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Comment by strikelaserclaw | Hacker News Reader

I've worked for a bunch of companies (i'm a us citizen), and I've never had this problem. These days it actually seems like companies ONLY want to hire Citizens or GC holders. Pretty much everywhere i applied to when i wanted to change jobs this year asked if i was a Citizen/GC Holder. I know a h1b guy whose company got bought out and they fired all the H1B's, the guy sent out like 300 resumes before finally getting 1 interview and he told me it will take him 20/30 years to get his GreenCard. From what i know about him, life as a H1B is essentially a slavish like existence.

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> I know a h1b guy whose company got bought out and they fired all the H1B's, the guy sent out like 300 resumes before finally getting 1 interview.

Yeah that's by design. Companies like the ones I've worked/contracted for want the H1B visa holders is because it's incredibly risky/etc. for them to find work if they're laid off, fired, need to find another position, etc. I think the max time they even get to search is 6 months (I've also heard 3!) - would need to fact check this.

Simply put - the organic parts of the US job market literally just don't work for H1Bs. It's wrong, and I hate how they pay these guys approx. 60% (less if outsourced!) of what I make only to require more hours from them.

If you're a citizen/greenie then the US job market magically works for you hah. It's as simple as that.

H1B is the dumbest worker permit. It's stupid for the holder, stupid for American workers, and stupid in design. If people are needed enough to come here from another country, then they are needed enough to come here without being sponsored by some company. Regardless of who they are, if they were good enough to import, then there will be a business that needs them. Give the power of the permit to the worker and not the company and nearly all problems with the H1B go away. I've had the privilege of working with some amazing H1B workers and some truly terrible ones. It's very obvious which companies are using H1Bs to lower wages and which ones are bringing in workers you truly can't find here. If you can replace an entire department with H1Bs then you're not using H1B as intended.

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