US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

One thing is size. The US has 300+ million people, whereas my country only has a few million. All communities are smaller here; interesting things get here later or not at all (with bad localizations) because the market is too small. Things are tinier, quieter and get less traction.

Another thing is that there is something of a cultural identity crisis going on. We cannot match the enormous cultural influence of the US, and so a lot of our culture is American. If you've ever talked to someone from Northern Europe and wondered "why does s/he speak English so well?" it's not because of school. One half of our cultural identity is located on the other side of the Atlantic, and we keep in touch with it mostly through backlit screens.

The deluge of information and entertainment that has come from the US since it became a superpower has served as a really efficient marketing strategy. We're not terribly interested in moving to Oklahoma. We have been sold on New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other metropolises in the US, because that's what we read and hear about. These places are perhaps not better than Northern Europe to settle down and start a family in, but they certainly seem more exciting.

Each of these places only take a limited amount of immigrants each year. Some are more difficult based on the national language -- learning Danish isn't more difficult than English or French, but there are fewer learning resources to do so.

So, your best options for the greatest amount of opportunity is to learn English -- you have the UK, America, Canada, and Australia as potential landing spots. (This is, of course, not universal. Developing countries with French as a national language will prefer France, for example.)

So, the answer is that it's a way out.

Once you are here, and have a degree, there are opportunities here that are not there back home and hence the interest in working visas.

Consultancies are another catalyst - in cases where the candidates do not manage to get a job right out of school, consultancies act as a bridge where they file immigrant visas for the candidates and then help them find companies that are in need of their skills.

I'm not saying that the US is not a popular choice for people wanting to immigrate, but I think that it is more that there is a good quality of life to be had, with the added bonus of being an English speaking country (which is the most popular choice as a 2nd language learn).

Second but not least, because ARgentina grows so much on outsourcing contracts, the quality of the job to do is poor and uncommitted. Product management in Argentina is almost non-existent. This means that the most likely job you will get is contracting-"do as the guy that pay exactly wants even if you know for a fact that there are better ways to do it" work.

So, more pay + more interesting work is enticing enough. Also, having worked in the US gives you a halo if you come back.

English as the primary language (great learning resources available for it all across the globe).

Real economic mobility - you can really make it big if you're smart, persevering and slightly lucky. Who you know matters to a certain extent in all countries, but the significance of that factor is less in the US as compared to the other countries, in my opinion (others may disagree, of course).

I moved from Sweden to the United Kingdom to attend university for similar reasons. The university culture is different (much better) here, and there is more of a hub factor to the campuses, which offers many advantages socially and otherwise.

For instance, a programmer in Spain makes about a third as he would in the midwest, with the same cost of living. He'd also be able to find a job by having skills that fit what companies need, instead of being about being a good friend of the CTO's nephew.

And that's a developed country in the EU. Imagine the same thing, in one of those places that have immigrants that move to Spain.

Also, multi-culturalism seems to be growing organically here in the U.S rather than being shoved down people's throats like in Europe. This leads to fewer instances of racism and a more accepting climate where every one has some degree of mutual respect. I don't think that's the case in Western Europe where from what I hear, refugees are being brought in huge numbers angering the local population.

Last year, i visited Switzerland and Austria and was called nigger multiple times by random passers on bicycles whilst walking (and I'm not even black and pretty fair for an Indian guy). Fuck that shit.

Of course, if you're an international trailblazing software-engineering guru, yeah, you'll get fantastic opportunities pretty much anywhere. However, even fairly low-level IT work in the US can feed a new family (depending on your geography, of course), which is not the case everywhere in the world. And with recruiters banging down peoples' doors throwing jobs in peoples' faces, it's no wonder foreigners want to stay in the US.

So, I'm highly critical of USgov but USA, with all its alleged faults, is still considered the "Land of opportunity" by a lot of people. If you have tech-skills and you need a country where the internet doesn't cost you a kidney-per-month(and barely works), electricity is reliably provided during core working hours; combined with the perception that Bay Area / Silicon Valley tech scene is where the money & smart people are at.... there you have it.

That is a broad question.

Probably because unlike most other countries, we're a nation of immigrants, and while our policies may not be perfect, we have empathy for people who want to move here, and work hard for a better life.

The Australian E3 visa has not been filled. If you need skilled engineers think of seeing if you can recruit some Australians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-3_visa

As a European who spent his last 3 summers in the US, and now participating in H1B lottery, my motivation is pretty simple: money, and also prestige stemming from working for a well-recognized tech company in the core of SV that will follow me when I get back my home country, or immigrate to some country I find more desirable.

Spending few months in Bay Area and in Seattle made me pretty disillusioned about the whole "land of the free" thing, about equality and justice for all. It also made me concerned about my own personal safety, something I never ever felt back home.

But for the salary, I find that Canada is in almost every way superior for immigration purposes, not to mention Germany, Switzerland, Denmark or Sweden.

1. stability of the political system 2. percentage of large companies that originate (i.e. google, facebook, vmware, etc) 3. open opportunities with respect to social class

People are dying, literally drowning in the Mediterranean, to get into Europe. As I know, people still apply to work in Qatar even as they engage in work practices that well be "nothing less than murder"in the process of constructing their World Cup stadiums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup#Migrant_wor...

Unrestricted Jus soli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli#Unrestricted_jus_soli)

The fact that the green card process resets if the employee switches jobs is crazy. That really does make it an "indentured servant slave visa".

Anyhow, this article is great:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant

One of the similarities that stuck out to me:

Most white immigrants arrived in Colonial America as indentured servants, usually as young men and women from Britain or Germany, under the age of 21. Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not charge the father any money.[10] The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies, and sell their legal papers to someone who needed workers. At the end of the indenture, the young person was given a new suit of clothes and was free to leave. Many immediately set out to begin their own farms, while others used their newly acquired skills to pursue a trade.

The question of legality would come down to whether it's voluntary or involuntary servitude. But as a practical matter, I think it would be good for all people (not companies) if we found a more lenient path to citizenship as it wouldn't put as much downward pressure on salaries and wouldn't make H1-Bs preferable over others, all else being equal.

The green card process for a H1-B is particularly annoying and restrictive though, as is the arbitrary time limit.

Not sure what you mean by "the H1-B visa employee is legally bound to the job". Sure, your company's name is printed on your visa but it is excessively easy to transfer to a new employer.

Bringing a foreign employee over is incredibly expensive. The reason companies do it isn't to get a grateful slave that will do anything to hold his job and rise ahead. They do it because a shortage of skilled workers locally, and incredible competition from other companies.

Not to mention all the hassle and uncertainty of interviewing someone, and then not knowing for months or even years if they can come over and start working.

As someone that works for a company that hires a LOT internationally, trust me, we'd much rather hire locally. But our needs are greater than can be found in one place, so we have to broaden our reach.

H1B has lot of restrictions most idiotic being that the spouce has to sit idle. That is idiotic.

Recently Infosys was fined 35 million USD for visa fraud, that was just the tip of the ice berg http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230452750...

On other hand, I would love to have a easier way to start a business in US and a Visa program that helps US economy.

DISCLAIMER: I run a services startup in Bangalore.

Or why the state department does look at what skills are actually needed where ... or why those who get the visas remain utterly dependent on the companies that got them the visas, thus lower wages in a way an "ordinary market" etc?

-- Wow, I can think of a reason. I think of "a million reasons", all with the face of a founding father.

Yeah, if seriously high-skilled folks were let into the US, no questions asked and then weren't dependent on only company X, then they actually wouldn't be putting pressure on wages of existing geeks because they would have their own legitimate demands. But couldn't have that.

H1 is supposed to be for high skill individuals, the actual people getting it are really like the absolute worst mid level corporate sycophants. The real high skill individuals are likely working at start ups, bootstrapping, or successfully running their own start ups. Who will never get Visas.

There are also other H1 candidates like doctors, Many of whom I think justifiable deserve it.

Either way the Indian start up ecosystem is growing wildly due to these Visa restrictions. Most people who would have likely started in San Francisco given a chance are starting up here now.

The most valuable employees to the country are those that are hired to work on something that scales that can then be sold to other countries. Consultancy is a non-scaleable business model, which does nothing to helping the US' balance of payments. Improving the balance of payments should be the primary deciding factor when determining if an application is valid.

You can't expect the Silicon Valley ~~CEO~~ Royalty to be bothered with something as plebeian as the free market. Much easier to get some programming serf imported to do the job and then throw them off the land once they aren't needed anymore.

I'm not from IIT.

But I guess it was Tom Friedman who said, It is a no brainer for the US to take people from IIT. Because you really have like the extreme best of India landing at US doorstep and practically begging to give them opportunities, to make US awesome.

Why would any country want to not have that kind of people?

They are not.

/end of story. All other propaganda and testimony by these companies that say otherwise is bullshit.

Normal path: H1B -> Green Card -> 5 yr waiting -> Citizenship

You will not get GC directly, unless: (a) Apply for GC lottery (b) Marry US citizen (c) Claim refugee status (d) Your US citizen relatives ask for it and you wait 8+ years to get it

Take Cognizant Technology solutions for example. I know a friend who works for the company. They are a US company (NJ based) but the majority of their life-sciences projects are outsourced to India office. They pay my friend one-thirds of what they charge the client for him in the contract. Him and about 5 other people who work here for the client, send work off-shore to India office to about 50 people. This model of outsourcing the majority work to India suits the client because the total costs about one-tenth of what they'd actually pay if everyone of those employees was hired here, in the US.

Not only is this model hurting jobs in the US, it is bad for the employees here well. For my friend, he has to work during the day, and then spend most of the night delegating tasks off-shore. He practically sleeps only over the weekend.

This might be a one-off example with this specific client only for Cognizant but I am aware that the profits from pay-scales are company-wide.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutio_Antoniniana