On: H-1B: Nearly three-quarters of Valley techies are foreign

[kozikow]

> In practice, though, H1-B becomes indentured servitude, since they cannot freely move between companies.

You can change company while on the H1B. Yes, there is some paperwork, but in practice, everyone who is in the USA on the H1B can easily change the company pretty quickly at any point in time without leaving the country.

Funilly, as Trumpists keep attacking the H1B, people who didn't get the H1B switch to the L1 and THAT doesn't let you move between companies.

[canttestthis → kozikow]

Switching to L1 is a weird dance. You have to leave for a year and then you come back on a visa that has no cap and no real employee protections.

[kozikow → canttestthis]

I was in a group of people that didn't get the H1B in the lottery for a big tech company.

Most of us went to work in the European office. Later, about 30-50% of those people went to USA on L1, much closer to "indentured servitude" than H1B.

Did anyone win in this situation? In this particular scenario, limiting the H1B actually decreased American workers job security.