New figures show most H1B American Visa holders are under 35

The H1B American Visa is one of the most sought after temporary non-immigrant visas, as it allows qualified foreign workers entry into America for the purpose of undertaking employment, but late last year saw a dip in demand for the visa due to the economic situation and fears that the quota would not be filled.

The American immigration report into the make-up of the visa applicants found that most of these visa holders are less than 35 years of age, and are most likely from India with about half working in computer-related occupations. The report was released by the AFL-CIO labour union based on research compiled by statistics supplied by a number of US Citizenship and Immigration Service reports. 

The report also found that the sectors of the American economy seeking guest workers are diversifying. H1 B visa holders, for example, are generally thought to be employed solely in computer-related and engineering occupations but growing numbers of educators and health care workers are now coming to the US on this visa.

Now that the H1B American Visa cap has been reached, the government will not accept new visa applications until April 1 for the fiscal year 2011, which begins on October 1.

Around 200 companies applied for the H1B visas in 2009 including Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and IBM, as well as some of the leading research universities in America. These universities included University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, Columbia, and Baylor College of Medicine.

The American Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people make American Visa applications to the American Embassy.