Remove cap on H-1B: LinkedIn CEO
infotech.indiatimes.com
infotech.indiatimes.com
Interesting comment. Critics of H1B note that it's not actually a skills problem, it's that you can pay an H1B with the same skills less and treat them worse because the threat of deportation hangs over them if they lose their job.
The solution is, if you have X skillset and have been paid at least Y dollars for Z years in your home country (to prove experience), have a visa that isn't bound to a particular employer, and also here is a defined process for getting a green card before that visa expires should you want one.
If the US is serious about recruiting top talent from the around the world they'd be wise to get on a similar bandwagon. Part of the H-1B problem is the abuse that's so prevalent, since an employee is essentially at a mercy of an employer until he/she gets the green card, which takes, in cases, up to a decade. I'm just about to graduate from college, and I know plenty of extremely smart people who simply aren't willing to throw 10 years of their life into a pit just for the privilege of being American.
If I had worked closely with people who could actually branch out and work elsewhere that would have definitely accelerated my project, but instead, though I value the friendships I've made, the acceleration to the economy via H1-B only occurs in terms of the work large companies can do.
Startups can't afford to sponsor H1-B and H1-B's cannot start their own companies.
There is always the TN visa, which is quota-less and hinges only on an existing offer from a company, so I suppose I could work for a startup. The TN, though, is not on a track to a green card.
But then I actually did something about it, by starting my latest startup, which is dedicated to allowing people outside Silicon Valley have startups "just like here".
Fatality and entrepreneurship are opposite feelings I guess :-)
[plug to my startup not inserted]
Pre-funding though, or at the founder level, H1-B co-founders need a legal structure to transfer their visa to, or they can apply for a 2nd H1-B visa, but both of those options require a ton of redtape and hold an element of risk to their visa status.
1. Put together treaties with some countries - Canada and most of those in Europe, for example, or at least with any of those that want to participate, to allow workers to cross over without the need of a visa.
2. For other countries, such as India, China, Mexico, and others, switch to a skills-based immigration policy, and make sure rules are in place to prevent them from being underpaid relative to US workers.
Countries like Canada and the UK, for example, probably have some people who would love the opportunity to work in the States, but it's not like we'd be opening up the floodgates. And using a skills-based scheme for people from developing countries would help make sure that smart people who are likely to have significant contributions to society would also be able to come over and make their mark.
I would consider the use of the H1B being limited to only students that have graduated from a U.S. university so that they can stay here. Otherwise, just use the normal immigration process. I've worked with plenty of developers that have come to the U.S. that way.
The US doesn't need more low-skills folk. We need high-skills folk.
So, there should be some non-linear component.
One possibility is to auction H-1Bs. We pick a number that we'd like and let companies (and individuals) bid. Or, we could decide how much money we'd like to raise from the program and let companies (and individuals) decide what fraction of the total they're willing to pay.
In both cases, low bids lose.
Another is to simply charge a somewhat large fee, possibly on top of a payroll tax.
If it's cheaper for Google to do all their stuff in India, they will.
Of course people are afraid of losing their job to foreigners, but if you look at the big scheme of things: every worker is also a consumer. Meaning every immigrant and his family will also buy more American products, go to the hairdresser, pay taxes etc. and thus indirectly create work for other people.
I really hope Obama is free market enough to make the moves in that direction.
It always surprises me that people who are ok with a million immigrants a year, but maybe not ok with a whole lot more than that, are accused of being anti-immigrant.
I'm all for "letting people from everywhere come in and live their American Dream", but as a practical matter, I think there have to be limits. Well over a million a year, in my opinion, seems like a pretty generous limit, even for a fairly large country like the US.
One difference is that low-skill workers could make a decent wage until, say, 1950 or so. The current US economy doesn't work that way.
> Meaning every immigrant and his family ... pay taxes etc
Folks who don't make more than median wage don't pay significant taxes. In fact, they're a net-loss, tax-wise.
> what about all the other people that would not qualify for h-1b but are still very skilled and/or ambitious?
Good question.