[ZDNet] For over a decade now, USCIS grants H-1Bs through a computer-generated lottery, and you would think that this serves as an excellent, unbiased way to distribute these work visas. The problem is, while an employee can only submit one Labour Condition Application (an approval by the Department of Labour and a pre-requisite for a H-1B visa), there is no limit to the number of applications that a firm can submit for that one job. If a firm then submits 10 applications with the names of 10 other staff, no prizes for guessing how much the odds of getting a visa for solo applicants such as you or I in a lottery increase.Therefore, most small companies seeking that one visa for a tough-to-find biophysics engineer or a robotics expert will in all probability lose out to a $60,000 low-end IT programmer with an H-1B from India who most probably performs mundane and routine software tasks for a large American company. So, when people furiously debate about whether there is a shortage or a surplus of STEM workers, the answer in fact may be both -- a shortage at the upper end for specialized work and a sudden surplus of low-end tech candidates who have been crowded out of the market.
Two things clearly indicate that these H-1Bs are no AI or robotics geniuses: Employers who hire H-1Bs need to show that these recruits are not displacing American workers. However, the exception to that rule is if the new hire's annual salary is greater than $60,000. No surprise that the median salary for most outsourcing firms is just a shade north of this number.
Also, it doesn't come as a shocker that not a single technology services company was among the top 200 in terms of patents granted according to Mint -- at least one marker for cutting edge innovation -- while close to half of the total hire didn't have more than a Bachelor's degree.