[bsder]

> Increasing the number of H1-B visas has very little support from both sides of the isle.

A lot of us simply want the H1-B to green card conversion time to be 12 months to 24 months MAX and all the expense should be borne by the company.

That unblocks the pipeline and prevents the whole indentured servant depressing salaries problem. Any company that genuinely needs an H1-B will obviously hold onto the H1-B when it converts to a green card. Companies that are abusing the pipeline will be obvious as the green card holders will leave and the company will have to reapply for more H1-Bs.

[thatfrenchguy]

It can be 12-24 months if you’re not born in India and your lawyers do all their paperwork on time and you apply when USCIS is not crippled :)

[Saline9515]

A very short conversion time leads to a profitable business model where companies sell green cards to wealthy foreign citizens. You could pay a lump sum of 300k, company keeps 1/3 and pays back the rest to you as a salary for your fake H1-B job. At a total cost of $100k+taxes, it would be one of the cheapest "golden visa" in the world.

[bsder]

> A very short conversion time leads to a profitable business model where companies sell green cards to wealthy foreign citizens.

I don't buy it. This is spectacularly easy enforcement. A company applying for H1-Bs over and over and over is going to stick out and should get its H1-Bs denied--regardless of whether it is selling them to wealthy foreign nationals or is running an IT sweatshop that people flee as soon as they can.

Any company that isn't abusing the H1-B process will be able to demonstrate all the green card holders that are still working for them.

In addition, if foreign nationals want to come to the US and pay taxes here, we should let them. The US was built on immigration from working-class people--wealthy foreign nationals are kind of a no-brainer.

  Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
  With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
  Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
  A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
  Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
  Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
  Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
  The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
  “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
  With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
  Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

[Saline9515]

> A company applying for H1-Bs over and over and over is going to stick out and should get its H1-Bs denied--regardless of whether it is selling them to wealthy foreign nationals or is running an IT sweatshop that people flee as soon as they can.

You understand that 10 US companies hired 50k H1-Bs in 2025, out of 85k visas? The second largest hirer is Tata Consulting Services, who then "resells" the H1-Bs to clients while taking a cut. It's already happening.

And even then, you can still create subsidiaries or stand-alone companies to avoid being seen as a "repeat customer".

> In addition, if foreign nationals want to come to the US and pay taxes here, we should let them. The US was built on immigration from working-class people--wealthy foreign nationals are kind of a no-brainer.

This is a democratic issue, the USA is not earthlings' free for all, but the land of the citizens of the USA.

Just as a country is not a sum of taxpayers, immigration is not always mutually beneficial. If young CS graduates can't find a job because entry-level offers are reserved for foreigners, they'll end up working in underqualified jobs and paying less taxes, on top of the human cost caused by this situation. Supply and demand laws exist, and the job market is not magically immune because Amazon decided that the skills of the 14k H1-Bs they hired this year couldn't be found on the local market.

[fragmede]

Cheaper than the $5,000,000 Golden visa proposed by the President, sure, but at that point we're really just haggling anyway so then it's just a difference of degree.

[Saline9515]

They want to have a $2M platinium visa that allows you to bring workers, no questions asked, and to reuse the visa if you fire the worker. At 5% yield it's akin to $100k/y, which is close to the initial proposal to tax H1-bs yearly.

[blitzar]

Its on sale now for $1,000,000.

[valicord]

That's already how it works unless you happen to be from a couple unlucky countries

[giobox]

> unless you happen to be from a couple unlucky countries

Those "couple unlucky countries" make up ~80 percent of all H1B applications (India + China). Your comment makes it sound like this affects only a small set of H1B applicants.