H1Bs have no (EDIT: limited) mobility. They are indentured servants to their sponsor. If you hired citizens, they’d bounce for better pay sooner rather than later. Your company possibly does this because the power imbalance is useful.
This is wrong. I am a consultant for a major consulting firm and I have worked at three different client locations this year. I don't know where this idea of limited mobility comes from. Sure there are some restriction but they aren't as bad you have made them sound like.
There is no difference between working for one company and providing services to three different clients and working for three different companies. The paperwork is the same. Every time they have to file an amendment.
I have changed jobs on this visa as well. It works the same way.
This is categorically incorrect and you should probably spend 5 mins researching before labeling others as indentured servants. H1B holders have 100% mobility, as it takes <15 days to transfer your visa via premium processing.
Only to someone else willing to sponsor them, and timelines can be tight. I might have over exaggerated with “no mobility” but it is frequently shown that their employment status is used to control.
100% of SV companies sponsor H1 visas. And there are no tight timelines or anything. Sometimes you can run into an RFE that can delay your approval. But RFEs for software engineering are fairly rare
If you cannot find another job, and quit your current job, is your visa terminated and you’re possibly deported if on an H1B? And your employer possibly requires you reimburse them for all sponsorship fees?
If you lose your job for any reason, you're accruing unlawful stay from the next day.
Obama admin during their lame duck days introduced a one time grace period(within 3 years) of 60 days. If you lose that new job, you're supposed to leave immediately. However, immigration officers usually waive minor periods of unlawful stay before filing for a transfer, how many days is a matter of your luck.
>And your employer possibly requires you reimburse them for all sponsorship fees
This is pretty illegal and even the shady body shops never do this.
Also the law states that that company has to reimburse the employee for the return tickets.
What does have got to do with mobility ? In fact, it makes you more mobile. As you need to keep improving your skills and not being beholden to a single employer who can lay you off.
As a citizen I’m not getting deported if I can’t find another job in 60 days, and I can walk from my current employer at any time consequence free. Those on a visa are not afforded the same, and that is my point.
This is the case with virtually every immigration system in a developed country. If you don't have the right or some sort of indefinite leave (e.g. PR, green card) to live and work in a place, then your visa affords you the right to stay temporarily for a specific purpose: working, studying, traveling, etc.
The real problem with the H1B system IMO is the uncertainty and inconsistency of everything which leaves those affected in a constant state of concern.
Have you noticed that immigration laws are more strictly enforced than in the past? As a citizen, I would hesitate to ever encourage any immigrant to violate any law or rule regarding immigration. You never know what might happen in the far future.
While it's true that people rarely get forcefully deported for overstaying visa, how is being in the country illegally going to be an option for a programmer? The whole 60 days "grace period" is about transferring visa without leaving the country, other laws still apply. E.g. INA 212(a)(9)(B), which makes one inadmissible for 3 and 10 years after 180 days and and 1 year of being out of status. Since H1B "transfer" is actually a new visa (that's why, in general, you'd have to leave the country, get a new visa stamped and return in a new status but USCIS kindly shortcuts it for people who are just switching jobs), you will be automatically denied it as soon as you have accumulated 180 days out of status and became inadmissible. What's next? Nobody is deporting you, sure, but how do you live? You cannot work legally. You cannot re-enter country if you leave. You probably do not have skills to work jobs usually done by illegals. What do you do?
We have a similar thing here ('skilled worker visa') and I've seen families kicked out of the country because they couldn't find a new sponsor quick enough.
