[screye]

The H1b is the blunt all-purpose-tool of the era, but having more specific policy objectives is more productive.

The murkiness of the current H1b allows anxiety which companies can exploit.

A dual-intent, 5-50 yr green card wait-times, lottery system with underdefined qualification criteria has to be seen as a terribly drafted visa. Replacing with it clearer messaging and more predictable rules (predictable doesn't mean looser) would return a lot of leverage to tech workers. The weird rules of the H1B mean that every I know has violated some under-enforced parts of their H1B at some point. Every once in a while it gets enforced, and someone's life gets uprooted. The 2 month deportation timeline is joke, when it takes 3 months to catch up on leetcode.

The visa doesn't even have to be more permissible. Just a more sensible & clear.

[tekknik]

The lottery is a control on the influx of immigrants, which countries use to keep immigration controllable.

Reading over the rules (it’s not clear what you mean by “rules”) they all seem clear to me. What examples do you have of unclear or nonsensical rules?

[screye]

> keep immigration controllable

And a lottery is the best way to do it ? Points based systems, merit based systems or even seniority based systems make a lot more sense. How is complete and utter randomness (lottery) the best answer ?

> unclear or nonsensical rules

    You have to find a new job with 2 months or leave the country

Tech recruiters take 1 month to get back for screening, and the full loop can take a good 2 months start to finish. Add months of leetcode prep and weeks of negotiation, and it practically makes it impossible to get your own job back if you ever have to switch jobs.

    Spousal work visas can take 6 years from start date in ideal circumstances.

Even the best companies take 1 year to start applying for your perm. The application process to enter the waiting queue takes 3 years. After entering the queue (i140), you have to wait 1 year to apply for spousal work and 1 more year to get that approval. This whole time you cannot switch companies or cities or even move to another track eg: SWE -> Manager/PM/DS, because you will need to redo multiple steps in the process.

    Greencard queues are now 25-100 years long for certain countries.

Indians, Chinese and Mexicans are effectively banned from ever becoming American citizens legally. All while the US does zero diligence when it comes to asylum seekers and illegal immigration at the border. Remember, the goal is to keep immigration controllable !

    Going back to school in the US is technically illegal.

An H1b is a dual intent (immigration possible). The student visa (F1) is a non-immigrant visa. I know cases where students were denied F1 because they decided to go back for a PhD after being on an H1B.

    Can't have any secondary income.

Want to moonlight as a musician ? Nope. Want to sell an app? Nope. Want to start a startup ? Nope. Hilariously, people do all 3 through illegal means which the US Govt. enforces just randomly enough that the rule followers feel eternally suffocated, and those who choose to accept that breaking-rules is inevitable, live in constant moderate-fear of tomorrow being the day the US govt. will raid your house.

I'd go into all the irritating bits of the H1b if I had hours, but the H1b can effectively be summarized with this video - https://youtu.be/mKc32jQIY0w?t=88

[tekknik]

> And a lottery is the best way to do it ? Points based systems, merit based systems or even seniority based systems make a lot more sense. How is complete and utter randomness (lottery) the best answer ?

Because you’re building a system in which you have preference over others. While we need high tech workers, it’s unfair to only invite them first.

> You have to find a new job with 2 months or leave the country

You are here on a work visa. While I do think it should be a bit longer, rationally if you got a visa to work for a specific company then your visa should be invalidate at the end of that employment. The visa was granted because the company said they needed a particular skill set and they couldn’t find it in the US. This doesn’t mean once that job has ended that this skill set is still required in the US.

> Spousal work visas can take 6 years from start date in ideal circumstances.

This does sound odd, but is in line with how slow the US gov is in my experience. I remember for my wife's citizenship we were looking at around 6 years for them to simply process the paperwork and perform an interview.

> Greencard queues are now 25-100 years long for certain countries.

This one is very understandable. Given green card applications have been skyrocketing since the 2000s, and only ~1mil are granted per year. Then you have people like me who have priority, who as a citizen request their wives green cards (and ultimately citizenship), which takes another slot away.

Securing the US border is something I'd also like to see done, but that's a highly politicized discussion that's off topic here.

> Going back to school in the US is technically illegal.

Well as a student you are not providing much / any value to the US, at least not yet. I can see why they keep these separate, as on an F1 you are here using our schools and our educators, our research, and could potentially take that back home. Meaning we see no value. An H1B does not give you the permission to use any of that, and again is only because a company could not find the talent within the US. An H1B can be more viewed as the US exploiting you for gain, whereas an F1 can be more viewed as you exploiting the US for gain.

> Can't have any secondary income.

An H1B was granted, again, because that person had a skill that was not able to be found within the US. Many people think H1B visas are granted to anybody and everybody that's smart that wants to live here. If you're a webdev from another country, and we have webdevs sitting on the bench, you should not get an H1B visa and should have any existing one revoked. It is a US first policy.