The Joe Biden administration is proposing big changes to the H-1B program — that’s the program that allows employers to sponsor highly skilled immigrants who have bachelor’s or advanced degrees for work visas. So, people who work in tech or as research scientists, professors or doctors. 

One issue is that there are a lot more people who want H-1Bs and companies who want to hire them than there are visas to go around. And some companies have been gaming the system. 

There aren’t many legal ways to come to the U.S. to work. But H-1B visas are a big one.

“If you know of a scientist or doctor or engineer who emigrated to the United States, chances are pretty good that they came through the H-1B program,” said Jeremy Neufeld at the nonprofit Institute for Progress.

But, he said, the visas are hard to get, especially to work at a for-profit company.

“The number of H-1Bs for them is capped at 85,000 a year,” he said. “And those 85,000 are awarded by lottery.”

Some companies have been submitting multiple applications for the same person — basically like buying extra lottery tickets.  

If the administration’s proposed rule goes through, they won’t be able to do that anymore. 

Ron Hira at Howard University said there would be other changes too.

“There’s a number of employers who are exempt from the cap,” he said. “Those are universities, they’re research organizations. [The administration is] proposing to expand that quite significantly.”

It’s also proposing allowing entrepreneurs to sponsor themselves for H-1Bs, said Gaurav Khanna at the University of California, San Diego.

“They’re trying to make sure that there’s less fraud, so they’re going to do some on-site inspections,” he added. “They are going to try to make it easier for international students who come to the U.S. on a student visa to transition to an H-1B.”

Changes to the program have been a long time in coming, said Muzaffar Chishti at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

“What it doesn’t address is that these are extremely small numbers for the 21st century global economy,” he said.

But increasing the number of H-1Bs is not something the administration could do on its own. That would be up to Congress.