H1-B Visa Insight

The US Consulate in Chennai stamps 25% of the H-1B Visa. This can be attributed to the fact that Engineers working in India's Silicon Valley Bangalore have to goto Chennai for their H-1B Visa Stamping. [Chennai Consulate covers the states of Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala]

General Andrew T Simkin told the Indian Edition of Wall Street Journal,

One fourth of H-1B visas to the US from India are issued by the US Consulate in Chennai, which caters to the four southern states. Only when we suspect that a person will settle in America, we reject the visa application.

Arbitrary rejection of Visa [H-1B or F-1] on the gut feeling / suspicion that the candidate might settle down in the US is the biggest flaw in the American Immigration system. Historical Data suggests more than half of F-1 and subsequent H-1Bs are converted to Green Cards and eventually citizenship. Maybe the Dept of Homeland Security Officials need some engineering talent from Google to help them arrive on a decision on how to reject US visa applications keeping their theory of suspicion to themselves.