At my company, it's about skills (Score 1)

I don't doubt that it's possible to abuse the system, but it's amazingly shortsighted. My company would be willing to spend *more* if we could get competent people. The value of a single great hire is multiple times their salary, and we know it. It's just hard to find good (not "meets minimum standards", but "good") US candidates, and that's the calibre of people we need. When you look at the pool of qualified candidates for entry-level semicustom ASIC design, it's about 80% foreigners, most of whom will need an H1-B or other visa to work for us. Usually they came to the US to go to grad school, so they are currently on a student visa. I think this also accounts (in my company) for the wage differential - H1-B holders are usually new hires. In 4-6 years they've gotten their green card, gotten married, bought a house, and been promoted at least once. They're becoming Americans, too, or their kids will be. I guess I'd like to hire more US citizens, in theory, but the quality just isn't there.