[epoxyhockey]

The gem in the article is this:

Testifying earlier this week on behalf of IEEE-USA, a group representing more than 200,000 technical professionals and students, Bruce Morrison told a Congressional immigration policy subcommittee that the talent needs of U.S. companies would be better served by deregulating the process by which employers sponsor new hires for permanent residency. This would allow foreign workers to participate in the talent market on a more equitable basis.

"If an employer is willing to pay a substantial fee to sponsor a skilled foreign worker for a green card -- which means he or she can quit if they are underpaid -- that is solid evidence the employer actually needs the worker's skills," he said in prepared remarks. "But if an employer is only willing to pay a fee for a worker who cannot quit without going back to the beginning of the green card process, that indicates the employer is more interested in the indentured character of the visa, than in the worker's skills."

The last company I contracted with only had H1B Visa people working there. No doubt they would all have moved to new jobs if they could (the company was falling apart).

[ChuckMcM]

This rings a bit more true for me. There is no shortage of workers for enough money. I can offer $100,000/year for an IT worker and get flooded with resumes. The larger companies however like to buy at a discount, and the discount comes from someone in a foreign country taking part of their pay in dollars and part of their pay in the right to work and live in the US. That seems to vary with individuals of course but my observation at Sun, NetApp, and Google was that it could be worth up to 50% of the base salary for an individual to work in the US. That is a heck of a gap to fill.

It would be great if the H-1B system was updated to allow sponsored people to work anywhere as long as it was in the field they had said they were going to work in and they didn't spend more than say 180 days being unemployed. I suspect you would find that a lot of the "push" for more H-1Bs would fade away (although that is just a guess). I'd really like it if we could grant automatic H-1B status for 3 years for anyone who got a doctorate STEM degree as well.

[ktsmith]

While there are restrictions an individual with an H1-B may transfer jobs even after they've applied for permanent residency. American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21).

[epoxyhockey]

Right. I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) the thing that prevents them from making a transfer is that the green card application gets reset. That could be a multi-year setback in their path to a green card.

[ktsmith]

Nope, AC21 allows you to transfer even if you have applied for permanent residence. There are restrictions based on where you are in the process and that the new job meets certain criteria.