House votes to end country limits for skilled workers seeking green cards

I'm Canadian and a year ago I left the U.S. for Australia (my wife is Australian) primarily because I did not consider it worth it to stay in a lousy job for at least another two years for the possibility of getting a green card. This vote changes nothing about the logic of my decision (in fact it would likely have made my wait longer because I'm not Indian or Chinese).<p>The primary problem with the U.S. green card system for skilled workers is that you are at the mercy of your employer, and the whole application process restarts if for whatever reason you change employers. This vote does nothing to change that.<p>Even more ironic, now that I am no longer in the U.S. on a work visa, I have more freedom to start a business targeting U.S. customers.

&#62; Still, because there will be no increase in visas issued, there will be losers. Hosin “David” Lee, president of the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association, said the bill would force engineers from South Korea to wait an additional two years in their immigration process to get green cards.<p>Didn't expect that.

A GC grants economic freedom to indentured servants (H1B visa holders is the politically correct term). The longer freedom is denied the more profitable it is for the corporate masters. One of the tricks of this modern day slave trade is to lobby Congress to set a quota (about 30% of the demand) on the number of people who are set free each year. For the groups with the largest numbers of indentured servants, additional quotas are lobbied for. As long as the dollar was strong and life was shit in the third world hells these people came from, this system worked. The corporate masters recognize that the game is now up.<p>The usual argument given for the lack of freedom for H1B visa holders is that the bureaucrats need to ensure that a H1B doesn't cause a job loss for a citizen. A pencil pusher doesn't even know what it takes to make the pencil [1] he is pushing, and yet somehow he can ensure that a citizen doesn't lose a job! The H1B visa is indentured servitude by the back door, plain and simple.<p>Anyone who has given some thought to the idea of protecting jobs knows it is an exercise in futility (For a start, Congress must pass an Amish decree [2]: ban all technology invented since 1830, and declare Thomas Edison as the worst job destroyer [3] the world has ever seen. Also it will have to order the arrest and lock up of all entrepreneurs aka wannabe job killers, which is most HN readers). Therefore, I suggest to do away with all the current H1B bullshit, and adopt a <i>point based immigration system where every qualified applicant is given full economic freedom from day one!</i><p>[1] I, pencil. <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html</a><p>Milton Friedman on "I, pencil" <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8</a><p>I recall Milton Friedman calling the H1B program as just another subsidy for big corporations, but can't locate a reliable source with the full context.<p>[2] Family Guy 10/7 "Amish Guy" (one of those increasingly rare insightful jokes): <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/303946/family-guy-amish-guy#s-p1-so-i0" rel="nofollow">http://www.hulu.com/watch/303946/family-guy-amish-guy#s-p1-s...</a><p>[3] Bastiat's famous "Candlestick makers' petition": <a href="http://bastiat.org/en/petition.html" rel="nofollow">http://bastiat.org/en/petition.html</a><p>Also worth reading in this context is Bastiat "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen": <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html</a> or (for another translation): <a href="http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html" rel="nofollow">http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html</a>

Thumbs down.<p>When will the US realize that it is already far from its peak and that today there are (possibly) better alternatives elsewhere?<p>Get a point based system - now - or watch Chile, China and the rest of the world ROLFStomp you to death.

While I think this is a plus, it's still very depressing for the US. Are American schools really so bad that a country of 300 million can't churn out enough tech/science employees?<p>I'm a freshly minted American (from Canada) and in my 20 person office there is one other American developer (who is also a co-founder).<p>I've lived in Canada and Europe and the US is by far my preferred place to live, I'm not sure how long it will last though there are generations of Americans that lack the proper skills to compete in the modern economy.

Sadly the H1 process is better now than during the dot com era. At the time it was as close as we have come to institutionalized servitude since the 13th Amendment was ratified. I am not saying it is great now, far from it. Rather I get a little nervous any time our Congress starts talking about this.

The article ends with "U.S. employers are prohibited under law from hiring foreign workers unless they show there are not sufficient U.S. workers willing and able to take the jobs."<p>I am fairly sure that is not what the law says though, although I am aware it is often claimed (I suspect falsely) there is such a law.<p>Actual requirements are here. They don't have to show anything, they just have to attest that in their belief the hiring won't "adversely affect" the "working conditions" of american workers "similarly employed", that there is not currently a strike going on when they bring in the new people, and that they have posted conspicuously a notice of intent at their place of business.<p><a href="http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/faqsanswers.cfm#lcarequirements1" rel="nofollow">http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/faqsanswers.cfm#lcare...</a>

To realize how conflicted Indians and Rest Of The World(ROW) are with this bill, have a look at this thread in an immigration forum I used to frequent before I got my g.c. <a href="http://www.trackitt.com/usa-discussion-forums/i485-eb/862139499/eb-3-rowers-please-take-heart/page/last_page" rel="nofollow">http://www.trackitt.com/usa-discussion-forums/i485-eb/862139...</a>

Not to be pedantic, but I would have appreciated the title giving an indication of the House of which country made this vote.

congratulations to everybody on abolishing of one more instance of legal discrimination on ethnic grounds.<p>While it may seem like a zero sum game (as number of visas is still the same) and thus i have no idea how, yet still lets hope that like in other cases of abolished discrimination everybody ultimately wins.

I am trying to understand the implication here. Does this bill mean Indians and Chinese ppl will have to wait 3-4 years only now? Also, I am not sure how its detrimental to Koreans (Some OP here seemed to imply that) ?

Translation: Skilled worker wages to continue their freefall in the US.