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Also here are some real solutions to the H-1B program so I'm not accused of just sharing a sob story: 1. Offer a credible path to permanent residency: employers can pay less to H-1B visa holders because they know those employees have no real way out of the system. If H-1Bs could self-sponsor merit-based green card applications after, say, 2 years on the job, the market would naturally solve the wage gap. My employers delayed my green card application until the very last minute so that I would never consider quitting for a better, non H-1B job. 2. Minimum salary threshold: avoids blatant misuse of the program by companies that are effectively "offshoring" semi-unskilled labor to immigrants. 3. No lottery, unlimited applications: increasing the cap can be balanced by the minimum salary threshold. 4. Self-sponsorship for entrepreneurs: let me start a company in the US and give me, I don't know, 2 years to show some threshold of revenue, scale or profitability. If I can hit call it $500k in revenue, pay my own salary, and/or hire 10 people in 2 years, surely I should be allowed to stay? And if I can't, just ask me to leave? You can easily find me if I own a company, I'm not "undocumented"... The EB-2 NIW green card path already has some of these features in that you can provide a business plan and sponsor yourself for a green card, but that process takes years and you can't have a regular visa (even a tourist visa!) once you have applied for the green card. Which means the applicant needs to stay in the US without traveling abroad at all and not work for 2 years, which is tantamount to making them an illegal immigrant. |