H-1B Lottery Alternatives Emerge as Chances of Winning Grow Dim

The increasingly unfavorable odds of winning the annual lottery for H-1B specialty occupation visas have helped fuel new alternatives to secure visas for high-skilled foreign workers that aren’t subject to the statutory cap.

While their footprint is still small, nonprofits like Boston-based Open Avenues are partnering with colleges and universities to help keep key talent at growing companies.

Skyrocketing demand from employers on the H-1B program is underlining the need for new solutions for workers and employers who rely on international talent, said Danielle Goldman, Open Avenues’ executive director.

“We hire them to train the future US workforce in their field,” she said. “That opens the door for a company to file a cap exempt H-1B visa outside the lottery.”

Failing to win the lottery for the 85,000 H-1B visas available each year can be a huge setback for newer companies whose immigrant employees don’t have other visa options, Goldman said.

And their chances are only getting tougher. In March, employers submitted more than 780,000 registrations for new H-1B visas—a 61% increase from the prior year.

“They are putting in key folks—software developers, data scientists, co-founders—into the lottery and losing them,” she said. “If our society wants to get the most out of immigrant talent, let’s create more cap exempt pathways.”

College Partnerships

Employers that can sponsor workers for H-1B visas not subject to the cap typically fall under two main categories—universities and nonprofits affiliated with higher education entities, typically hospitals and other medical or research institutions. Open Avenues has capitalized on this exception by sponsoring fellows for cap-exempt H-1B visas, who then teach and work with college students part-time, allowing their full-time employers to retain key talent under concurrent visas.

Indian immigrant Srutartha Bose, one of those fellows, found her way to Open Avenues last year after stumbling upon a LinkedIn post.

After finishing a master’s degree and landing a dream job in biotech research in Boston, Bose thought her long-term career prospects in the US would be tied to results of the H-1B visa lottery. But as the chances of selection steadily dropped, she scrambled to find other alternatives.

“I honestly did not think there was any other option,” said Bose, a senior research scientist at the Swiss-American biotech firm CRISPR Therapeutics AG who works to develop treatments for conditions like cancer and sickle cell anemia. “It was just looking insane.”

As an Open Avenues fellow, she advises students on semester-long projects in biosciences that mimic the actual work environment at her company.

Early Career

Open Avenues, which filed its first visa petition in 2019, primarily sponsors early career immigrant workers who are seeking to stay in the US but have lost out on the H-1B lottery.

They’re typically employed through Optional Practical Training, a program that allows foreign graduates of US colleges and universities to work for a limited time while still on their student visas.

Employees who work with Open Avenues must have at least a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, mathematics, or engineering or a related business field. They can remain as fellows until they win the H-1B lottery or secure permanent residency through a green card.

Last year, the organization had 80 fellows from 24 countries. They work five to eight hours each week facilitating hands-on learning by college students from 10 colleges and universities who are training in their fields.

Youssef Bousfoul, an Open Avenues fellow originally from Morocco who’s the lead computer scientist at California-based LBX Food Robotics, said students are integrated into meetings and brainstorming sessions at the company, which builds high tech vending machines. The company itself benefits from the insights those students add, he said.

“We’re learning from those we work with,” he said. “We’re always open to new ideas from them, whatever background they have to help us grow.”

Michigan Model

Global Detroit—a nonprofit focused on growing the Southeast Michigan economy by boosting immigrant employment and home ownership—also has adapted the cap-exempt visa model to keep new businesses in the region.

Like Open Avenues, the organization partners with colleges to sponsor talented immigrants for cap-exempt H-1B visas. But the organization’s Entrepreneur in Residence Program works only with regional higher ed institutions—among them, Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies, Michigan Technological University, and Lawrence Technological University—to target immigrant startup founders until they can secure a green card or H-1B that is subject to the cap.

“There isn’t a visa for somebody who’s got a great idea but hasn’t raised the capital yet,” said Steve Tobocman, executive director of Global Detroit. “If I’m a startup founder, and I have to launch in India or Canada, am I going to move the company to the US two years later?”

The organization has sponsored nine startup founders at eight companies for cap-exempt H-1B visas. Those businesses run the gamut from encryption software to a community-supported agriculture company.

Tobocman has assembled a playbook for how other communities can adopt the model for adding talent via cap-exempt H-1B visas. He’s also hosted business and economic development groups from across the country—a sign, he said, of the growing interest in options for retaining foreign talent.

Growing Demand

The growth of the Open Avenues model reflects the demand for alternatives as selection rates in the visa lottery continue to plummet, said Sarah Peterson, a partner at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP.

“Employers are really trying to figure out how to keep all this really skilled labor we have in the US and need in the US, frankly,” she said. “You may see more and more of these organizations crop up as we move forward because the system is entirely broken.”

Bose has begun the process of applying for a green card to become a permanent resident while working at CRISPR Therapeutics.

Without more options for immigrants, the US risks losing out on the benefits of the talent they add, she said.

“Having a cap on the number of people that you can actually issue a visa is a little absurd to me,” she said.

Alternatives like Open Avenues are “a win-win for all sides,” Bose said. “The more options, the better.”