[ajaxian]

I've been in the US since mid-2006 on an H1B, and making $100k+ annually. However, I'm currently in the final stages of applying for residency Down Under and am planning on leaving the US w/ my wife and son in early December. The reasons are partly family related, but also because I am fed up w/ feeling like an indentured employee under the H1B system.

I making more at my current job (~$130k/year) than I ever have and likely will for a while. However, in many other ways it's a very poor fit and long-term I believe it's a professional dead-end. But since I am currently applying for a green card through this job, I am stuck in it until I get the green card which could take anywhere from 2 - 5 years. If I get another job in the US (which I would have no problem doing w/ my skill-set) or lost this job I would have to restart the green card application process, losing at least 1.5 years. On top of that my wife cannot legally work in the US until I have my green card. She is a high-school teacher with 10 years of experience in international schools in Asia and, ironically, has a master's degree in education from an American university (although the course-work was done in Asia).

So I can definitely sympathize w/ Americans who feel that H1B workers like myself are undercutting the American IT job market--because we are! H1B jobs hold out the eventual promise of a green card, but in the meantime if you're in my situation you have to put up w/ a lousy job and pass on better paying and more interesting jobs. For some that promise of a green card is worth it, but for me it is not, so we're pulling up stakes so that I can practice my craft as a free man.