America is not generous towards legal immigration, and here is why.

For those who are unaware of the completely legal procedure to get an H1B Visa, this is going be a shocker. H1B is is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields such as in architecture, engineering, mathematics, and science.

A large portion of the applicants for this visa are people like me, students who come from all over the world, idolizing America, hoping to find a future here. But here is the rough road of hard work and uncertainty to attaining this dream.

We start out by applying for what is known as an Optional Practical Training. This, we only get if we keep the total number of days we worked in the US under 364 days while we are pursuing our degree. OPT gives us one entire year to prove ourselves to our employers. Why is this important?

To employ international students on a full-time basis, the employer has to sponsor the student. This sponsorship means putting up extra money in filing fees and which either the employers pay, if we are lucky, or it is gets taken out of our paychecks.

The cost of applying for the H1B visa can go up to $10,000, accounting for the fees the employers pay for having a certain number of H1B employees (~$3000), the attorney fees which can be an additional $2500-$3000 per candidate, another optional $1000 for premium processing, and lastly a fraud fee.

Hypothetical candidate choices

When employers are faced with the choice of a truly great candidate, and an average one, the answer is quite simple. But slap on a filing price tag and it’s a tough call.

But somehow if they choose to pay the extra price to hire the international candidate, that’s not all. One would think that’s enough hurdles to jump over but here’s the shocker

There’s a lottery, like Powerball

After everyone has applied for an H1B visa, a computer randomly chooses X number of applicants who get to stay, and the rest have to leave.

This X currently stands at a quota of 65,000 for everyone applying for the H1B visa. From the 65,000, 6800 visas are set aside for Singapore & Chile citizens. An additional 20,000 for advanced degrees (Masters, MBA, PhD). This means only 85,000 H1B visas are issued via lottery. So an undergraduate student like me will be picked from a pool of 58,200 people, which include advanced degree holders.

I was appalled at this idea of a lottery after jumping through several hoops and having to prove ourselves over and over again. It all comes down to a number. The fate of hard working, dedicated individuals should not be left to sheer luck.

My sister recently was one of these people, hit with bad luck, and not chosen in the lottery. Her employer had sponsored her, ready to pay an extra price and take the risk for her knowledge and expertise, but there was nothing nobody could do.

Here I am, from a developing country like India, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the American economy through education, housing, taxes, amongst other things. But at the end of the day, it gets thrown in my face that the land of opportunity does not have equal opportunity for everyone. From where I come, America is seen as this fair country where merit is rewarded and opportunity comes to those who deserve it, for those who work for it. But here I am, my family hoping that luck is on our side for my sister, and myself to make it through a lottery.

There are few options once you don’t get chosen in the lottery, which is either apply for a STEM extension (which only applies to students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields), and go through the lottery one more time. The other option is to get a Masters’ degree and hope to get chosen in the lottery out of there with slightly better odds, and spending more money. But at the end of the day, it all comes back to a lottery. Which is truly unfortunate, and most certainly not generous.