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by tbyehl 2443 days ago
> It's a loophole?

Well, call it what you want. Originally the H-1 program was for temporary non-immigrant workers. Intent matters when someone enters any country -- if someone is determined by the immigration authorities to have intent to immigrate, but only holds a non-immigrant visa or waiver, they'll be denied entry.

In the 90s the H-1 program was made dual-intent, as in, intent to immigrate would not disqualify someone from entry, setting the stage for the present mass exploitation of H-1B workers.

> what other way is there for someone to immigrate?

Like I said, US immigration is racist and broken. I don't know how we solve it, aside from obvious of creating other paths to legal immigration and phasing out H-1B's dual-intent status so that immigration doesn't turn into exploitation.

From the immigrants' perspective the obvious thing to do is vote with your feet -- go somewhere else or stay in their home country -- but so many people want to come to America that it's hard to imagine reaching a critical mass to effect policy change.

1 comments

> In the 90s the H-1 program was made dual-intent, as in, intent to immigrate would not disqualify someone from entry, setting the stage for the present mass exploitation of H-1B workers.

Do you know why this was done? Because the bureaucracy went out of whack and caused massive delays in the real immigration steps aka green cards.

If anything, H-1 is the only way right now because US govt can't function like a developed country. The H-1s are not to blame. They are just like you and I. And they are the kind of immigrants I want to sustain our population and economy.