> The Immigration Act of 1990 limits to 65,000 the number of foreign nationals who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-1B status each fiscal year (FY). An additional 20,000 H-1Bs are available to foreign nationals holding a master's or higher degree from U.S. universities.

> Those who have the U.S. master's exemption have two chances to be selected in the lottery: first, a lottery is held to award the 20,000 visas available to master's degree holders, and those not selected are then entered in the regular lottery for the other 65,000 visas. Those without a U.S. master's are entered only in the second, regular, lottery.

That is definitely a non-negligible advantage.

I agree it's non-negligible. It's not a very big advantage.

As an Indian who did MS in US. The parent is 100% correct.

He's not. Think back about your peer group and see if you can pick many people that did a MS because there's an extra 20000 slots. It was zero for me.

It increases your chances in a competitive system. It's good, not "okay, I guess".