Too many “mediocre” engineers are getting into the U.S. on H1B visas, and that needs to stop. That’s the message from a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who says America must slash visa numbers and reserve them only for the world’s top tech talent.
In a post on X, VC Asha Jadeja Motwani said it’s time to rethink who deserves access to America’s most prized work visa. While she backed the country’s strategy of recruiting elite global engineers, she had strong words for the rest.
“Mediocre engineering talent coming to the US on H1B visas is a bad idea. These positions must go to native-born Americans,” she wrote. According to Motwani, flooding the U.S. with average foreign workers undermines the core intent of the H1B program and puts American jobs at risk.
She credited the selective intake of high performers with giving U.S. tech companies an edge over foreign rivals, especially China. “America is doing the right thing by identifying and attracting top talent from around the world,” she noted. “This is giving American technology companies a strategic edge.”
But her bottom line was clear: cut the volume of H1Bs. “All in all H1B visas must be reduced in number so that we reserve those visas for absolutely top talent.”
The post immediately struck a nerve on social media, particularly among Indian tech workers—many of whom see the H1B as a critical gateway to global opportunities. Critics argue that such commentary fuels anti-immigrant sentiment and ignores systemic issues like underinvestment in domestic education.