To counter the issue of outsourcing companies obtaining a large number of H-1B visas, only to bring in cheap labor to undercut the American worker. This is not the original intent of the program, which is to bring in highly skilled workers (i.e. bring in the best of the best to strengthen our workforce and therefore, our economy). The problem stems from the use of a lottery system and the outsourcing firm’s ability to flood the lottery with requests, ensuring they rake in the majority of visas — — in the process, pushing out those who are using the system as intended.

My solution is to replace the lottery system with one that issues visas based on salary, so that the highest offered salaries are preferred over lower ones. This will ensure high skilled workers are brought in, as no company is going to pay more to bring an average worker. In doing so, it won’t matter how many request the salary-undercutting outsourcing companies submit, as priority will go to the highest paying jobs (and the highly skilled workers).

This will bring the H-1B program in line with its original intent — — to bring in the best of the best, in order to strengthen our workforce to help ensure our economy succeeds.