Boulette is preparing clients for possible increased scrutiny of their H-1B workers' applications and entries, despite the fact that the vast majority of IT professionals working on the speciality occupation visas are from India, a country not associated with the attacks in September.
For the period of October 1999 to February 2000, of 81,262 H-1B petitions approved, 34,381 were for professionals from India. Petitions for Chinese applicants ranked next at 7,987;
Canadian applicants ranked third at 3,143. "Other countries", which include many South American, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries,
were combined at 13,386.
Computer-related occupations accounted for 42,563 of the approved H-1B petitions for that same time period.