Why is there a lottery anyway instead of a salary ranking/salary threshold system? This'd disincentivize bad actors, ensure the US domestic labor pool is not undercut, and (more or less) lead to higher quality H-1B immigrants.
Because in spite of what the law actually says, the entire purpose of the H1B visa program is and always has been a way to get mostly adequate people who'll work cheap.
The reality is that the cap was set in the early 90s at a time where it far exceeded the need and hasn’t been touched since then.
And domestic needs have increased while Congress refuses to pass any reform and certainly not increase the cap.
A lottery is the only legal way USCIS can act to distribute the number of visas set in the early 90s to the obviously much greater need in the 2020s.
The H1B program is extremely important in a country which has 1) an aging, shrinking population and 2) generally poor educational outcomes for its citizens compared to developed nation peers.
The very fact that some of the biggest companies in the world are helmed by former H1Bs tells you how helpful of a program it really has been for the US.
Yes that's why I wrote that the current process is a tradeoff which requires additional measures to prevent abuse from the Infosys type companies.
But you can't expect the richest, highest paying country in the world to be able to fix its talent shortage and companies not try to take advantage of the pay discrepancy.
> If it's having any impact on the wages of citizens, that's clearly not in the best interest of the average US citizen.
Unfortunately this is false. There are industries where the cost of training enough American citizens to be experts enough to earnsignificant sums makes the business infeasible. I worked in an AI lab at a top University in the US. It's 90% foreign graduate students in those programs. The current AI boom couldn't happen here without this visa program, honestly.
US citizens don't benefit from a stagnant economy like many European nations. They benefit from an economy with lots of businesses popping up and a robust economy. And unfortunately, since Americans are not well educated and are shrinking in number, those kind of businesses need to be staffed by the highly educated from abroad. And those people will accept less pay than US citizens would just due to upbringing abroad. No one in the world expects the pay Americans expect.
Of course this is open for abuse so we need to investigate every instance of someone leaving - if we determine you were mistreating the employee then you pay them the full $1 million despite them finding a job elsewhere that might only pay $100k/year. (if they just take that lower paying job because it is interesting you are fine, but if they go for better working conditions it will cost you)
I don't think rich industries should monopolize it, but I definitely think they should be forced to pay more.
My personal favorite solution to the H1-B problem is to keep the quotas but remove the indentured servitude aspect. You really need this person? Sponsor them, then treat them well and pay them enough to want to stay with you. Otherwise, they can just leave and get a job like someone with a green card.
I mean this a foolish solution that will just make industries reliant on certain specialized experts not feasible.
The reality is that the majority of Americans don't even have a college degree and Americans are a shrinking, aging populace. The few left in such a field would command wages so high their output wouldn't make up the difference or make it worth hiring them. Many companies would not be viable in the US if we didn't hire foreigners in high-skilled positions.
(Not singling them out, just using for illustration purposes)
I think a wage threshold and weighting would be best, but others think a controlled random mixing of labour markets is better for the overall economy.
A better way might be weighing based on the applying company. Give a weight based on the size of the company and another for the type of company. These weights would be assigned based on the top-most owner(s) and not the applying companies themselves.
Also add penalties for larger companies acquiring smaller companies with H1-Bs that were hired within the last X number of years. Not sure what penalties exactly. At least financial to fund the system, but probably to the weighing as well.
A salary ranking scheme would cut most professions out.
I think a better solution is just a "tariff" where a company has to pay an additional 50% of the total compensation to the government. Then if you could fill the spot with an american you'd want to because it saves you a ton of money; but if you actually can't find somebody (at your offered price) then you still have the option of offering a visa.
It never makes sense to import someone who has less earning potential than any other candidate; at least not in a long term context (it makes plenty of sense for a current business for their own short term profit).