The Biden-era approach to visas used by skilled foreign workers is injecting more certainty into large tech employers' hiring processes after four tumultuous Trump years, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill reports.

Driving the news: Biden's first year saw a record low in the denial rate of high-skilled foreign worker visa petitions, according to an analysis of government data by the National Foundation for American Policy shared exclusively with Axios.

• That number had leaped under Trump.

Why it matters: The demand for technical jobs has spiked during the pandemic, while a tight overall national job market continues to face pandemic-related stress.

Catch up quick: The H-1B program allows foreign workers to fill specialty occupations and has become the most practical way for highly educated foreign citizens to be employed long-term in the U.S.

• Tech leaders have long urged expanding the program to help them draw more talent from overseas, while critics have argued that companies use it to hold a lid on wages.

By the numbers: The denial rate for new H-1B employment petitions dropped to 4% during fiscal year 2021, the lowest known level, according to the NFAP analysis.

• During the Trump administration, the denial rate soared to 24% in fiscal year 2018 and remained high at 21% in fiscal year 2019, and 13% in fiscal year 2020.
• The Trump administration imposed restrictions such as narrowing who could qualify for the visas and re-adjudicating previously approved visas, but court challenges forced changes to these practices.

How it works: There's an annual limit of 85,000 H-1B visas, but demand overwhelms supply. Employers filed more than 300,000 registrations for H-1B selection for fiscal year 2022, NFAP said.

• So the U.S. first runs a lottery to winnow the field, then reviews qualifications for the smaller pool. The denial rate measures rejections at this stage.

The intrigue: Amazon had the most approved H-1B petitions for initial employment in fiscal year 2021, according the NFAP analysis.

• Google, IBM and Microsoft were also among the companies with the most new petitions approved.

Between the lines: The Biden administration policies largely returned to the pre-Trump status quo.

• The Trump administration's efforts to limit immigration included a variety of moves to limit and toughen the H-1B application and renewal process that made it hard for companies to make recruiting plans.
• Visa holders who'd been previously approved and renewed were seeing their extension requests rejected even though no circumstances had changed.

What they're saying: "It's a good sign for business, to have more certainty and it's a good sign for individuals, that they have a better chance of being able to stay in the United States and make their careers," Stuart Anderson, executive director of NFAP, told Axios.

• "Our members feel a sense of normality has returned to the immigration system," said Andy Halataei, executive vice president of government affairs for tech trade group ITI, told Axios.

The other side: Daniel Costa, director of immigration at the Economic Policy Institute, noted that despite increased scrutiny during the Trump administration, the H-1B cap was still met every year.

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust suit against Facebook parent Meta can proceed, Axios' Ashley Gold reports.

The big picture: The same judge who dismissed an earlier version of the agency's lawsuit, filed under the Trump administration, says this time the government's case — as rewritten by the agency now led by chair Lina Khan — is good enough to try.

• "Although the agency may well face a tall task down the road in proving its allegations, the Court believes that it has now cleared the pleading bar and may proceed to discovery," Judge James Boasberg from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote.

Why it matters: "Discovery" means the FTC can spend the next months (or even years) digging through Facebook's data and records.

Details: Both versions of the FTC's case against Meta charge the company with trying to maintain dominance of social networking by taking a "buy or bury" approach to competitors such as WhatsApp and Instagram.

• The judge wrote that the original version of the suit "stumbled out of the starting blocks" by failing to document abuses or provide persuasive evidence that Facebook wields monopoly power.
• The new complaint includes more market share statistics and evidence the FTC says shows Facebook can control prices and block competition.

The other side: "Today's decision narrows the scope of the FTC's case by rejecting claims about our platform policies. It also acknowledges that the agency faces a 'tall task' proving its case regarding two acquisitions it cleared years ago," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

The Senate on Tuesday voted 60-31 to confirm Alan Davidson to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the telecom unit of the Commerce Department, Margaret reports.

Why it matters: Davidson, who previously started Google's policy shop in D.C. in 2005 and most recently was with Mozilla, will take over NTIA as it prepares to oversee $48 billion in funding for broadband deployment as part of the newly passed infrastructure law.

Meanwhile: The Senate has yet to confirm President Biden's nominations for vacant seats on the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission.

• Both Gigi Sohn's FCC nomination and Alvaro Bedoya's nomination to an FTC seat face opposition from some Republicans.

Wordle, the viral once-daily online word game, has started to attract copycats, including some that charge hefty subscription prices or sell items online.

Why it matters: The popular game has a simple premise, making it easy to duplicate. Also, it's web-based, and that leaves a gap in app stores that imitators are quickly filling.

The latest: Apple has started removing some of the Wordle-like apps, per The Verge.

Be smart: The real Wordle is a simple web app, found here. It has gone viral in recent days as people have shared their game results on Facebook and Twitter.

• The genre also lends itself to variants. One example is Absurdle, in which your software "opponent" is able to keep changing the hidden word on you.

My thought bubble: I love word games, but had waited before diving in to Wordle. Until yesterday, that is. It's quite fun — though watching everyone else's scores in my Twitter feed isn't.

Trading Places

• Facebook parent company Meta added DoorDash chief Tony Xu to its board of directors.

ICYMI

• IBM was granted the most U.S. patents last year, though American companies accounted for less than half of the 300,000+ patents awarded in 2021. (Bloomberg)
• Prosecutors don't plan to retry former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on the three wire fraud counts on which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. (CNBC)
• A re-do of a union election for Amazon workers at a Bessemer, Alabama, distribution center is set to begin Feb. 4. (The Verge)

This seems to be way too many retouching options for school photos of elementary school kids.