Of the 22,000 foreign IT workers issued work permits, 85 per cent were from India, according to British Home Office figures.
A Freedom of Information Act request reveals that IT workers from developing nations are coming to Britain in numbers second only to nurses.
The Home Office figures are evidence of Britain's shortage of home-grown talent, said the Association of Technology Staffing Companies. It said that the number of technology graduates entering the IT sector was ''critically low'', given that there was a rising demand for IT skills.
It said that the figures also show the first evidence that multinational companies are operating an ''offshore, onshore'' model in which they recruit workers in low-wage economies, such as India and transfer them to operations in the West, while not lifting them on to Western pay scales.
The permit figures show that 18,248 work permits were granted to Indian IT professionals in the year to June 2005 with 1,081 granted to American IT workers and 464 pemits to Australian IT workers.
Ann Swain, ATSCo's chief executive, said, ''Skill shortages continue to be a major pull factor in bringing foreign IT workers to Britain, but the concern is that some organisations may be taking advantage of the visa system to import cheap labour from abroad.''
The total cost of employing a worker in India, including the cost of benefits, can be between a fifth and a tenth of the cost of employing somebody doing the same work in Britain.
The news of Britain's dependence on workers from India comes as companies look increasingly to take advantage of the ''offshore'' outsourcing industry, moving back-office data processing roles and software development roles to countries such as India.
In recent years companies have also moved more highly skilled roles offshore.
British-based IT companies like LogicaCMG and Xansa, have built their own centres in Asia.
However, Indian outsourcing companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro Technologies and Infosys, looking for a British base have also taken advantage of this. It has had an inevitable impact on the flow of workers between the two countries.
