The Data Behind H-1B Visas

Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by kamjam on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @02:44PM (#6362247)

Consulting companies provide the most H-1B Visas. Infosys Limited, Wipro Limited, Cognizant and PriceWaterhouseCoopers take the gold by awarding a combined 67,139 H-1B visas.

What is the relation between the "Applications Submitted" and "Employees Hired"? Given that this is just 2012 data, the there is a hard limit of 65,000 H1-B visas per year, this doesn't make sense to me. The figure in the article is a little misleading, I presume that the figured is over the past x years?

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by agilecoder on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @02:57PM (#6362391)

As I commented above these data reflect Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) granted. denied, etc. This is only one part of the application for a visa, and every year the DOL certifies far more LCAs than there are available visas.

To find out what visas were actually issued that information would come from US Citizenship and Immigration Service, and as far as I can find they do not release that information.

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by nknighthb on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @03:10PM (#6362527)

The State Department has it. Second row on the second page of this PDF:

http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/FY12AnnualReport-TableXVIB.p...

The rest of the 2012 report PDFs are listed at:

http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/statistics/statistics_5861....

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by agilecoder on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @10:12PM (#6365033)

You're right, the State Department has raw numbers of visas approved, but still no way to connect them to employers, industries, occupations or wages as the original post attempted to present.

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by jacalata on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @03:01PM (#6362436)

there is a hard limit of 65,000 H1-B visas per year,

Not quite - the article actually explains the ways that this limit can be exceeded. That said, I find their numbers pretty odd - 150,000 applications leading to 300,000 approvals? For a post that is showing off their charting/presentation capabilities, it's very poorly presented data.

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by kamjam on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @03:10PM (#6362530)

Ok, I've just re-read the article, I missed that bit - but for general purposes 65k is the number touted around - it's not of huge importance though... but it still doesn't explain the relation between the colums (maybe I'm being slow today...)

Infosys Applications Submitted: 4837 Employees Hired: 24060

Why is there such a big difference here? What does "employees hired" mean - their total workforce in the US, those on an H1B application EVER or just for 2012?

EDIT: Thanks, along with another explanation below I think I get it now...!

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by nknighthb on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @03:02PM (#6362454)

There is not a "hard limit" on H-1B visas. There are various exclusions from the cap. Apparently there were over 135k issued for 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa#Congressional_yearly_...

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by datdo on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @03:04PM (#6362472)

I think they meant that 67k applications were approved. Then a random number of those were actually given visas.

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Re:The Data Behind H-1B Visas by kamjam on Tuesday September 10, 2013 @03:13PM (#6362568)

Ahhh, ok, so along with @agilecoder comment above, this makes sense. If I have this right then nn LCA sounds similar to an LMO (Labor Market Opinion) in Canada, you need that to prove you are skilled, after which you can apply for the H1B visa.

Then the heading "Companies with the Most H1-B Visas" is misleading. It's a very poorly written/explained article IMO. Thanks for the clarifications.

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