Sure, but you can only renew the H1-B once (although you can get extensions). Also, most companies make it a policy to not sponsor you for a green card unless you've put in a year or two, and then once you apply for it they've got you by the balls. So every time you switch companies, you're starting the clock over again.

This is even worse if a company brings you in through some other visa like a TN-1 or L1 (NAFTA and Intracompany transfer visa respectively), and then make you convert to an H1-B before they will sponsor you.

A word of advice: Always use your own immigration attourney and not the one being paid for by your company. If the company is paying for it, the attourney represents the company, and not you.

Your statement " So every time you switch companies, you're starting the clock over again." is incorrect. After your i-140 is cleared and you have received your priority date you can port your i-140 and retain your priority date. Your clock doesn't reset per se.

Good information. "Port your I-140" though?

Oops, good question. You port your priority date not your i-140. The new employer still needs to apply for a new i-140 with your previous PD. This way you don't lose your place in the queue.

Got it, thanks for the reply!

Your comment about TN makes no sense to me. TN is not an immigration-intent visa - if you apply for a green card while on a TN, you have to maintain an address in Canada and prove that you plan to return there. This is very difficult to do, and your green card will almost certainly be rejected and you might be allowed back into the US on the TN. So of course they make you switch to H1B before they'll sponsor your green card.

Not quite. It's certainly possible to enter the US on a TN visa to work with the intention of returning to Canada but also intending on becoming an immigrant at some point in the future. Yes, you do need to maintain ties to Canada when you enter under the TN visa, but there is no requirement that you need to be on an H1 when filing for Adjustment of Status.

Here's a link: http://www.tnvisabulletin.com/tn-visa-adjustment-of-status/

I've seen a couple of people do this, and it allowed them to skip the H1-B hassle. You just have to be honest and show that your intention initially is just to work and return to Canada, but your future intention is to become a permanent resident.

H1B throws all that much more friction into an already unequal relationship, tossing power further to employers.

My preferred reform would be for H1B to be fully unrestricted. If you're going to allow labor into the country, let it compete on fully equal footing with domestic labor. For the reasons Smith articulates and you've either failed to read or are intentionally choosing to ignore, employers already have the upper hand.

A better balance of power would be to repeal anti-unionization laws such as the Orwellian (100th anniversary of his death by the way) doublespeak "right to work" (really: "right to fire, and disrupt organization attempts") and ensure that labor has the same access to collusive collective action and mobility as capital and finance.

real changes that need to be made to h1b are the fact that they need to prioritize the h1bs to foreigners who graduate from US universities. Every year thousands of foreign PhD students graduate and go back to their home country not because they want to but because they could not get an H1B visa mostly because they wont work at the cut rate a person fresh from their home country would work for. These PhDs are trained with public funds because no PhD student pays their own way through school they receive public grants from the schools or other public entities that fund their research and their study. Americans just dont want to enter graduate school in the same numbers that chinese and indians want to and there is no problem with that as long as these people are not being trained just to go back to their country. They use US public funds to be trained so it is beneficial for them to stay in the US and boost the US work force

They do pay for their own education. They pay for it through substandard wages for the work they perform. If their department didn't pay for their tuition then there is no way those students would work for the peanuts they currently do. The net cost/income to the school would be the same but the current arrangement has less transactional friction and makes it very hard for the student to leave once they've started.

That is another element of possible reform, yes. I've watched the changes of the past 14 years with increasing gloom.

I also saw the effects of the liberalization of immigration regulations in the 1960s which saw floods of foreign students, many Indian, Chinese, African, and others, which had profound influences on US academic institutions, the communities around them, and, to be honest, on their home countries, one of which was a brain drain.

On that last point: one of the arguments for increased global wealth and/or population is that it would increase the number of geniuses and intellectuals (along with the rest of the population, one might suppose). That's possibly true, but I strongly suspect that the existing mechanisms for recognizing and promoting talent have already encroached on much of those possible gains. Not all, but a considerable fraction. Which means that the additional benefit would be smaller than a naive estimate would suggest.

Is this true? I am from India and want to do a PhD in US. I thought the work opportunities of PhD gards is good.

It is very variable depending on your subject and research focus.

Teaching opportunities are not good; there are far too many PhDs awarded compared to job openings for university positions.

It may be a benefit for private industry work, but remember that a PhD is primarily about showing you can perform rigorous scientific research, and compared to a Masters, matters less (or not at all) in jobs where research is not the focus.

Read about "post doctoral treadmill" and adjunct gigs, which are like second tier faculty. If you get a phd in some programming related field, like compilers, programming languages, networking, yes, you can work for some valley firms. Yes, you can get green card easy, too. But there is no 'secure' employment like the phd grads of 1970s

I think you're being a bit unrealistic about how people behave. The H1B does give a lot of extra market power to employers because it means the employee has a lot to lose if things go wrong. The threat of being fired carries with it a much greater weight than for regular citizens. Sure, the employee can interview for another job and applying for a transfer is not a difficult process. But, even with another job, the threat of being fired is still a huge pressure. Plus, there's still a risk that the employer will find out they are looking for another job before they find one. Also, employees are unlikely to complain or make requests, since rocking the boat could get them fired and sent home. Most people are not risk takers and are not confident at being able to hide things.

On the E3 visa - and AFAIK the H1B - you can't be out of work for more than 10 days. If you're not confident you can find a similar salary (and have an approved LCA) within that time then that makes the idea of rocking the boat a little more scary.

Well it isn't that easy too if you bring in ethics to the table. This happened with my friend and it was done by a well known "online retail" company. So this guy got an offer from another "search engine" company. He went to his manager in the best interests of his present employer to tell them that he might be leaving in a few weeks and to hire a probable replacement for him. The next thing what this * company does is pass on a request for his H1B to be cancelled immediately. Thankfully , it all worked out for him in the end since his LCA luckily had already been filed by then. But this does bring into the question of how H1B is readily exploited by most employers.

I'm not keen to defend the ridiculous immigration system, but it's possible to avoid this risk in the following way:

You can interview at, accept an offer from, apply for and receive a new LCA for another company all while continuing to work at your existing job. This means you have a new job and (preparatory documents for a new) visa set up before even giving notice and triggering the 10 day period. I know this from personal experience (on the E3).

That remains a constraint a permanent resident wouldn't have to face.

More specifically: in a case where an H1B holder had concern for employer retaliation (say: working for a sketchy, illegal, or otherwise undesirable firm), and was looking for an option to leave (or possibly whistle blow), the fact that not having employment would be grounds for deportation within short order would be a constant threat.

I've known many people over the years who've had varying levels of frustrations with emigration issues. Many spent at least some of that time as undocumented, what some like to call "illegal", including working without authorization. For others it was merely the frustration of waiting while an impenetrable and slow process worked its way, with several having to make unavoidable trips out of country to be able to retain eligibility, often leaving work, friends, family, and homes for extended periods (sometimes with greater levels of support and assistance). And this isn't just a DESI situation: Europeans, Canadians, east Asians, doctors, programmers, healthcare professionals, researchers, nurses.

Most eventually settled in the US, some did not.

All had a considerable toll taken on them.

Oh, of course. I completely agree that the system is horrific. I only wanted to point out how one can minimize their risk if one is forced to interact with it.

No, its not that simple. The new company still has to file a petition for H1B, its just not subject to quota like a first time H1B.

its not hard but no way is it as simple as being a citizen.

Yes, but I don't think they need to wait for it to get approved. It's a formality.

You are wrong. It needs to be approved, which can take months unless you pay extra for "premium processing."

You are wrong. It only needs to be filed. See the underlined word "filing": http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/FactSheet62/whdfs62W....

He isn't wrong. I've had friends that had their processing take much longer and go into a more detailed review which delayed them taking a job. You can also get your "H1B transfer" denied for the new job even if you're doing a similar job to your old gig

+1. H-1B transfer process is much easier than an initial H-1B application process, so moving to a new employer is almost just as easy as if you were a citizen.