It's not as hard to get an H1B as it has been, because the yearly quota isn't being used up. You still have to be paid market rate, go throuh the labor certification, pay legal and INS fees, etc.
The number one reason why I'm not getting considered for positions in the US is because I have to get a visa. I don't think I would have any problems qualifying, but the hassle for the employer seems too much. That's what they need to change.
I'm not sure about that. The H1B quota for FY 2010/2011 was exhausted sometime in Feb this year I think. Because of this, my application was pushed to FY 2011/2012, so I can only start work in Oct. So I think the quota is being used up. Or at least it was, this year.
Yes, my petition missed the 2011 cap by two days (think the cap was reached on January 27), so as for the parent poster my start date was pushed to October.
The number of people applying for the H1B for the last two years is LESS than the number of H1-B vacancies available.
People just dont want to come to the US anymore at least not skilled workers from India and China like they used to.
What I see from where I sit in the industry is that H-1B pay is not centered about a mean, it's really a very extreme bi-modal distribution. You have your Infosyses, bringing in ultra-cheap IT labor at a pittance, and you have your Googles and Facebooks, bringing in very highly paid engineers that are earning the prevailing wage (very, very high prevailing wage) for their field.
In other words, "H-1Bs" are not a singular group and cannot be analyzed as such. A large part of the H-1B program does address a very critical labor shortage in this industry, the other part... not as much.
I'd invite Dr. Matloff to actually hang around our industry for some time before laying a claim like: "There is no tech labor shortage." Has he been in the hiring chair recently? Because oh dear God.
It seems also interesting that the only source he actually bothers to cite is the confession of a single former H-1B employer, with the nasty implication that everyone is like Mr. Wadhwa.
I'll just say it: this is xenophobic, anti-immigrant, protectionist bullshit.
Thanks for this post, as a H1B on my to SV it's frustrating to be lumped together with "lowest bid" coders. My employer specifically reached out in a recruiting campaign in Europe because, quote "we've interviewed every possible and willing candidate in the valley". If you look at the money they throw at my transfer it's easy to conclude that they'd rather hire local if it was possible.
This can't be true because usually the applications would be oversubscribed within one day of the new fiscal year. One day! I remember that clearly because it was such a big crapshoot whether you'd get granted a h1b or not.
That means that the US is betting it's future on people already in the US. Surely they need to continue to attract the best people from all over the world?
