A scheme to lower engineers’ wages

The H1B visa system needs to be abolished. I am not worried about foreigners or Americans competing for my job, if they have the skill set they are welcome to it. Being an American is not a technological achievement and should count for nothing when hiring a tech worker. All I am seeing in the original article is that dumb foreigners who cheat in school are willing to work for less money so let's keep them out. Maybe foreigners are willing to work for less because they don't have crippling student debt? or maybe their degree programs are more concerned about maximizing the profit for the University than creating industry-ready engineers? Maybe the system is geared so heavily towards stifling innovation that a country like Israel is the leader in venture-capital investment per person ($140 vs. $70 in the US. And it is no surprise that they spend 4.5% of GDP on R&D vs. the 2.2% of the US) Limiting the number of people who are coming here to work might be stupid, immoral and careless(no one cares about that) but the worst offence in this case is that it is ineffective. This policy has been around for a long time and it hasn't worked for us yet.

ITT there are apparently two sides: 1) the heartless capitalists who want to abuse labor and 2) the nativist nationalists who want special treatment because of where they were born.

I am torn on this issue.

To give my personal background, I came to the US in 2004 on H1B visa through Infosys.

Working in NY/NJ area, I have seen it first hand how H1B can indeed lower wages. Here's how. The H1B visa belongs to an Employer and not the Employee. This means that losing a job on H1B could have dire consequences if you can't line up a job right away. This leads to a situation where a person on H1B visa avoids jobs where there is a risk of getting laid off. This leads to tons of 'body shops' setup by Indian/Asian folks who will sponsor your visa and then you go do 'hourly consulting' for a multinational firm. (See this page: http://techjobs.sulekha.com/h1b-jobs-usa) The body shops will charge at least 20% for this benefit, 30% in average case and even 50% if the employee is not smart enough. The goal of these body shops is to bring in more folks from India where someone will happily take up job for 60k to come and work in NY/NJ. The guy in India is thinking: 60k USD = ~3,785,000 INR. This is a huge amount which they will not be able to get in India. (In Bangalore, you can expect to get paid around 700,000 on average). However, most of the time, they don't factor in the cost of living and it means that their actual savings are much closer to what they make it in India. By the time they figure all this out and want to make a move, they understand the visa restrictions and realize that they are stuck till they get green card.

To share my personal story, when I first came in 2004, I was making 60k in NJ. Kept making around the same amount for the next 3 years. Then I became friends with a person who worked as recruiter for COMSYS (now acquired by ManpowerGroup) (For those who don't know, it's one of the bigger staffing firms in NY). She gave me the inside detail on how much companies are paying, how much these staffing companies are keeping and how to keep more share of the money. She also told me that if I want to make real money, I should consult for Investment banks. Based on this, I started improving my technical knowledge, finance knowledge and interviewing skills. I started making more and more money. I got green card last year and I am now making over 200k. I have used this knowledge to help my friends but I have seen it first hand how folks are not able to get a better paying full time job due to visa restrictions. This ultimately leads to wage suppression.

Summary: If you think that H1B abuse is not rampant, you are living under the rock.

So, on one hand, I want H1B visa program so that folks like me can come to this great country and make good money. On the other hand, I am fully aware that businesses are strictly using as a way to lower wages. There are very few H1B jobs where the worker is doing a 'highly specialized job' that a local American can not do.

I really don't know what the answer is. One idea I do like is to do the auction of the H1B visas. That way employer who have the money and who really need highly specialized work done can hire the person from any part of the world. I think it's fair that in a capitalistic system, you let the money decide who should get the opportunity to immigrate. (The current lottery system means that a company may not be able to hire a candidate if they get unlucky.) The only dilemma is that if it worked this way from beginning, I would have never made it to the US.

But it's not immigration. H-1B visas are nonimmigrant guest worker visas, with dual intent. That just means H-1B guest workers are allowed to apply for permanent residency with an I-140 while working in the US.

It doesn't take a rocket senator to figure out that if people are entering on an H-1B and then applying for a green card at the earliest opportunity, it is because the US isn't issuing nearly enough immigrant visas.

Am I the only one that thinks America should be encouraging smart people with valuable skills to stay as long as they like, without sponsorship? I don't think I am.

I also think that the vast numbers of foreign students attending American universities is a great opportunity. Why not slide up to graduates of certain degree programs and say, "Hey, buddy, you like America? Since you have a degree in X, I could convert that student visa to an immigrant worker visa right now, if you want. Actually, how about I do it anyway, and if you really don't want it, just tell me to stop? Hey! Wait! Where are you going? Do you want to live under your parents' thumbs? If you get on that plane now, you will regret it! Our taxes are really very reasonable! Come baaaaaack!"

As professionals, software engineers should be more supportive of each other regardless of their backgrounds. America has profited from some of the best international talent. That talent deserves to receive their fair share of rewards. That is the American spirit. Not unfettered self-centered greed. On the other hand, increasing the number of H1bs from the current number is pure corporate greed.

My opinion is that they should just speed up the green card process instead of increasing H1b numbers. A lot of hard working and honest immigrants keep waiting in their current jobs for their green card to get approved. In some cases, it takes 6-10 years to get a green card.

If these folks get some job mobility without jeopardizing their green card status, there will suddenly be enough mobile engineers and wages will rise very fast.