CHENNAI (TIP): US President Barack Obama was not too far off the mark when he told students at Maryland recently that Americans would have to compete against Indians and Chinese for good jobs in the present and near future. Consider this: India is slated to get nearly 60 per cent of all H-1B work visas that the US issues worldwide. India alone got 93,000 H-1B visas out of an estimated 1,48,000 visas issued worldwide by the US in 2013.

The Chennai Consulate General alone issued 37,000 visas, which means just one consulate in India is issuing nearly 24 per cent of all H-1B visas issued worldwide, top officials of the US Consulate General said. The rest 55,000 visas were shared by scores of other countries competing with India. The other consulates in India taken together issued the rest 56,000 visas.

This means around 30-32 per cent of all visas issued in India come from the Chennai consulate alone, indicating the enormous number of people waiting to travel to the US. The IT sector is strong in Southern India which explains the demand. While 65,000 H-1B visas is the worldwide limit approved by the US Congress, the number of visas actually issued shoots up because there are H-1B visas that do not fall under the 65,000 cap and because hundreds of visas come up for renewal, consulate officials said.