launched a probe into alleged Visa misuse by Infosys.

It is an open secret in Indian IT-BPO circles about widespread misuse of the American working visas which helped give our outsourcing industry a very competitive advantage. The US Government has also tightened the rules and their enforcement for anyone who comes to work on a Working Visa.  Indians have been especially affected and our Government raises this with senior American officials whenever they can.

A study by the National Foundation for American Policy released on Feb 10, 2012, shows soaring denial rates for L-1 and H-1B Petitions at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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Analysis of new data obtained from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reveals the agency has dramatically increased denials of L-1 and H-1B petitions over the past four years, according to a new report released by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). The report used official data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The data indicate much of the increase in denials involves Indian born professionals and researchers.

Country specific data on new (initial) L-1B petitions indicate U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is far more likely to deny a petition from an Indian-born professional than nationals of other countries. The denial rate for Indian-born applicants for new L-1Bpetitions rose from 2.8 percent in Fiscal Year 2008 to 22.5 percent in FY 2009, a substantial increase that resulted in many employers being unable to transfer their employees into the United States to work on research projects or serve customers. In comparison, the denial rate for new L-1B petitions for Canadians rose from 2.0 percent in FY 2008 to only 2.9 percent in FY 2009. Illustrating the abrupt change, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied more L-1B petitions for new petitions for Indians in FY 2009 (1,640) than in the previous 9 fiscal years combined (1,341 denials between FY2000 and FY 2008).
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The National Foundation for American Policy was established in 2003 and describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan public policy research organization based in Arlington, Virginia focusing on trade, immigration and related issues. The Advisory Board members include Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati, Ohio University economist Richard Vedder, former U.S. Senator and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and other prominent individuals. Over the past 24 months, NFAP’s research has been written about in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major media outlets.