H1Bs are not citizens, unlike naturalized immigrants. They are effectively "indentured servants" of the company that sponsored them, and have a gruelling 10-20 yr application process to gain full citizenship.

The fact that you don't know this is exactly what the OP was referring to, since most US natural born citizens don't know about it much.

This is not true for all H1B visa holders. I know many who have obtained their permanent residency after a few years. This is not in the IT field though but medical field.

> I know many who have obtained their permanent residency after a few years.

they are the lucky few. It's a lottery system basically.

H1B terminates in permanent residency, but if you are from certain countries (India, China, Philippines, Mexico), you have to wait for quota to free up (so you are in limbo having an extension of your visa but no PR yet). Still, to say that only “a lucky few” get green cards from an H1B is disingenuous when the vast majority get them within a few years if their renewal ending (after 6 years). The USA still issues 740k green cards a year, after all.

Wait times: https://youtu.be/kRhZdmtw3Wg?t=516

Somebody applying for PR on jan 1st 2009 (from india, for example), is just now able to receive their green card (in 2023). While the majority (~50%) of the wait is around 5-6 years, there's some 20-25% that have 10-19 years of wait times!

And because the quota system is nationality based, the more populous nations tend to have higher wait times.

It isn’t just the more populated countries. It is any country with a lot of emigration to the USA proportional to their own population. So India, China, Philippines, Mexico. China is at 4 years, Mexico and the Philippines are at 1.25 year, India is at 14 years.

I agree it’s dumb and we shouldn’t do it that way, but India is a huge outlier under the current system.