Research

Outsourcing Talent: Inside the High-Skilled Immigration Market

Abstract: In the U.S., firms hire high-skilled immigrants through the H-1B visa program, which allocates a fixed number of visas annually via lottery. This capped, lottery-based structure limits firms’ direct access to foreign talent, leading many to rely on outsourcing firms that subcontract H-1B workers to them. Outsourcing firms currently receive roughly half of all new H-1B visas. In this paper, I study the welfare implications of outsourcing firms acting as intermediaries in the U.S. H-1B labor market.