[emmapersky]

H-1B has no requirement that no US citizen can be found with the qualifications. This is a common misconception. In fact, H-1B is fairly trivial if you meet the criteria (degree or equivalent). This "no qualified US citizen" requirement is associated with EB-2 and EB-3 PERM applications, which is the first step to an employer sponsored green card process.

Also, It is not valid to start a business and pay yourself at least the prevailing wage in order to sponsor an H-1B. In fact, if you are in the ownership chain of a company you more or less can't have it apply for an H-1B on your behalf. There are other routes if you are making serious money though.

[HistoryInAction]

I believe that while this is technically correct, the labor certification that is needed to go through the H1-B process does require a "no qualified US citizen" proof. However, I'm told that's also fairly trivial to surmount, which is the cause of a lot of angst in the anti-immigration (anti-H1B subgroup) community.

[potatolicious]

The H1B is just a work visa - it does not require a labor certification at all.

Turning a H1B into a green card is the process that involves the labor cert.

[HistoryInAction]

Admitting my own lack of personal experience, I apparently mixed up labor certification with the labor condition application (LCA). Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa#Labor_Condition_Appli...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect wages or working conditions of US workers. For every H-1B petition filed with the USCIS, there must be included a Labor Condition Application (LCA) (not to be confused with the labor certification), certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA is designed to ensure that the wage offered to the non-immigrant worker meets or exceeds the "prevailing wage" in the area of employment. ("Immigration law has a number of highly technical terms that may not mean the same thing to the average reader." [32] last updated 2011 March 31, visited 2012 November 5) The LCA also contains an attestation section designed to prevent the program from being used to import foreign workers to break a strike or replace US citizen workers.

While an employer is not required to advertise the position before hiring an H-1B non-immigrant pursuant to the H-1B visa approval, the employer must notify the employee representative about the Labor Condition Application (LCA)—or if there is no such representation, the employer must publish the LCA at the workplace and the employer's office.[33][34] Under the regulations, LCAs are a matter of public record. Corporations hiring H-1B workers are required to make these records available to any member of the public who requests to look at them. Copies of the relevant records are also available from various web sites, including the Department of Labor.