Which companies received H-1B visas in '08?

It's that time of year again, when domestic and overseas companies race to file applications by April 1 for H-1B visas. There are 85,000 visas available for overseas workers each year, and these are randomly selected by the U.S. government. This year, as in the past, the competition to get these priceless documents will be intense.

Recent analysis by InformationWeek found that six Indian firms were the big winners in the bid for visas for FY 2008, receiving more than 11,000 visas among them. The highest winner in 2008 was an Indian firm, INFOSYS Technologies Ltd., which got 4,559 for its employees. The company designs and delivers technology, according to its website and has reported revenue of over $4 billion. Four U.S.-based companies were also winners, but they got far fewer visas than the Indian firms. IBM won approval for 381 H-1B visas, Microsoft got 1,037, Cisco received 422 and Accenture got 731.

NUMBER OF H-1B PETITIONS APPROVED BY USCIS IN FY 2008 FOR INITIAL BENEFICIARIES *1-50 (Chart courtesy of InformationWeek* [1])**
Rank	Company	No. of visas
1	INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED	4,559
2	WIPRO LIMITED	2,678
3	SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LIMITED	1,917
4	TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED	1,539
5	MICROSOFT CORP	1,037
6	ACCENTURE LLP	731
7	COGNIZANT TECH SOLUTIONS US CORP	467
8	CISCO SYSTEMS INC	422
9	LARSEN & TOUBRO INFOTECH LIMITED	403
10	IBM (NYSE: IBM [2]) INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED	381
11	INTEL CORP	351
12	ERNST & YOUNG LLP	321
13	PATNI AMERICAS INC	296
14	TERRA INFOTECH INC	281
15	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	255
16	MPHASIS CORPORATION	251
17	KPMG LLP	245
18	PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY PUBLIC SCHS	239
19	BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCH SYSTEM	229
20	DELOITTE CONSULTING LLP	218
21	GOLDMAN SACHS & CO	211
22	VERINON TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS LTD	208
23	EVEREST BUSINESS SOLUTIONS INC	208
24	GOOGLE INC	207
25	EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH SCHOOL SYS	205
26	DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP	195
27	UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND	191
28	UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA	186
29	UNIV OF MICHIGAN	183
30	MARLABS INC	177
31	ORACLE USA INC	168
32	UNIV OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO	168
33	ALLIED SOLUTIONS GROUP INC	166
34	RITE AID CORPORATION	161
35	V-SOFT CONSULTING GROUP INC	161
36	CUMMINS INC	159
37	THE JOHNS HOPKINS MED INSTS OIS	157
38	VEDICSOFT SOLUTIONS INC	156
39	UNIV OF WISCONSIN MADISON	151
40	JPMORGAN CHASE & CO	150
41	I-FLEX SOLUTIONS INC	148
42	CLERYSYS INC	147
43	YALE UNIVERSITY	145
44	STATE UNIV OF NY AT STONY BROOK	143
45	HARVARD UNIVERSITY	143
46	DIS NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH	141
47	YAHOO INC	139
48	STANFORD UNIV	138
49	CDC GLOBAL SERVICES INC	135
50	GLOBAL CONSULTANTS INC	131

(Chart courtesy of InformationWeek [1])

With the U.S. economy in a tailspin, there are more and more arguments for cutting back on the employment program for overseas IT talent. And there is a new effort by the U.S. government for better oversight of the program by the Labor Department. Also, the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) is investigating fraud and misuse.

For more on the latest H-1B numbers:
- check out this InformationWeek.com article
[3]- also see this Business Week report [4]