[jedberg]

> There should be no cap for people who have received higher education degrees in the US.

Agree 100%. Student visas should convert to work visas automatically on graduation from an accredited institution and be good for at least five years.

[BobaFloutist]

And work visas should have built-in naturalization paths. There's no reason a highly educated, highly contributing member of society for the past 5-10 years should risk deportation if they get laid off, or, god forbid, quit due to working conditions.

[jedberg]

My honest opinion is that you should get citizenship upon graduation or shortly thereafter, but I haven't really thought it through enough to figure out unintended consequences of that.

[dheera]

Yeah I fully agree with this. I know multiple people on H1B visas who stayed at their jobs even in the face of sexual harrassment, deteriorating physical health, and depression, because of bad job markets and the stupid 60-day rule, and some subset of them already had family and kids in the US who were already adapted to US lifestyle and not ready to be uprooted to a foreign language and culture.

All they needed was some time off and time to recuperate and then some job searching time.

There is no reason someone who is already "effectively American" from a professional perspective should be uprooted and moved. They already thrive here, they already benefit this country, they should be allowed to stay indefinitely and continue to contribute.

[the_svd_doctor]

With OPT and STEM OPT that’s _sort of_ the case, albeit for 3 years, not 5.

[dilyevsky]

I think h1b itself is limited to 5 after which you have to leave for a year unless you already filed green card application. At least that was the case back in the day