Washington: Every fourth non-resident foreign national in the US in 2016 was an Indian, according to a report which states that about 60 percent of the resident non-immigrants were citizens of Asian countries, with those from China accounting for 15 percent.
In 2016, there were an estimated 2.3 million non-immigrant residents who are mainly workers, students, exchange visitors, and diplomats and other representatives. This was up 15 percent from two million in 2015, said the report compiled by the Department of Homeland Security.
Examples of such temporary purposes include tourism, work, study, participation in an exchange programme, representing a foreign government or international organization, and accompanying a principal non-immigrant as an immediate family member, it said.
In 2016, there were 580,000 Indians in the US as resident non-immigrant. Of these, 440,000 were temporary workers, which includes those on H-1B visas and 140,000 were students. China came up with a distant second with 340,000 resident non-immigrants. This included 40,000 temporary workers and 260,000 students, the report said.
"Seventy-five percent of Indian nationals were admitted as temporary workers, making up about 40 percent of the temporary worker total, whereas about 75 percent of Chinese nationals were admitted as students, comprising 30 percent of the student total. China also accounted for 15 percent of the exchange visitor total, compared to India's four percent," the report said.
The next leading countries were Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Mexico trended similarly to India, with 85 percent admitted as temporary workers and only about 10 percent as students.
Canada and Japan also favoured temporary workers, but to a lesser extent, with about 65 to 70 percent workers and about 20 to 25 percent students, respectively. South Korea and Saudi Arabia were more like China, favoring students.
According to a latest CRS report, in fiscal 2018, Department of State consular officers issued nine million non-immigrant visas, down from a peak of 10.9 million in 2015.
There were approximately 6.8 million tourism and business visas, which comprised more than three-quarters of all non-immigrant visas issued in 2018.
Other notable groups were temporary workers (924,000, or 10.2 percent), students (399,000, or 4.4 percent), and cultural exchange visitors (382,000, or 4.2 per cent), the report said.
Visas issued to foreign nationals from Asia made up 43 percent of non-immigrant visas issued in 2018, followed by North America (21 per cent), South America (18 percent), Europe (12 percent), and Africa (five percent), it said
Comments
0 comment