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Comment by pcher | Hacker News Reader

But there is a trick, they can make a senior employee(who desperately want h1b visa) accept lower pay with a junior title.

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Yeah - there's folks who game the system. Have you seen it happen often though? The one thing I've had against the h1b is that its tied to the employer. If they free it from the employer then there will be much less incentive to do something like that.

This is not true at all, there is a well-defined H1-B transfer process that I've used myself. Your new employer petitions USCIS for a transfer (similar to filing a new petition, but cheaper), and you can switch jobs once it's approved.

The problem for people in my position is there is no legally available downtime. If you get fired, or quit so you can search for a new job, you no longer have a right to remain in the US. There is no way to fix this without entirely redefining what the visa is supposed to be for: a particular employer being unable to find local employees to fill a position.

don't you have 30 days to find another job?

The most stressful 30 days of your life, where you have find the new job, pass the interviews, negotiate for H1B, and make sure the new employer files the paperwork.

Doable, but extremely hard and you have to be lucky.

Legally that is a gray area. You are supposed to leave the country if you are unemployed. But USCIS usually ignores it if you file for a visa transfer in less than month from losing your job. (Alternative is that you have to leave US and get a new visa stamped and return)

That's what I was leaning towards. If the meaning of the visa changes so that people can move freely the scope for abuse is very limited.

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