[AkshatM]

Only ~20,000 O-1 visas were issued in 2019, compared to 190,000 H1B visas.

The reason for this is because the O-1 visa is significantly harder to qualify for. The same people who would expect would be in the running for an O-1 (master's and postdoctoral students) apply for an H1B, in large part because the bar for the O-1 is just that high.

[muzaffarpur]

Masters don't apply for EB1. Many PhDs also can't. FAANG hire everyone for S/W engineer. Most of them apply EB2. EB1 have to be exceptional PhD.

[throw345hn]

It’s less than what you may think it is. It also highly depends on your lawyer, I know a couple of people who you may think may not qualify but their lawyers ended up writing a lot of stuff (not made up obviously, just lawyer like language that drags on) and they ended up getting the visa. Out of those one of them got an rfe but they still pursued on and qualified. EB1 on the other hand is far harder.

[olcor]

Thinking about it as an immigrant, just the same way as the H1B: why punt on it if it is this variable? And why even depend of this? The entire problem is that immigration isn't working as it is supposed to. If even this can be gamed, what's the point?

[throw345hn]

Agree with you completely. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to come up with a Canadian or UK like points based system.

[muzaffarpur]

Because it is a feature, not a bug.