The GRE Measured What Mattered. H-1B Should Too.

The builder response to the H-1B lottery chaos

Sid Sarasvati

Oct 15, 2025

The Wall Street Journal published a piece on H-1B policy chaos last month. They featured

Manisha Puppala

- a brilliant founder and

H1B Founders

community manager - asking “What do I do now?”

They interviewed several of us. They published the victim narrative.

This is the builder response.

Not because I’m still on H-1B—I cracked the system with EB-1A (the so-called Einstein visa). But because I run H1Founders, a community of 1,400+ immigrant founders facing the same broken lottery that nearly stopped me.

The lottery is worse than broken. It’s randomness pretending to be policy.

Here’s what the WSJ missed—and what we’re actually doing about it.

I. The Test That Changed Everything

I was at the bottom of my class at Mumbai University.

Multiple ATKTs—”Allowed To Keep Term,” the polite Indian way of saying I failed exams and had to retake them. My professors saw mediocre. My transcripts proved it.

Two years later at Rochester Institute of Technology, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and won the Outstanding Graduate Student Award.

Same person. Different evaluation system.

The GRE got me past the credential trap. It didn’t care about corrupted exam patterns or beautiful diagrams in three-hour essays. It measured analytical thinking. I scored well—not genius-level, but solid enough to prove I could think.

That test gave me access to merit-based evaluation in America.

And merit delivered.

II. What America Rewards (That India Missed)

RIT tested conceptual grasp, not rote memorization. I crushed it.

After graduation: 10 promotions in 9 years. Software engineer → Senior → Principal → Director → VP. All on H-1B—the visa people call “indentured servitude” because switching jobs means restarting your green card line.

I couldn’t job-hop like my American colleagues. I had to be unfireable.

Then I became a founder. While still on H-1B.

Built Trial and Error, Inc with

Renovate Team

(https://renovateai.app) to multimillion-dollar annual recurring revenue. Bootstrapped. No VC safety net. Just market validation. Customers paying for value.

Cracked the system with EB-1A (extraordinary ability green card). Became the person helping the next wave through H1Founders.

All of this happened because the GRE measured potential, not credentials.

III. The WITCH Problem Nobody Wants to Name

Here’s what the WSJ article danced around:

The WITCH companies (Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, HCL) file approximately 70% of all H-1B applications.

Body shops. Consultancy firms that game the system through bulk applications and job-hopping schemes. They filed so many duplicate applications for the same person that USCIS had to create specific rules to stop it.

Meanwhile, brilliant founders - actual companies, real revenue, jobs created - get the same lottery odds as a mediocre consultant getting body-shopped to a client site.

The best don’t win. The luckiest do.

This is the system we’re defending? Pure randomness with no merit signal?

A point system is harder to game. Tax returns prove wages. Incorporation docs prove founder status. Revenue is auditable. Merit leaves a paper trail. Randomness doesn’t.

Everyone knows this is broken.

IV. The Fix: Point-Based H-1B (Like Every Other Country)

Canada has a point system. Australia has a point system. We’re stuck arguing lottery versus sponsorship while ignoring the obvious third path.

Here’s how it works:

Work Experience (0-25 points)

Years in field, seniority level, in-demand skills
Quantifiable. Verifiable.

Wages (0-20 points)

Higher salary = higher market value
The market already knows who’s good

Education (0-15 points)

Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD
Matters, but not everything (see: my Mumbai transcripts)

Company Type (0-15 points)

Startups and growth companies score higher
Consultancies score lower (or zero)
Stop rewarding body shops

Founder Premium (0-25 points)

Incorporated company: +15 points
Generating revenue: +5 points
VC-backed or significant traction: +5 points

Experience and entrepreneurship get top weight (25 points each) because they prove market value. Education matters, but potential matters more. That’s what the GRE taught me.

Total: 100 points possible. Top scores get priority. Merit wins.

V. But Wait—What About O-1?

Someone will say: “O-1 visa already exists for extraordinary ability. Why not just get that?”

Because O-1 measures what you’ve DONE over 15 years with expensive lawyers telling your story.

H-1B point system should measure what you CAN DO - potential, not just portfolio.

That’s what the GRE did for me. Not credentials. Potential.

Let fresh talent with high potential get their shot—without waiting 15 years to become “extraordinary.”

VI. Why Founder Premium Matters

If you’re founding a company on H-1B, incorporated, generating revenue, maybe even VC-backed, you’re not taking a job. You’re creating them.

I took the highest risk. Became a founder while on a visa that chains you to employers. Built a multimillion-dollar business without venture capital. Bootstrapped proof that the market wants what I built.

That risk should count. That value creation should earn points.

We’re not asking for handouts. We’re proving worth.

VII. What Builders Actually Do (While Policy Debates)

The WSJ asked: “What do H-1B holders do now?”

Here’s what we do:

We build. On O-1 visas. On EB-1A extraordinary ability petitions. On EB-2 National Interest Waivers. On EB-5 investor visas.

We don’t wait for policy to save us. We crack systems while lawyers debate.

That’s what H1Founders is - 1,400+ immigrant founders sharing strategies, legal pathways, and real wins. Not victim support groups. Builder networks.

VIII. That’s the American Dream

I went from the bottom of my class in Mumbai to building a multimillion-dollar American company in fifteen years.

Not because someone felt sorry for me.

Because someone measured what mattered.

The GRE gave me that shot. H-1B should work the same way.

Stop the lottery. Standardize merit. Let proven value win.

I don’t care what the visa is called. I care that merit wins.

The American Dream works when merit gets measured. This isn’t left vs right. It’s merit vs randomness. Both parties want the best immigrants. Neither benefits from lottery chaos.

Let’s fix H-1B the same way.

What’s Next

If you agree merit should win:

Comment below: What would you change about the point allocation?
Share this with someone still stuck in H-1B lottery hell
Tag a policymaker who needs to read this

If you disagree:

Tell me why in the comments. I’m listening.
Better solutions exist? Show me the data.