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Comment by rs1234 | Hacker News Reader

A bunch of folks on this forum love to bash the H1B visa. But that visa is not so new - this is how America has always filled her need for labor. Please take a few moments to read about "indentured servants" - immigrants from Britain and other parts of Europe who came to the US in 1800s. They were required to serve 5 to 7 years working in fields. After that they were given land and free to work for themselves. The H1B visa has similarities. Guess what is the duration of stay for a H1B visa? 6 years. During this time they are pretty much tied to the company that sponsored their visa. After that they are given the green card, which lets them work for any company.

http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Indentured_Servants_in_C...

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Wait, are you seriously, non-ironically using the similarity of the H-1B to indentured servitude as your basis for suggesting that people are wrong to bash the H-1B?

Yes. I am non-ironically suggesting exactly that. Indentured servitude emerged as a solution to a socio-economic need in a bygone era, like the H1B does now. Neither is a perfect system, and all stakeholders concerned - the company, the employee, competing employees, society - get some benefits, some pain. But overall, American society is the net beneficiary of the education, skills, and entrepreneurial drive that immigrants bring with them (circling back to the original topic). Want proof? Look at the America today that was built by the ex-indentured servants and their descendants.

People who criticize H1B are not generally criticizing skilled immigration in general. They're pointing out that the way H1B is set up, it's a very poor implementation of skilled immigration, especially when you compare it to other countries (like, say, Canada). The ongoing discussion about switching to a points-based system for workers, for example, necessarily implies that skilled immigration track remains.

> They're pointing out that the way H1B is set up, it's a very poor implementation of skilled immigration

H-1B is primarily a guest worker program, not a skilled immigration program. That is why despite allowing dual intent, the H-1B is a non-immigrant visa. There are skill-based immigrant visas in the US system, the H-1B just isn't one of them.

H-1B is de facto a skilled immigration program. The fact that it's dual intent, and that you can get a green card through employer sponsorship, seems to indicate that it is at least partially by design.

Those other programs that you reference are for "extraordinary talent" and such, and the bar there is much higher than for ordinary skilled immigration.

> After that they are given the green card, which lets them work for any company.

Not for Indians, like me, who are waiting in line for 10+ years due to per country cap.

> After that they are given the green card, which lets them work for any company.

I upvoted as this is a comparison a hadn't seen before. However, what I quoted is innacurate.

They can HOPE to get a GC in 10 years (for people from India), provided their current company agrees to sponsor it and goes through all the necessary hoops (the biggest of which is the PERM application). And it's not guaranteed, no matter how much work you've put in.

They are tied to the company, but they can switch companies if they find another sponsor. It requires a lot of effort and is far more difficult than just changing jobs, but it's possible.

L1 visas are tied to the company, however.

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