H1Bs are transferrable. I did it at least twice.

Transfers are cap-exempt, but the new employer still needs to file LCA and hence do the prevailing wage determination. You're effectively applying for a new H-1B for the balance of the time remaining on the first one, exempt from the cap. [1]

[1] https://flag.dol.gov/programs/LCA

The foreigners with special skills for which it's really hard to hire someone in the US, even for a lot of money. Maybe if you agree to pay $1M / mo, you'll have them leave their current jobs and flock to you, but will your business still stay profitable?

Hence the idea of prevailing wage, and paying somehow above that.

This of course creates an avenue to game the system, because prevailing wage for basically any work in SF or NYC is likely higher than on average over the entire US. You can undercut local markets a bit by bringing in smart people from abroad, and paying them less than they would make in SF or NYC if hired as locals, but more that the country-wide average.

(Smart, hard-working, educated people from underprivileged places get a chance of having a better life while working to improve the US economy! What's not to like?)

I'm a little confused with your logic here. You're saying that businesses are looking for these allegedly rare skill sets, which do exist in the US but only at excessively high wages (your "$1M / mo" hypothetical/exaggeration). So the solution is to bring in H1Bs and pay them less (or what's affordable for the company).

How does this not, by definition, depress what would otherwise be the prevailing wage for these "rare" skill sets in the US?

> Smart, hard-working, educated people from underprivileged places get a chance of having a better life while working to improve the US economy! What's not to like?

Lots of things if people thought about it for more than 10 seconds. Why do you think the US has such uniquely bad work life balance even in white collar sectors? And those educated people are in the top 1-2% of their home countries. What’s it going to your country to import a bunch of foreign elites with chips on their shoulder?

If what you care about is maximizing profits for Fortune 500 companies, then yeah, maybe it’s a good thing.

In my experience, the special skills that many foreigners tend to have that many Americans do not is the ability to tolerate absolute and utter bullshit. I'm not kidding.

I am not satisfied with my job/employer -- bad environment, bad culture, etc.. I have coworkers from all over. Of the non-US native ones that I interact with, they all absolutely love our job and/or employer.

I've asked them about it, and I generally get the sense that I could not survive in the conditions from which they originally came -- both at work and outside of work.

If a dumb drone like me could figure that out, then I am sure plenty of employers found out long before me.

> In my experience, the special skills that many foreigners tend to have that many Americans do not is the ability to tolerate absolute and utter bullshit. I'm not kidding.

This actually made me giggle a little bit and while I have seen this, what I've seen more of is that a company hiring internally has offshore employees who have a vast amount of company specific info and experience that the company simply can't hire for. That only applies to internal transfers of course but it's what I see the most of.

Internal transfers that have such knowledge don't go on H-1B though, but L-1B

Ah okay, I haven't done the process myself so mixed it up! Good to know though !

It's how big tech with multinational offices manages to handle lack of enough H-1B, among other things.

You hire someone in local office for a year, then arrange L-1B visa which has no numerical issuance limits - but requires at least one year of previous employment with the company sponsoring the visa.

There's also L-1A which IIRC doesn't require time in company but is limited only to upper management in practice.

L-1A also requires the employee to have worked at the foreign subsidiary of the US company for at least 12 consecutive months.

> Of the non-US native ones that I interact with, they all absolutely love our job and/or employer. I've asked them about it, and I generally get the sense that I could not survive in the conditions from which they originally came -- both at work and outside of work

My dad’s an H1. (Before they created H1B in 1990.) He grew up in a village in Bangladesh. One out of five kids died by the age of five. He came in as a skilled worker and was an elite within our country—but that meant his parents owned land in a third world village and he went to school (but it had no walls). Both my parents sound like Breitbart when Gen Z or work from home or work life balance comes up. (And they’re Democrats!) My dad’s bullish on China “because they know how to work hard like Americans used to.”

And so do I! I didn’t grow up in a village, but I grew up with my dad, who made clear that there’s 16 work-hours in a day. I’m an absolute company man. So is my brother, who was born here. So is his wife, who was born here but whose family fled communism in China. My kids are growing up hearing my dad talk about taking a boat to school during monsoon season.

At some point the memory will fade. Maybe my grandkids. But in the meantime, how many more H1Bs will they have brought over?

This comment made me realize sometimes I’m such an entitled shit. Lately I’d been feeling legitimately depressed that I seem to have hit a career plateau, despite that plateau occurring at a very generous salary.

You shouldn’t feel bad for having higher expectations.

Experienced coders don’t magically appear because salaries go up.

They actually do?

Low supply should mean that it's not available unless wages are a lot more above market. Which lives well with highest pay first.