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Comment by sxp | Hacker News Reader

> He also proposes that USCIS should replace the random selection of H-1B visas with a system that prioritizes highest wages....

This change is so obvious that's it's incredible that it hasn't been implemented yet. Auction off the H1-B visas based on how much federal income tax the role will pay and let the market sort it out.

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The problem with this argument is that most non-spouse H1-Bs are granted to new college grads who just graduated from a US college. Brand new engineers do not have very high salaries, so if you insisted on a 'highest wages' system you'd be sending virtually every new grad from say Stanford back to their home country the second they graduate. US public policy since the 60s has been to welcome foreigners who graduate from our elite colleges.

As I say above- just get rid of visas for consulting companies instead, and everything else fixes itself

I'm not sure what you mean by "spouse H-1B" as that doesn't really exist.

>new college grads

So? The point of h1-b isn't to hire new grads. It's to find the already educated, industry proven, experienced top talent that exists in the world. How would a new grad fit that description?

H1-Bs are overwhelmingly new grads, and have been since the inception of the visa. The purpose of a system is what it does- H1-Bs are issued to new grads, hence the point of the visa is to hire new grads. You may want a different system, but that's not how it works now.

Experienced career professionals don't generally move to the US as adults, and anyways if your company really needed one you could just hire them remotely

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