Otter's Journal: Auctioning H1-Bs?

Engineering Science makes an interesting proposal: in light of Google's call for more H1-Bs, why not hold an auction for the visas? Companies that really need a high-value employee who can't be matched by a US counterpart can pay for that value, while saving a few dollars or using H1-Bs for training would no longer be profitable.

No

[bethanie]

Immigration should not be a profit center for the government. Fees for various visas and other paperwork should cover the cost of processing said documents, and nothing more. If any extra money is to be paid for recruiting employees, it should go to the EMPLOYEE... NOT the government. Otherwise, our national borders are just a means of demanding ransom from the drivers of our [national AND international] economy -- and that's just fucking stupid.

....Bethanie....

Good and bad

[G4from128k]

If the intention is to only allow immigrants that offer unique irreplaceable value (versus just cheaper warm bodies), then the auction makes sense. Companies that truly can't find skilled workers in the U.S. would pay to import. Those just looking to cut costs would not. Also, some skills-starved companies would invest in more training rather than source cheap overseas labor.

The unintended side effect would be a decimation of the agricultural worker population -- can Larry's Lettuce Patch compete with G

Re:

[Otter]

The unintended side effect would be a decimation of the agricultural worker population -- can Larry's Lettuce Patch compete with Google for H1B slots?

Those are different slots, though, aren't they? (H2-A, I think?) Certainly they're based on a completely different economic justification.

I'm bearish on Google stock, but, yeah, it's likely to outperform lettuce for the foreseeable future.

Absolutely

[Red Warrior]

H1Bs are, in theory, only for skills that cannot be satisfied by the native population.
Make them harder to get/give out, and we'll see whether these companies go out of business, or find US citizens who can do the jobs.

I'm willing to bet that *poof!* they will suddenly find US citizens who can fill those jobs for a few dollars more.

In the opposite direction

[Degrees]

We had a guy working for us on a H1-B visa. His time ran out and he had to go back to India. (IIRC, what really happened was that his application for citizenship got delayed (lost), so he wasn't able to remain here). Getting back on topic, his comment to us was that with enough money, a person can buy their way into citizenship. It takes about $500,000. (His dad had only $300,000 in cash, which was frustrating to the family). The applicant deposits the money into a U.S. bank, and puts on his citizenship app