At my last job, we tried to get an H1 for just one person, and failed in the lottery!
I feel there would be much less abuse of the H1 if each company could receive only say 100 visas a year max, or a % of their US workforce size max, or something.
Or just rank em by salary/comp. More skilled people => more valuable to the economy => receive higher salary => more likely to get visa (=> pay more in taxes).
I think they should be auctioned off. (Either the company or the individual could pay the final auction price.)
The end result is the same: the most valuable workers are let in. It'd also have a small, but nice benefit: a voluntary revenue stream for the US to spend on whatever it would like (perhaps improved education and training for citizens).
Wouldn't this create the obvious problem of companies artificially increasing comp.? How do you judge that? Seems like its asking for trouble. They already do this a little bit with advanced degrees.
Why is that a problem? They wouldn't bring in H1Bs unless there was an obvious benefit. Your "problem" just reduces the gap between value produced and compensation.
Yes, they would increase the compensation until they were paying the same rate they would need to to hire a citizen (which should already be the case, in theory).
I'm saying the company would try to "artificially" increase the value of compensation without adding anything that really is valued at the price they say it is. Think extra benefits, not increased salary.
As a Indian, I would love if Visa to outsourcing firms are restricted. Take Cognizant for example, they can't compete for salary with most startups in Bangalore or Pune (and work is not great as well) and yet people want to join them, just for onsite allure.
On other hand, I would love to have a easier way to start a business in US and a Visa program that helps US economy.
DISCLAIMER: I run a services startup in Bangalore.
Hey, thanks for the 'disclaimer' there. That you are honest and thought that your opinions may be unduly influenced and that we should know it shows real maturity and a concern for others. Really, I do appreciate it. Keep up the good work. You are one of the people that makes HN great. Thank you.
"Does anyone know why the number of visas isn't capped on a per-company basis?"
Or why the state department does look at what skills are actually needed where ... or why those who get the visas remain utterly dependent on the companies that got them the visas, thus lower wages in a way an "ordinary market" etc?
-- Wow, I can think of a reason. I think of "a million reasons", all with the face of a founding father.
Yeah, if seriously high-skilled folks were let into the US, no questions asked and then weren't dependent on only company X, then they actually wouldn't be putting pressure on wages of existing geeks because they would have their own legitimate demands. But couldn't have that.
A H1 Visa is a great job perk for wannabe immigrants to US. Do you want to know the worst part of it?
H1 is supposed to be for high skill individuals, the actual people getting it are really like the absolute worst mid level corporate sycophants. The real high skill individuals are likely working at start ups, bootstrapping, or successfully running their own start ups. Who will never get Visas.
There are also other H1 candidates like doctors, Many of whom I think justifiable deserve it.
Either way the Indian start up ecosystem is growing wildly due to these Visa restrictions. Most people who would have likely started in San Francisco given a chance are starting up here now.
Last year, apparently 40,000 of the 85,000 available visas went to outsourcing companies, and one outsourcing company, Cognizant, got 9,000 visas!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/03/176134...
At my last job, we tried to get an H1 for just one person, and failed in the lottery!
I feel there would be much less abuse of the H1 if each company could receive only say 100 visas a year max, or a % of their US workforce size max, or something.