&gt;I&#x27;m not aware of a huge pool of &lt;blah&gt;<p>What&#x27;s the snark about here?<p>There are lots of Indian grad students in CS and EE departments across the US. Modulo OPT, they&#x27;re at the mercy of H1B lotteries. I know of PhDs from EU universities who, without the luxury of OPT, haven&#x27;t been able to convert successful interviews and skill-matches into actual employment because of H1B&#x27;s arbitrariness. Many of my friends have had to resort to O1 with varying success after excellent PhD dissertations because the failed to make the cut in H1B. Some had to return to India simply because they failed at both H1B and at meeting the onerous requirements of O1.