Arun Kumar

Washington, Jan 6 With 1,964 H-1B visas in 2009, Indian IT major Wipro has topped the list of firms that got the coveted US visas for highly skilled professionals.

Microsoft with 1,318 visas came next, with Intel (723) in third place, while Google with 211 in 25th place brought up the rear. IBM India (695), Infosys (440), Polaris Software Lab India (254) and Satyam (219) were the other major Indian visa getters.

At least 200 US and Asia-based technology, financial and consulting companies applied for H-1B visas in 2009. The major technology companies that did not rank in the Top 25, but did rank in the Top 50 include Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and IBM, according to e-week.com.

Some of the leading research universities in the United States also rank in the Top 50 — University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, Columbia and Baylor College of Medicine.

Here is a countdown of the top 25 companies with the specific number of H-1B visas they were granted by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2009:

1. Wipro 1,964, 2. Microsoft 1,318, 3. Intel 723, 4. IBM India 695, 5. Patni Americas 609, 6. Larsen & Toubro Infotech 602, 7. Ernst & Young 481, 8. Infosys 440, 9. UST Global 344, 10. Deloitte 328, 11. Qualcomm 320, 12. Cisco Systems 308, 13. Accenture 287, 14. KPMG 287, 15. Oracle 272, 16. Polaris Software Lab India 254, 17. Rite Aid 240, 18. Goldman Sachs 236, 19. Deloitte & Touche 235, 20. Cognizant 233, 21. Mphasis 229, 22. Satyam 219, 23. Bloomberg 217, 24. Motorola 213 and 25. Google 211.