India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

This is a welcome change in my opinion. H1B workers were exploited by the Indian body shops as well as American employers. Raising the minimum wages will prune the bad apples and make H1B a visa system for the truly skilled candidates.

Quirks:

1. Find & shutdown fake employers running fake payrolls to match the increased wages. A search for *consulting.com will bring up many 'one-room' body shops in the US.

2. Stop the lottery process and award visa to truly skilled candidates who can provide proofs for their skills.

3. H1B LCA process should be changed and made similar to the PERM process, so that it will be a true test of the market.

4. Giving preference to Master degree holders is not a good idea, having a Masters degree from an American University is not an indicator for "highly skilled". Most of the students from India obtain these Masters degree just for the purpose of getting an OPT visa to improve their chances of getting selected in the lottery for H1B.

Many of these 'master' degree holders show fake experiences & do 'proxy' interviews to get into companies. These fake experiences are backed up by experience letters from bogus companies setup for this purpose from India. Many of them also provide 'bonus' services like proxy candidate interview services on Skype.

5. Stop 'future GC'. Many body shops in US do this by taking a huge deposit from the candidates for their 'future GC services'.

There are those, employed by the likes of AmaGooFaceSoft / Unicorns or graduating from mid-top tier universities, who will benefit by the proposed changes and who were indeed the "target audience" in mind when H1-B was linked to "getting high skilled immigrants in the US".

Then there are those who are transferred here in bulk by TCS/Wipro/Infosys/TechMahindra, who are paid the minimum H1-B wage possible, who jump from client to client across different states every now and then (true first hand accounts of my close friends) - these people are still mostly happy (cannot generalize though) to have the opportunity to work in the US for a few years and save, considering Indian salaries back home. While the individuals in this category might be getting a better deal, overall they become a pawn in "gaming of H1-B system" by Indian outsourcing companies.

Auctioning H1-B visas based on salary is a step in generally right direction. It may hurt low-paying industries relying on H1-B, but we can assess the impact on them and implement targeted fixes later if needed.