Washington, July 31: Indians are the maximum among those who have applied for the H1B visa in the United States, finds a study conducted by a Washington-based think-tank National Foundation For American Policy. The report also noted that the rejections of H1B visa petitions by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)  is at an all-time high. [To read about new rules pertaining to H1B visa, click here]

The American Policy report finds that there is a 42 per cent increase in the proportion of H1B visas denied to Indian-born professionals. The study further claims that nearly 72 per cent of the Indian applicants were reverted with a 'Request for Evidence'.

The Request for Evidence is issued in cases where the H1B visa petition is admitted for consideration, but the USCIS finds insufficient grounds to grant the visa.

The proportion of Indian visas rejected has topped in the fourth quarter with 42 per cent. In the third and second quarters, the denial rate was 15.9 per cent and 22.4 per cent respectively, the study highlighted.

The report attribute the conservative approach taken by the USCIS to the America-first policy of President Donald Trump. The reductions have increased from the fourth quarter of 2017, when Trump unveiled the new H1B visa policy.

The federal agency this year also introduced the computerised lottery system as the government imposed a cap of 65,000 visa applications in the general category and 20,000 in the advanced category.

On April 6, around 94,213 H-1B petitions were received in the general category and 95,885 in the advanced degree category.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2018 07:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).