[employee8000]

My very good friend is Indian on H1B. In the last 10 years he has had 4 jobs and is making >200k/yr base. I know white people that are in the same job for 10+ years and can't get another job because their skills degraded. H1Bs have mobility and great wages, if you're good, just like citizens.

[timewarrior]

I respectfully disagree with that.

Maybe your friend wanted to do a startup where he owned the majority voting control in the startup. You can't do it on H1. Maybe he wanted to go meet his family but couldn't because his visa renewal was going on. Maybe he wanted a great opportunity, but the company wasn't setup to do H1 paperwork.

H1 was expected to be a temporary state. If you are on H1 and not from India or China you can get a Green Card within 1 year. Even Chinese nationals can get it in 4-5 years.

I switched 5 times in 6 years. Joined LinkedIn, left to build a startup (where I couldn't have majority stake), sold it to Dropbox, built and incubator at Verizon, doing another startup. All this while I was doing fine financially. However I felt really suffocated by the lack of freedom.

Finally I am not on H1 and now I can own a controlling stake in my startup. If I wasn't on H1 earlier, I would have made different career choices all this while.

H1 system is broken. Companies all over the spectrum is using it to exploit employees. It's time to fix it.

[stocktech]

You're making the point that being H1 is an inconvenience and to be honest, that's fine. It even sounds like your life was improved because you were H1. Would you have had these opportunities if you weren't?

[timewarrior]

Just because I was able to overcome, doesn't mean the system works fine.

It took a lot of hard work and luck to get me to overcome this. So I would say that my life improved in-spite of H1. I was able to found a startup (and successfully exit) while on H1, which is extremely rare.

Around 2010, the Green Card wait for Indians went from 3-5 years to 20+ years. Many people who moved before or around that time got invested here (bought a house, grew family, kids going to school) and in a way are stuck in a limbo. Many of them are smart and hard working people, who used to have dreams of building companies. But after a decade in limbo, all they talk about is the next H1 renewal and the uncertainties around that.

Now, the best from India are instead choosing to stay in India and build startups there. While the current system is allowing staffing companies bring subpar talent which displaces good American jobs. So yes the H1B system is broken and it needs fixing.

If I had stayed, I would have had different set of opportunities in India. Difficult to predict whether they would have been better or worse!

And it is easy to say "that's fine" - when you are not living the life with constraints.

[employee8000]

H1B is a privilege not a right. You seemed to have done quite well for yourself, more proof that h1b isn't endentured servitude if you're good enough.

[timewarrior]

I completely agree. But the privilege works both ways. Which is why people like me aren't coming to the US from India anymore. They would rather build startups in India or go to Singapore, Europe or Canada.

Only of my friends, who has a profile very similar to mine just moved to Canada. He was given a Green Card before ever setting his foot there.

Instead US is getting people with really low quality education or fake degree, who are brought here by staffing company. They get paid really low salaries and displace American workers. The current system is encouraging and supporting these companies in taking advantage of the H1B system.

Because there is a lottery every year, best people from across the world do not get a chance to come here on H1 because the quota gets full. If someone decides to move to US on Apr 1st in 2017, they need to wait till Apr 2018 to see if they win the lottery. Even if they win, they can't join till Oct 1st, 2018.

Back in the days, when the quota didn't get full, people could apply at any time and join soon after. If you applied between Oct to Apr, you could join right away. If you applied between Apr-Oct, you could join in October.

It is in US's interest more than any one else to fix the current H1 system. Best among whatever Indians are stuck here in limbo will eventually move somewhere else. Best from whole world do not want to move here on H1 because of the uncertainty. This is not what the system was designed more.

There is a lot more to the story why big companies like contracting to H1 and L1 workers (tax benefits of Capex vs Opex). That story is for another day.

[beefsmoke]

I don't know what you're smoking, Canada doesn't have green cards. And no, Canada doesn't give PR status to anyone before they have lived there for some time.

[timewarrior]

Check this out:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/

It's called Express Entry which gives Permanent Residency. If you are selected, you get PR before you land in Canada. The reason I said Green Card is that this is the term most people on this forum are most comfortable with. What I had meant is PR.

[aanm1988]

No, not really. You can't quit at certain stages of the green card process or you start all over. No matter how much you hate your current job you can't just quit. Pick the wrong company and they lay you off, that sucks leave the country now.