[catz]

There is a simple alternative – remove the stupid restrictions on H1B visas. The restriction that if you loose/quit your job that you have to be out of the country in 60 days is bad for three reasons.

The first reason is that the employer knows his worker is dependent on him – he can thus get away with a lower salary, etc... The second reason it is bad is that you cannot quit and start a start-up – if you do not have a sponsoring company you must be out of the country in 60 days.

The third reason is that it deters people from going to the USA. I really want to go to California next year – but with that Visa system it is not going to happen (probably going to London). Compare the US system and the UK's General Highly skilled Visas (e.g. http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system/tier...) – it is really no fuss and valid for a time period.

There are already more than 5 million Mexicans in the US. Would 1 million engineers and scientists really be a bad thing?

[iamelgringo]

Downvote for the "Mexicans" reference. Perhaps saying, "There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. Would 1 million engineers and scientists be a bad thing?"

And, 1 million engineers and scientists would depress salaries in the US. That's a plus for founders, but a minus for engineers and scientists trying to find work.

I'm almost always on the side of greater immigration into this country, but I can see the downside of it as well.

[catz]

> Downvote for the "Mexicans" reference. Perhaps saying, "There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. Would 1 million engineers and scientists be a bad thing?"

Saying there are over 5 million Mexicans in the USA is a completely factual statement. It is true that you have much higher immigration (both legal and illegal) from neighbouring countries than parts of the rest of the world.

> And, 1 million engineers and scientists would depress salaries in the US.

Maybe. But either companies move to where the engineers are (outsourcing, new companies) or the engineers move to where the companies are. In the latter case they still pay tax for the US.

And American engineers will have a depressed salary in any case.

[iamelgringo]

It's actually 13 million Mexicans: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/15/Study-13M-Mexican-nat...

[andreyf]

This might be a strictly American "politically correct" interpretation, but I think your last sentence assumes that being Mexican and being an engineer is exclusive, which it obviously isn't.

[catz]

> but I think your last sentence assumes that being Mexican and being an engineer is exclusive, which it obviously isn't.

No it doesn't. I am sure that there are Mexicans from the whole spectrum of the population (doctors, engineers, manual labourers, etc...).

With highly skilled visas you can assure that you only get immigrants from a certain section of the population (Engineers).

[endtime]

How are H1B visas an alternative? I don't see any reason to believe that if H1Bs were less restrictive then we'd see H1B holders leaving their jobs to create startups. You obviously have personal feelings about the H1B, and I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with you, but it really has nothing to do with the idea of a founder's visa.

Comments of the form "the article is loosely related to one of my pet issues, so I'm going to say my schpiel" are not interesting.

For what it's worth, I think the founder's visa is a great idea. I know this sounds corny, but it's an extremely American (entrepreneurial, meritocratic) idea.

[catz]

> How are H1B visas an alternative? I don't see any reason to believe that if H1Bs were less restrictive then we'd see H1B holders leaving their jobs to create start-ups.

A lot of people start startups while they are working. This simply makes sense, because getting capital for a start-up is fairly difficult.

A lot of people also try a startup and if it fails, re-enter the job market (after 6 months for example) and start again when they get a new idea.

A general visa that would allow a person to move from employment to starting his own company back to employment would be much more useful than just allowing people to either work or only have a founder's visa.

Also, how many start-ups where founded when a group of employees broke away from an employer and started their own thing? Neither a founders visa or H1B would make provision for such a situation.

> Comments of the form "the article is loosely related to one of my pet issues, so I'm going to say my schpiel" are not interesting.

That may be true. But I see little use in commenting on something that is not relation to any issue that I am interested in. If the comment is out of line then that is what the moderation is for (either flag it or downmod it then).

[endtime]

>That may be true. But I see little use in commenting on something that is not relation to any issue that I am interested in.

"If you don't have anything interesting to say, don't say anything."

[catz]

Whether or not you feel what I said was interesting or relevant is completely up to you.

I will just mention that for the parent post, at least 20 people found it interesting or to the point (since it has a moderation of 21).

In any case, it is still more on topic point (emigration visas) than your discussion about my post.

EDIT: I find your posts a little bit harsh. Why not tone it down to at least leave a semblance of civility? (This is after all not Digg or Reddit).

[endtime]

Well, part of the reason for my tone is that I very much don't want this to become reddit, and one of the things that characterizes reddit is that the best quality comments are often halfway down the page because so many people upvote irrelevant rants and one-line jokes.

[mooted]

On the other hand, if the restrictions doesnt exists: (1),(2)Employees can quit anytime for a better paid offer , effectively nullifying the value of efforts and investments the original employer made on the individual. (3)Huge inflow of foreigners will hurt US citizens.

If a foreigner is ready to accept a job with a company offering him a lower salary,it depicts that just he want to get into US somehow.

[jibiki]

> Employees can quit anytime for a better paid offer , effectively nullifying the value of efforts and investments the original employer made on the individual.

I don't get your point, are you saying this is a bad thing?