The H1-B Jobs That Prove the Visa Program Badly Needs Reform

The H1-B foreign worker visa program, marketed as a way for U.S. companies to bring in high-skilled workers from abroad for “specialty occupations,” is being abused for mid-range jobs for which Americans are likely readily available, a Daily Wire review of Department of Labor data found.

The Society of Cannabis Clinicians, for example, apparently could not find anyone where it’s headquartered in Baltimore willing to publicly espouse the virtues of marijuana, instead using an H1-B visa holder for “PR & Communications” at $48 to $50 an hour. Danboise Mechanical in Michigan sought to bring in a foreign worker to serve as a “Plumbing Estimator” for $85,000 a year. And public schools in our nation’s capital looked to other countries for well-paying, non-specialized jobs, such as a $70,000 instructional coordinator and a $65,000 school-based public relations specialist.

The H1-B program says it’s only for jobs that require “theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge.” But in fiscal year 2024, nearly 12,000 accountants and auditors were deemed eligible to enter the lottery, along with more than 1,000 construction managers and hundreds each of public relations specialists, interior designers, and landscape architects.

There were some 755,000 H1-B workers in the United States as of 2023, according to government data. Eighty-five thousand H1-Bs are granted each year to companies, chosen randomly from among the approved lottery entrants, plus many more from colleges, government, and research nonprofits, which aren’t subject to that cap. The visas grant admission for up to three years, which can be extended. The beneficiaries’ families can also come with them.

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The data suggests that some foreigners may use small businesses to secure entry into the United States for acquaintances, with the false claim that no one in the country could do those jobs.

Arshad Virani of Houston, for example, fashions himself a DJ, saying on SoundCloud, where he has 178 followers, that “DJ AV also known as Arshad Virani is a 29 year old who’s vigorous passion for music has lead him to… ware out the dance floors at any bash!” According to the government data, DJ AV Entertainment, Inc. needs to bring someone into America through 2027 to serve as Virani’s “public relations manager” at $36 an hour.

Smokers Paradize, a marijuana accessories store in San Antonio owned by Karimali Maknojia, says it can’t find any Texans qualified and willing to be its “brand promotions director” for $53,000.

Abdul Quddus, president of a collection of Fast N Friendly convenience stores, successfully brought in foreigners to work as store managers for separate stores in the Missouri towns of Kansas City, Overland Park, Nelson, and Grandview, based on the notion that he could not find Americans willing to do the job—despite paying up to $58,000, above the average income in the state.

These sorts of foreign-sounding names were very commonly listed as the U.S. point of contact for employers seeking to take advantage of the program. Yanhyujiao Hu, president of the Hu Insurance Agency in Irvine, California, asked to bring in a Financial Planner from abroad for $30 an hour. Santwant Singh was another insurance proprietor who couldn’t find a Californian qualified to serve as New Business Operations Manager for $65,000 a year. In Virginia, Aziza Kasawat, the owner of a 7-Eleven, sought to bring someone to America to work the cash register for $13 an hour.

In Alpine, Texas, 20% of the population is impoverished, but Hursh Patel, principal of America’s Best Value Inn, said he needed to bring in a foreigner to work as manager of the hotel for $68,000 a year — twice the per capita income of the town. In Tioga, North Dakota, a similar situation played out with Sashin Patel, owner of the Mainstay Suites Tioga.

In fact, 1,941 requests for foreign workers listed a U.S. business contact with the last name of Patel, one of the most common names in India.

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The largest categories of H1-B workers, by far, are in the tech industry. Tech companies have justified the program as giving access to brilliant, specialized engineers. While some fit that category, others don’t—and the H1-B system in its current form selects randomly among all “certified” applicants, without regard to who is more high-skilled.

When selecting a job classification from a list of choices on the Department of Labor’s form, companies said they were seeking a quarter-million “software developers,” including extending 80,000 who are currently in the country. That description is too broad to determine whether they are elite engineers pioneering novel technologies, or whether they are simply doing the everyday work of software development. Other job classifications more clearly fall into the latter. For example, more than 9,300 “database administrators” were sought.

Employers also report the job title of the person they intend to hire, and when the title is specific, it often suggests duties that typical American programmers could readily do.

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The fact that nonprofit “research” groups, governments, and colleges are exempted from the H1-B cap has led them to make heavy use of the program, including left-wing activist groups. There were 94 H1-B applications for “climate change policy analysts” in 2024, including from the Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy, which “fundamentally addresses racial and class justice” and used the program to install a foreigner with a masters degree as its “federal policy director.”

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