Here's an idea: auction off H1-B spots based on salary each month. And require the employers to pay that wage annually for at least 4 years. Would keep the H1-Bs for the most valuable candidates, and prevent its abuse as just a way to import cheap labor.
A special pool for startups would be nice too, with less costs/requirements.
I'd personally be in favor of getting rid of the cap entirely or increasing it several times at least, but these might be more realistic reform ideas.
I'd also make the visa attach to the person, not the company. (Ie, the person can change jobs, taking the visa with them, so long as they keep the auction-winning salary level or higher.)
As for:
> A special pool for startups would be nice too, with less costs/requirements.
A special pool for startups would be nice too, with less costs/requirements.
That's a pretty huge caveat, given that the industry has no definition for what a startup even is.
That's the problem with the idea of auctioning off H1Bs, as far as I can see it - startups would suffer. It also turns the H1B visa into a visa for people of extra special talent, and the O1 visa already exists for that.
How would startups suffer? The stated purpose of the H1B visa is to fill in for labour shortages. If there is a labour shortage you would expect costs (salaries) to rise. Basing the visas on salary should help to identify and target areas where labour shortages actually exist. Bringing more workers in should make all workers in the field cheaper than they would be if you didn't bring in the extra workers. This should benefit startups even if they don't hire H1Bs.
Also, the current system isn't great for startups. There are far more H1B applicants than there are visas. There are a few large companies that bring in the majority of H1Bs. These large companies can afford to apply for thousands of H1Bs knowing that only 50% or less will be approved. A startup hiring a handful of people can't afford to put in the application for a handful of people knowing that there is a very real chance that none of them will be approved. Even if they are approved, applications need to be in several months before the visa is issued. How many startups are hiring in March for a position they won't need to fill until October?
To be fair, H1Bs are already only supposed to be used in the case where you can't find an American for the job, which already suggests the visa holder should have some extra special talent because they can do a job no American can.
Supposed to, sure. The majority of them I've worked with have been nothing special, however. They could hack java or perl or whatever with varying degrees of ability, but none of them have been so extraordinary that I can't imagine finding an equivalently good US citizen. It seems like the truly extraordinary talent would be here on an E or O visa anyway, not H1-B.
That's not a general requirement for H-1B. (It is a requirement for EB-2, which is the immigration category for a permanent worker with a degree, versus a temporary H-1B worker).
For "H-1B dependent employers and willful violator employers", there is a requirement to "not displace any similarly employed U.S. worker" and to "recruit U.S. workers for the job for which the alien worker is sought, at wages at least equal to those offered to the H-1B worker". That doesn't apply to normal H-1B applications.
This won't work because there will need to be a floor for the wage, which we already have and has proven to not work.
If we do go to an auction you'll see the floor slowly dropped similar to how the DHS has been expanding the OPT program in secret.
Bottom line is there isn't a STEM shortage, there is no need for H1B or OPT. It's just another form of corporate welfare at the expense of the middle class.
I've heard variations of the theme from others, and it makes total sense to me. It is a dead simple to implement: just rank the requests in descending order of salary, and take the top N. Boom. Done.
Of course, if a company then reduces the salary later, or does some shenanigans, nail them under the "intent to defraud the government" laws.
Some people are suggesting tweaks: make an exception for startups .... take the geo location into account ... etc. etc. That makes this more complicated, and adds more avenues for cheating. Keep it dead simple, and problem solved.
Once again, I second the salary-based auction of H1B visas. But there should be no special pool for startups. What is stopping me from setting up a pseudo-startup-body-shop and misuse these quotas?
1. Salary-based auction,
2. Do not bind employee to employer after 1 year, and
3. GoTo #1.
A special pool for startups would be nice too, with less costs/requirements.
I'd personally be in favor of getting rid of the cap entirely or increasing it several times at least, but these might be more realistic reform ideas.