The one thing that's really huge in this proposition is that it would allow spouses of H1B visa holders to work in the US. The fact they cannot do it is a particularly cruel aspect of the current immigration system in the US.<p>We moved to the Bay Area when I got a job at Google a year and a couple of months ago. We really like it in California: my job is super interesting, the weather is nice, and the people are amazing. I cannot imagine any place in the world where I could have a bigger impact being a programmer. However, going back to Europe is a topic of our everyday conversations. Why?<p>My wife is one of the smartest people I know. She is the webdesigner you would love to work with (you know, those who can actually code their stuff in a way that works with all browsers, use source control, and are not afraid of using the command line). She worked as a project manager and her team loved her. She has interesting things to say about startups, business models, and Goedel's theorem. She used to have a career back in Europe, but in the US she's almost a non-person. She can live here, yes, she can drive a car, but she doesn't even have her own SSN. She cannot do any productive work, and getting an H1 visa if you are not a software engineer is extremely hard (we had this conversation with a couple of immigration lawyers).<p>I have my dream job, but at the same time I cannot help the feeling that I am ruining my wife's life.
Well, while a step in the right direction, it definitely does not answer most serious questions. The points that stand out for me:<p>* High bureaucracy levels while dealing with it, which means cost, which means most small companies won't do it.<p>* You can't just quit your job and live in the US for a while, while looking for another one (or not). IT salaries make it absolutely possible to take a year off if you feel like it.<p>* No cleaning of the path to greencard. It's possible, especially when you come from a country with a large number of applicants, like India, that you won't receive a greencard before your second visa expires and you have to go back "home" for a year.<p>* Just like above, the limit of 2 applications.<p>Overall a very mellow step, which does not make me any more inclined to come and work in the states. Greetings from the beautiful city of Cape Town, where immigration procedures took me a few days and 60 euros.<p>Cheers,
fijal
Allow me to ruin my karma...<p>Maybe we could focus on retraining non-technical people to fill tech jobs. Or people with outdated skills, and clamp down on age discrimination. There's a lack of programmers and an abundance of food-service/sales workers. We should re-work high school in the US to focus on vocational work, such as programming or other skills such as industrial electrical work. And as we've just renewed unemployment benefits, doesn't this give government leverage to force people to learn things?<p>We tell America that with new automation and technology comes the need to educate yourselves for the new jobs. Now we're going to add unlimited temporary workers to compete for these new jobs?<p>But that's not the quick fix corporate America is lobbying for. They want masters/php grads to come in and be essentially locked in to working for them for at best an average salary. If we refuse to educate our public in useful skills, then I'll take unlimited H1Bs, as I'd rather have a vibrant work force in our country than a scattered remote one and see innovation and taxes go elsewhere.<p>Granted, I'm all for comprehensive immigration reform. Let's do it comprehensively and let in a steady stream of people to fill all levels and variety of jobs. Let's let people live the American Dream and let them choose jobs or quit jobs or strike out on their own. That's what we're not giving H1B holders. And that's the competition we're giving ourselves.
Contrary to popular belief, H1B is not about money. It is more about power and control. Businesses want to be able to bill someone out at 300 or 400 dollars per hour and know the person can't quit or start their own business. Whether or not that person is paid 25, 50, or 75 per hour is not as important as keeping that person working long hours for the company for years.
This isn't "comprehensive" if it is "high-skill".<p>Comprehensive is DC code for "includes illegals currently in the US, low-skill immigrants from central/south america, etc." High skill is in the "etc." that everyone supports, but which was being held hostage to deal with the politically-contentious other groups (which are 100x the size)
+ wife those on H1B can work: currently regulations successful discouraged many europeans and let to abuses in other countries: <a href="http://sepiamutiny.com/blog/2004/10/20/dangers_of_the/" rel="nofollow">http://sepiamutiny.com/blog/2004/10/20/dangers_of_the/</a><p>+ cap increase for H1B<p>+ easier green cards for US STEM students<p>- easier for established companies, not startups and smaller ones<p>- still fails for many of this founders:
<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/10/startup-act-2-0-great-for-foreign-graduate-students-but-not-foreign-tech-entrepreneurs/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/10/startup-act-2-0-great-for-f...</a>
While this is a step, it's in the wrong direction.<p>Companies should focus on finding quality US personnel first.<p>Let's look at how the process works. A company advertises, in this case I chose to use Monster and looked for "SQL 2012" and found a company that's looking for someone with 5 years experience using SQL Server 2008. That "requirement" is impossible, so HR and management will bypass all applicants since they're "not qualified". The next company down wanted 2 years of SQL Server 2012. Again, an impossibility.<p>The companies will whine to politicians that they can't find anyone that meets their requirements. The politicians will do some grandstanding about how quality tech personnel are scarce and next will be the flood of personnel driving down salaries even worse than they already are. Developer salaries have been stagnant since the dotcom bust 10 years ago.<p>The best solution is eliminate H1B and utilize the people who are unemployed.