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Comment by distant_hat | Hacker News Reader

The fact is this system is rigged against people born in India specifically (not Indians, Indians born outside India are fine). If you had a rule that discriminated against, say, Jews, it would be called out for being anti-semitic. If you had a rule saying people born in Israel are ineligible for something, maybe it might be okay even though it largely amounts to the same thing. US is, of course, free to make whatever rules it likes, but it is a rule designed to discriminate against a particular nationality. Can you give an answer for why an H1B holder from India has to face a significantly higher wall than an equivalent H1B holder from, say, Spain?

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The reason is because Indian bodyshops exploited the H1B system and flooded the H1B application process with Indian applicants. That's why the vast majority of H1B applicants are Indian. The unfortunate byproduct of this is that all of these H1B holders now try to apply for GC at the same time.

It's not rigged against India, it's backlogged because Indian body shops rigged the H1B system for their own gains and now there's a million H1B Indians all vying for a GC. Sorry, but these are the facts. There isn't nothing specific targeting Indians, it's the fact that so many applications have come from India, and to let Indians dominate the GC allocation would be unfair to the rest of the world.

The purpose of the H-1B visa program is to help US companies fill highly skilled jobs that require specialized knowledge and expertise that are not readily available in the US labor market. Given that purpose, the source country should not matter. If applicants from a particular country are not as skilled as those from another country, then that's certainly something to take into account. But the applicant's skin color isn't relevant, given the purpose.

Nothing you said was relevant to the discussion. H1Bs are not being denied because of skin color as evidenced by the fact that the overwhelming majority of H1B holders are Indian.

The issue is not in getting H1Bs, the issue is in conversion to permanent residency.

The US has a rule that limits the number of Green Cards per country. There is no rule that specifically targets Indians. Indians have over 1 million people in line waiting for a GC. They have flooded the GC application process and now they have to wait in line. The fact that the US even allowed so many H1Bs from India that pushed out every other country shows that the US is giving a lot of benefits to Indians. Should they have instead limited the number of H1Bs per country? Then would they be crying about "racism" against Indians still? Hogwash.

If the US let all the Indians have a Green Card then no other country would be able to get one. To think that Indians want the right to get a green card above and beyond anyone else is utter selfishness. They want what's best for them at the detriment of other people from around the world. The US takes a more generous approach and ensures that every immigrant from every country has a good chance to come into the US.

The rule limiting the Indians goes way back to the 60s. Also, if the issue is bodyshops act against them. At present this is collective punishment for something only a few Indians are engaged in and it doesn't even seem to be effective.

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