I know many people on the H-1B and this is the problems that I see personally:
* if you are not married, you have to get married or break up (I personally decided to get married, even though I do not believe in marriage)
* your spouse cannot work. Many of my friends have had their spouse not working for years, and going crazy.
* they cannot change job easily, they can't even quit if they're burning out to take some rest time, some of my friends feel like they are basically slaves of their current company
* if they get fired (which happened to one of my friend who works at Uber a few days ago) then their life goes to hell
* they are hard to come by (I applied twice and didn't get it, had to leave the US and wait for a year and a half for a greencard to be able to come back)
I think that has not been true in a while.
> * they cannot change job easily, they can't even quit if they're burning out to take some rest time, some of my friends feel like they are basically slaves of their current company
That is not necessarily true either. I have worked with plenty of H-1B workers who easily switched jobs. From what they told me their new employer takes care of all paperwork.
I know plenty of people that stick to a sub-optimal job out of fear of being stuck out of the US.
Changing jobs is very stressful on an H1B visa.
Sure, you can get a lawyer to write a demand letter why you’re hoping to not get deported before you find another job. And of course risk a reference from that job or worse. But the whole system is designed to create indentured servitude to corporations for foreign workers. Just put everyone who graduates with an advanced degree on a greencard and call it good already.
> I think that has not been true in a while.
It is temporarily not true (since an Obama Administration rule change in 2015), but the change is being fought in court (the case was remanded a few months ago from a panel of the DC appeals court back to a lower federal court, after they found the plaintiffs to have standing; I’m not sure what the current status is).
The Trump Administration has stated multiple times that it intends to roll the rule back. I’m not sure what the status of that is either; it’s not clear if they were just too disorganized to get around to it in 3 years, or if their stated intentions were political posturing and they never intended to follow up, or if they changed their mind, or ...
The people affected have been able to work for a few years but I’m sure the possibility of losing that right on short notice still causes some stress.
I’m not an expert but if you are curious about the details the keyword is “H-4 EAD”.
* The bill would restore Congress’s original intent for the H-1B and L-1 visa programs.
* The bill requires employers to make a good faith effort to recruit and hire American workers before bringing in foreign workers and prohibits employers from replacing American workers with H-1B and L-1 workers or giving preference to H-1B visa holders when they are filling open positions. It modifies existing H-1B wage requirements, and for the first time establishes wage requirements for L-1 workers. This will prevent employers from using the H-1B and L-1 programs as sources of cheap labor and encourage the hiring of qualified American workers.
* The bill prohibits employers from outsourcing H-1B and L-1 visa holders to other sites unless the employer obtains a waiver which is available only in limited circumstances when the rights of American workers are protected.
* The bill gives more authority to the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor to investigate fraud and abuse in the H-1B and L-1 programs. It requires the two departments to audit employers and share information so that visa petitions are more effectively scrutinized.
* The bill would crack down on outsourcing companies by prohibiting companies from hiring H-1B employees if they employ more than 50 people and more than 50 percent of their employees are H1B and L-1 visa holders.
* The bill creates a new H-1B visa allocation system that gives top priority to workers who have earned advanced science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) degrees from U.S. institutions.
* The bill increases penalties on those who violate the law, and provides visa holders with a list of rights before they enter the U.S. so that they are better protected against mistreatment or underpayment of wages.