I think they should be auctioned off. (Either the company or the individual could pay the final auction price.)

The end result is the same: the most valuable workers are let in. It'd also have a small, but nice benefit: a voluntary revenue stream for the US to spend on whatever it would like (perhaps improved education and training for citizens).

This is one of the things I proposed in a comprehensive high-skilled visa reform proposal: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_yEsHOtzN3yZ3JoYXlTdDh0R0k...

Never really got around finishing it and pushing it out tough, although I am curious to see what the feedback is on it.

I just made a separate post for discussion on it as it goes a little out of scope of the subject of H1-Bs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7550560

I imagine that would not work well for startups, though.

Wouldn't this create the obvious problem of companies artificially increasing comp.? How do you judge that? Seems like its asking for trouble. They already do this a little bit with advanced degrees.

Why is that a problem? They wouldn't bring in H1Bs unless there was an obvious benefit. Your "problem" just reduces the gap between value produced and compensation.

Yes, they would increase the compensation until they were paying the same rate they would need to to hire a citizen (which should already be the case, in theory).

I'm saying the company would try to "artificially" increase the value of compensation without adding anything that really is valued at the price they say it is. Think extra benefits, not increased salary.

That's a fantastic idea! The argument against more visas is that they drive down wages for current residents, and this seems to counteract that.