Is H1B redefining the modern world of work and economic immigration?

Who is H1B for?

H1B is typically for the employer by the employer. Filing lottery through endless renewal petitions are a matter of authority and responsibility of the employer. This upholds the purpose of economic immigration to the USA? Hardly, because it is lottery based, there is no one particular skill to qualify for and the employer is actually taking chances on the employee, no, on the system to get an employee on boarded. If you think as an employer, then it is a painful process. However, Organizations are organisms without any emotions, they are set of rules and practices, that have no feelings, it is designed such that, yes you as an employee will not feel bad.

Human in the Loop

Whenever you are an employee of the USCIS, immigration law firm, or the petitioning company’s mobility and immigration employee, or the actual beneficiary employee of the petition. There should be absolutely no emotion. This system protects your emotion in such a way. And many countries have same or similar systems of work visa with intake limits and number of work visa that could be offered. It has become a lottery in the USA, because of the demand increase and supply constraint. Nevertheless, not to worry too much about the system is what the system claims.

Take any movie with a legal background, the winning element is adding emotion to the trial. However, the trial has to be impartial and without emotion. The law does not have a big heart. And probably the employees associated with any law on either the receiving or the giving side are not true humans with emotions. It may rather be substituted with an automated system of jump a traffic red light and get a ticket, park in no parking zone and you get a fine and so on.

When you put humans behind anything there is never no emotions. Hence, we exist as social but animals.

My first interaction with a non Indian in the USA was with a university employee. He asked ” How is it going?” I started answering.. but he was gone a mile already. So that is it. All these so called small talk or talk beginners are useless fillers, have no emotions.

Later the question “How is it going?” got a canned reply of “Great”. Then H1B life as a Bachelor made it greater. Until marriage.

My initial reaction to H1B

Once the H1B got approved, I asked the company for sponsoring Green Card. My H1B batch-mate was surprised that I dared to ask within a short span of less than one year since H1B kicked in October 2018. Luckily we three were put together to be filed together for the green card as well. There comes the PERM. Though it is made to sound like permanent. It is not permanent.

It is a long process of applying to Department of Labor for the prevailing wage, as if they did not know the wage in the market, they work on it for 6-7 months and then with that number in mind a PERM is filed, as if we never worked in the company before. And then a recruitment happens, as if we never got recruited in the company and then hiring happens, where you emerge as the solo candidate who won the job, to which there is no American who qualified and then wait for the DOL to approve PERM, already 1 year passed by this time looking at the processing time, and then with that file the Petition for Immigrant Worker I-140 under employment based green card category, which has a country of birth based quota. No country of birth could exceed 7% of the available visa in a year. So until Green Card petition is approved you get to continue on H1B.

Summary of F1 to H1B to Green Card process

So the story so far is wait for OPT-EAD.

• With OPT – EAD, work with employer who files H1B. Max limit 3years with STEM OPT Extension.
• With H1B, work with employer to file PERM, I-140. Max limit 6 years on the H1B visa.
• And then with I-140 never apply for Green Card, because no Green Card is available for people who were born in my country of birth.
• With Approved I-140 and 6 months of work. I -140 cannot be revoked, so H1B can be extended endlessly until Green Card is available.
• Then keep watching the priority date in visa bulletin. But that green light is forever elusive.

Great Reference for the process is given by Raghuram’s blog.

With all this information, for an Indian student starting at F1 and reaching for I140 need a minimum of getting H1B in first lottery pick after 1 year of OPT(1), H1B(1), I140 (2.5 ) a sum of 4.5 years, minimum. At max? OPT-STEM-OPT (3), H1B (4), I140 (2.5) gives 9.5 years. Then it is a forever cycle of renewing H1B visa for every 3 years. Like any subscription model, an immigration law firm could easily survive their lifetime with this kind of work cycle and companies pay a premium.

Especially, for the US population there are not enough STEM candidates. There are not enough human beings for non STEM tasks as well. USA is as big as china with less than 1/4th population. So they need people to fill various jobs. STEM jobs just happens to be one of them. There are several visa categories in the USA and no one knows it in its entirety. The list of categories have gone beyond humanly comprehensively and most of the paperwork needs a team, a small village to gather and complete every petition. Of course, it generates jobs and keeps the money circulating. The economy benefits when there are more people who are earning and paying taxes. And all legal immigrants are bound by IRS to file tax correctly, with implications and penalty for failure on the legal status.

Indirectly, humans eat, drink, sleep and keep the economy rolling. USA forces employees to have their own car and that is yet another subset of circular economy. You need car to get to work, to earn money, to fill petrol (American gas) in the car and then maintain registration, driver’s license and renew with state and emissions inspection and continue to go to work to keep this economic cycle running. For a detailed breakdown of the impact of H1B on USA’s economy see this.