H1B Lottery Simulator

The following code is a simulation for the H1B lottery selection process. This script takes into account all years of the lottery and gives a guess of whether you’ll be selected in the 3 years or not. It can also take into account whether you’re an advanced degree candidate or not. This simulation can be run in a for loop unattended with output being redirected to a file for calculations. Example → run the code 5000 times and grep the output for required items to calculate percentages such as likelihood of selected in the first year, or in the lotteries that can occur in the middle of the year.

import sys
import random

# Assumes lottery is filed for a total of 3 times (typical)
def do_lottery(id):
    # Lottery for the Advanced Degree set
    for i in range(20000):
        temp = random.randint(1, 80000)
        if temp == id:
            print("Congratulations!")
            return 1
    # Lottery for the remaining set
    for i in range(65000):
        temp = random.randint(1, 280000)
        if temp == id:
            print("Congratulations!")
            return 1
    # Lottery that may happen middle of the year
    for i in range(10000):
        temp = random.randint(1, 210000)
        if temp == id:
            print("Congratulations - middle of the year!")
            return 1
    return 0

# Set the argument as "masters" if applicant has advanced degree
if len(sys.argv) > 1 and sys.argv[1] == "masters":
    your_id = random.randint(1, 20000)
else:
    your_id = random.randint(20001, 85000)

print("\n==============================")
print("Year 1 Lottery")
accepted = do_lottery(your_id)
if accepted:
    print("You got it in the first year!!\n==============================")
    exit()

print("Year 2 Lottery")
accepted = do_lottery(your_id)
if accepted:
    print("You got it in the second year!!\n==============================")
    exit()

print("Year 3 Lottery")
accepted = do_lottery(your_id)
if accepted:
    print("You got it in the third year!!\n==============================")
    exit()

print("Unlucky!!\n==============================")