The outsourcing companies dominate the visa program by flooding the system with applications.

H-1B visas are granted by a computer-run lottery if the number of applications exceeds the annual quota in the first week, which has happened in recent years.To prepare an H-1B visa application, employers must first submit a public document, known as a labor condition application, to the Department of Labor. Companies can apply for more than one employee based on one labor condition application, and many outsourcing firms use one application to apply for 10 or more workers. The more labor condition applications a company gets approved, the more H-1B applications it can submit. Because H-1B visa applications are not public record, the labor condition applications are an indicator of how many applications a company intends to file.