Why Are H-1B Visas Apportioned by Lottery?

We’re bringing in less productive people than we could

Letter to WSJ.

"I was surprised to see that the H-1B debate (“Should the U.S. Expand the H-1B Visa Program?” Journal Report, Nov. 9) didn’t address the key element of the program driving the controversy: the lottery we use to select winners. Awarding visas more selectively will improve the caliber of workers in the program, even if caps aren’t raised.

In the spring of this year, employers filed 484,000 petitions for a mere 85,000 H-1Bs. The lottery has no mechanism to award those visas to the most promising candidates. A Ph.D. with a six-figure offer has effectively the same odds of entry as an entry-level worker.

This means we’re bringing in less productive people than we could, and it causes massive uncertainty for employers who can’t reliably hire needed talent and must buy expensive lottery tickets instead. The result has been the increased use of the program by lower-paying outsourcing companies.

Replacing the lottery with a points system or salary-based ranking should unite H-1B skeptics and advocates. If one thinks the H-1B is a source of cheap labor to undercut natives, awarding visas to the most productive applicants should end abuse overnight. If one thinks a few sensationalist stories are unfairly giving a good program a bad name, then ending the lottery will improve the visa’s reputation and value.

Jeremy Neufeld

Institute for Progress

Washington"