WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) this week criticized the U.S. government’s data collecting agencies for what they believe is incompetent work in recording non-immigrant visa related data.

According to the EPI report, more than 1.4 million foreign workers were provided visas in 2013, of which more than 460,000 were admitted courtesy of H-1B visas during the same time period, the institute said. The EPI also found discrepancies in the number of L-1 visas issued during the same period.

The DC-based think tank released a report titled Temporary foreign workers by the numbers on March 7. In the report, EPI said the data available through U.S. government departments is “inadequate” and “generally of poor quality.” From the report:

Beyond the final numerical estimates we provide in this report, our overarching assessment of these data also finds that while the U.S. government collects a substantial amount of information on nonimmigrants and the employers that hire them—which is the main source of information on U.S. temporary foreign worker programs—this government-collected data on nonimmigrant visas is inadequate, generally of poor quality, and recorded in an inconsistent manner across federal agencies.

EPI reveals that about 1.42 million foreign workers were authorized to be employed in the United States during the 2013 fiscal year. This estimate includes 10 categories of non-immigrant work visas.

After the H-1B visa, the second most popular for non-immigrant foreign workers is the L-1 visa. While H-1B is for specialized, highly-skilled foreign worker, the L-1 visa is for an intracompany transferee. In 2013, more than 130,000 temporary foreign workers joined the US work force on L-1 visas.

There was also an increase in J-1 VISA Exchange Visitor Programme because more people are choosing to become a Cultural Care Au Pair to travel in the US and learn better English.

Each year, 85,000 H-1B visas are issued to highly-skilled foreign workers — 20,000 H-1B visas are reserved each year for those workers with a master’s degree or better from a qualifying U.S. university. Another reason the H-1B is so popular is because of the path to citizenship it provides — according to EPI research, between 2011 and 2013, nearly 140,000 H-1B holders converted their status into permanent residency.

Recently, U.S. lawmakers have proposed several bills for stricter rules on non-immigrant work visas, especially H-1B and L-1 visas.