[outworlder]

Is, it is the main reason, and the purpose of the visa. It doesn't mean that all companies use it for that purpose, despite what they say.

Note that, according to the article, the laid off people seem to be (relatively speaking) older, with multiple years in the company. It is likely that their salaries are higher than what management would like them to be. My theory makes the prediction that the H1 holders are young. If so, they'll take lower salaries, specially if they aren't aware of living costs. Until they actually move, whatever offer they got must have seemed like a crapton of cash.

[protomyth]

> Is, it is the main reason, and the purpose of the visa. It doesn't mean that all companies use it for that purpose, despite what they say.

Yes, it is the main purpose: http://www.dol.gov/whd/immigration/h1b.htm

If the companies are not using it for that purpose and telling the government something different then they are committing fraud.

[nommm-nommm]

Law firms have openly admitted to advising businesses in this kind of fraud!

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/businessnews/2007/06/21...

"Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker, and, you know, that in a sense that sounds funny, but it's what we're trying to do here. We are complying with the law, fully, but our objective is to get this person a greencard.... Certainly we are not going to try to find a place where [American] applicants would be most numerous.... if necessary schedule an interview, go through the whole process to find a legal basis to disqualify [the American applicant] for this particular position."

https://youtu.be/TCbFEgFajGU

[DrScump]

  "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified
  and interested U.S. worker..."

This video is a smoking gun, with respect to this firm and its clients, at least. Everyone interested in the topic should watch this. (Has anybody composed a transcript?)

Note the strategy laid out starting around 3:30:

"(have US applicants go through the motions) to find a legal basis to DISQUALIFY them... in most cases, this doesn't seem to be a problem."

[nommm-nommm]

You gotta wonder... What percent of the job ads out there are real? How many man hours have real job seekers spent applying for job ads that are 100% FAKE? What's the toll on these real job seekers?

[coldtea]

>If the companies are not using it for that purpose and telling the government something different then they are committing fraud.

The kind of fraud that's profitable, happens regularly and nobody gets called for.

[protomyth]

Well, this is an article about Disney getting called on it via a lawsuit.

[coldtea]

A civil lawsuit as the sibling comment notes.

For which they'll settle or pay some insignificant fine, and continue about their same business.

[DrScump]

The key word being (civil) lawsuit. Neither state nor Federal governments pursued any criminal or civil action on their own.

[outworlder]

> If the companies are not using it for that purpose and telling the government something different then they are committing fraud.

Yes. Not all of them, but some definitely are.

[protomyth]

I suspect that given http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2015-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx shows a lot of them are consulting companies that provide labor, it might be worth a study on number.