- There are costs involved in the whole process, I usually hear 15K-20K (could be more)
- Committing ~20K upfront for an employee who you don't know much about involves risk. Hiring & firing becomes complicated and involves attorneys.
- Depending on what country the employee is in, there are different quotas for visas and they fill up very quickly. I know this is the case for India, not sure about other countries.
- Another potential problem I can think of is what percent of your workforce is non-US. I believe there are laws around that too.
All this being said, I have thought about this and a few of my founder friends. Most of the H1B hires I have seen is students who come to US for MS and get the visas. I don't know anyone who was hired from their native country and relocated to US. There might be some cases though.