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> But in reality, most of today's H-1B workers don't stick around to become the next Albert Einstein or Sergey Brin
I recently wrote a letter to a Congressperson about this, regarding the recent House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Immigration Reform. The same point was brought up there too. Do these people think it's easy to start a company on an H-1B? It's near impossible. I'd know, because I've looked into it with a brilliant lawyer. Let's take a look at the factors.
* H-1B costs around 4-5k, and the result of the application is uncertain. Would you want an uncertain cofounder? Would investors?
* H-1B workers must be paid prevailing wage. For a programmer in Cambridge, MA, the cheapest level-1 codemonkey must be paid around $55k/yr. How many of us started out paying ourselves that much money? Or any money for that matter?
* A document called the Neufeld Memo from 2008 states that the H-1B sponsor and worker need an employer-employee relationship. This means that the company, that you helped start, must have the ability to fire you whenever it wants. You must relinquish your rights to control your employment in that regard. How would you feel about this?
* For similar reasons, owning majority stake in your company is nearly impossible, and owning any stake is generally frowned upon and investigated further by authorities.
* Work visas are per-company and per-job. You want to do some consulting on the side to keep the purse full? Tough luck, unless you also are able to get an H-1B from there. (hint: it's tough.)
If you had all these limitations, how likely is it that you'd be the next Sergey Brin? Is it any wonder that H-1Bs are not creating jobs for Americans? The reason for all this is that the H-1B was created for BigCo.
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> ComputerWorld revealed last week that the top 10 users of H-1B visas last year were all offshore outsourcing firms such as Tata and Infosys. Together these firms hired nearly half of all H-1B workers, and less than 3 percent of them applied to become permanent residents.
Again, the H-1B system surely favors BigCO. The reason for this is because it was created for BigCO, and it was advanced by constant lobbying by BigCO. There is no equivalently large lobby, however, for the bright immigrant entrepreneurs that America wants. Brin himself is probably lobbying for the H-1B, as Google is in the top 10 H-1B employers.
"Less than 3% of them applied to become permanent residents". Honestly! This makes me angry. Do people think they didn't want to become permanent residents? Are we this out of touch? This is because they can't decide to apply to become permanent residents themselves! They need sponsorship for PERM (green card) applications too! But the companies don't want to take this costly and time consuming (6+ years for Indians) route often, when they can just replace them.
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There are more glaring things in the article, but I want to keep my point clear. Do I think H-1Bs are great? NO! God no. But calls to ban it are a bit overzealous. Please, have some compassion.
People seem to forget that H-1Bs are the only way to legal immigration for people who don't have ties to the US, or people like me whose American parents haven't lived in the US for a long time. Ban it, and the likes of me are screwed.
I hope that there comes a better alternative that doesn't serve corporate interests as much, that supports foreign founders who create jobs for Americans. Something that raises the bar for potential applicants and lowers the bar for consultancy-farms. I'm hopeful about the STEM visa. I like the startup visa. I think there are tons of flaws to be fixed in the system.
Please, consider what will happen to us, just as you consider what will happen to you. I understand that America must think of its own first. But consider how immigrants created entire industries, when they were allowed to do so. Heck, most Americans are descendants of immigrants. If you call for the ban of the H-1B, please also call, twice as vigorously, for the creation of something better.