Substitution between groups of highly-educated, foreign-born, H-1B workers

•The H-1B program allows US firms to hire highly-educated foreign-born labor.•Policy limits the number of new H-1B workers that can be hired each year.•Labor substitutability varies across subsets of H-1B workers.•H-1B scarcity raises wages paid to new H-1B workers with advanced US degrees.•Established H-1B workers wages do not rise, perhaps due to mobility constraints.