Indians received the lion's share of H1-B visas over the 12-month period ending September 2004, and the H1-B post at the US Consulate General Office in Chennai was one of the busiest such offices in the world, a US consulate official said.
"Between October 1, 2003 and September 30, 2004, around 170,000 application forms were processed and over 126,000 visas issued to Indians across all non-immigrant categories. Over half of that were issued in the B1 and B2 (business and tourism) categories," Ravi Candadai, the public affairs consul of US Consulate, Chennai, said at a seminar on 'Doing Business with USA' organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.
Over the period in question, around 65,000 visas were issued in the B1 and B2 categories against about 48,000 in the previous year, he added.
Candadai also said that India continued to get lion's share of H1-B visas and last year Chennai section alone issued 18,798 H1-B visas, making it one of the busiest sections in the world for H1-B category.
He said the Chennai section was in the process of streamlining its operations and increasing the number of service windows to provide better and faster services.
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