China and India received 82 percent of all H-1B visas issued in 2016, according to data from the U.S. Department of State. These visas are for highly skilled workers who often take up shop at tech companies in the U.S.
Workers from India and China received 82 percent of U.S. H-1B visas last year
Trump administration rules could hit them hardest.
Rani Molla was a senior correspondent at Vox and has been focusing her reporting on the future of work. She has covered business and technology for more than a decade — often in charts — including at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
The percentage is up slightly from 2015, when India and China made up 80 percent of the total, and underscores the relationship between tech companies and foreign labor.
Having a high share of these visas means that India and China are most at jeopardy as the Trump administration seeks to constrict the program. Uncertainty surrounding the visa program has driven down stock prices at Indian tech companies, including Infosys, Tata Consultancy and Wipro, which rely on the visas to send workers to their American operations. American companies like Google and Facebook also depend on these visas to fill their high-tech jobs.
Each year, 85,000 new H-1B visas are issued. About 100,000 more are reissued or extended. The majority go to people in computer-related professions.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
