Visa limit shows lack of planning for immigration

One thing I detest about management is an arbitrary decision-making process. I don’t care if you are a small business, a fortune 500, or the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the United States of America; you need to have some thought behind your decisions.

As I have blogged about earlier, the limit on H-1B visas (the process for foreign citizens to work in the United States) was arbitrarily reduced to 65,000 slots. In 2006 this was filled up within weeks. This year 150,000 applications (more than double the limit) was reached within the first few hours. Most of these applications are from tech firms such as Microsoft, Intel, or staffing agencies looking to fill the gap of qualified design engineers and consultants.

This onslaught of applications prompted the US immigration service to announce that selections would be based strictly on an “ARBITRARY” lottery system. Therefore, the deciding factor as to who will enter our country and possibly add to or detract from our collective economy will be RANDOM. No prejudice towards education or experience, but just sheer luck-of-the-draw.

Now you cannot tell me that in a country with the greatest minds, companies, and ALGORITHMS in the world, we cannot come up with a thoughtful process for ranking, rating, and qualifying the applications for admission. If we are stuck with this absurd cap, the least we can do is qualify who makes the cut.