I keep seeing questions/comments/rants about the GC country caps, such as: 1 - Why not let in high quality people? America needs them 2 - Why the hate against Indians? 3 - Why not a pure merit-based system? 4 - Show me the data on so-called "ICCs flooding the system" Here are some answers to those questions, and a little free advice. 1) Regarding qualifications of H1B visa holders. As noted elsewhere, there is a wide spread in qualifications. I've met and worked with quite a few top-rate SWEs who happen to be Indian. However, as a HM, I've been astonished at how so many "I.T. experts" have landed decent paying jobs, yet are so far below the technical bar. Most don't get past the initial technical screen. If you take them off their familiar flowchart they fall apart. I've seen so many candidates who would add negative value. This is the product of the ICC system. This may be hard to hear for some people, but tech workers from other countries are much less likely to exhibit such a strong bimodal distribution in candidate quality, instead they fall into the more classical Gaussian distribution (the "bell curve"). You see some IIT-level candidates who are great, but you see a lot more ICC-types who will need others to carry their water. I see a lot of bluster and swagger on blind by people who probably consider themselves equal to IIT graduates, but most likely were churned out by ICCs. Even a stint at a FAANG no longer carries the same cachet, considering how their hiring bar has dropped. 2) Regarding the where/why of negative comments. Again, it's a mix. Some people just wanna hate. Others like to troll and to trigger people. You can see this coming from both sides of the debate. For others, they don't want to see the current imperfect immigration system made worse by (for example) removing GC country caps. More on that in (3). 3) A true merit-based system may be an improvement along some dimension, but simply removing GC country caps would not have that effect. See (1). However, more importantly, you need to understand the complex commercial, social and political imperatives before concluding what would be "better" for the U.S. The current system makes it easier for companies to hire and fire and put downward pressure on wages of citizens, because there is a pool of workers who have less flexibility. These companies lobby and fund campaigns, so they pull a lot of strings. These companies don't have a motivation to change the system or convert all those H1Bs to PERM; they offer sponsorship of PERM as a carrot. If you are someone they want to hold onto "forever", then filing I-140 does the trick as you then don't run into the H1B time limit. Provided you stay with the company. See how that works? Socially, countries want to manage their growth and development, and immigration is one aspect of that. I hope we can all agree that each country has the right to control its borders. The GC country caps are an imperfect mechanism to ensure diversity in tech immigration. I have often seen the argument "but, there's a diversity visa and family migration, so that's how the U.S. can get the diversity". This argument overlooks the need for diversity in _tech immigration_. Put bluntly, we don't want Silicon Valley to become Silicon Delhi, and similarly for other tech hubs. U.S. policymakers have long since determined that diversity is a valuable asset, and thus this approach applies at both the macro level (across the whole country) and the micro level (tech). The vaguely astute will note that diversity in tech is being challenged by large numbers of H1Bs from one country, so "they are here already". There are both large and small tech companies which are 90% from one (foreign) country. So, why not let them have their GCs, you ask? This is where we move onto the political dimension. For voting Americans, H1Bs are easier to swallow because they are told they are "temporary work visas for skilled workers". They are non-immigrant visas. Once you start talking about permanent residency, well, that's _permanent_, so it's harder to accept large numbers of people immigrating, for a variety of reasons (some reasonable, some not so much). Further, removing GC country caps will make the situation either worse or much worse for people from every other country but one. It's hard to see how this would be a net positive, politically. Thus, there is no commercial, social or political win for removing GC country caps. The H1B system has political pros and cons, so you can expect minor tweaks there. But for changing the GC process? Not so much. So far all the changes that are put up for debate in Congress have their detractors. So the best you get is politicians periodically playing a dance but once the music stops, nothing has actually changed. 4) Regarding the request for hard data on how many Indians are working for ICCs: this is politics, not science. Emotions, not data tends to win in this sphere. This is sad, but, hey, welcome to the human condition. Finally, I'm not without empathy, particularly for high-quality people who are stuck in the long wait for their GC. Nevertheless, as others have pointed out, immigration is a privilege and not a right. The H1B visa is basically a contract between you and the U.S. government which says that you can come here to work for a limited time after which you agree to return home. The agreement permits you to apply for PERM under certain conditions, but there is no guarantee of approval nor how long the process will take. This contract was entered into willingly by both parties, because both parties evaluated that there was a net win compared to not entering the contract. It is not a good look to come here and demand changes to the system, or to claim how you're smarter than most Americans (and see (1) for why I'm not convinced). Nor is it a good look to say America sucks, or that we need you, or that you're just going to use us for TC, or that you're here and there's nothing we can do about it. See above about politics. Do not poke the bear. You may be anonymous, but bear in mind this forum is public. I'm kind of surprised that the rage jocks over on Fox aren't harvesting some of the comments I've seen. If you want to advocate for change, you need to start with two vexing problems. Firstly, put in country caps for H1Bs. This will stop the bleeding, but you'll likely get pushback from the commercial interests. Here is where you will need data and a convincing argument that they will still have flexibility and access to a pool of workers who have restrictions. Secondly, you need to deal with the backlog of people who came in through ICCs and/or cheated the system (i.e. filing multiple applications). Giving them all GCs is a political non-starter because it will be perceived as rewarding cheaters. This is a very strong theme with Conservatives. It's why the DREAMER act is so hard to pass, even though the kids didn't make the choice to break the rules. I would bet real money that if a bill were introduced that expedited processing of all backlogged GCs applicants and granted "the best" a GC and rejected (revoked I-140 status) the rest (ICCs, cheaters), it would get the support of the Republicans. They could show to Independents that they are not anti-immigration racists, and they can show their base that they don't reward cheaters. #workvisa #h1b #PERM
No incentives to make changes.
Probably take as long as to get a GC as it does to read this post
My GC arrived while I was in the first half of the post.
@iPhnChauda: of the various "too long, can't read" responses, yours is at least witty.
Lol burh I ain't reading all that. Again with this Indian want this Indian want that
Easy to trivialize angst when you aren’t waiting for 150 years for a green card.
And how do you know I'm not? We chose to come here knowing this
Okay, Bye!
So you asked the questions and answered it yourself. Bruh I dint even write such a big answer for my 16 mark question in undergrad Also I have bad internet, but this post took two mins to load
Ain’t gonna happen by whining on Blind! Same thing has been said here on repeat gazillion times. Stop spamming and be grateful and enjoy what you have today!
The biggest carrot of them all is unlimited H1B renewal after approved I-140. This should be completely removed (will make people rethink before buying house, having kids without PERM in US). Also regarding rewarding "the best", there is already a category for that called EB-1 (barely has any backlog for any country).
Eb-1 has backlog of nearly yr for india and china
Love it...Yes, I am from India...I still love it because of facts.
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Bro, I ain't got time to read this text.
You are an idiot.
Okay Larry