So I've been in the US on a H1B visa for more than 3 years now, and I believe some of the comments in here are misleaded.
First myth: H1B get lower salaries. For knowing a decent number of people with H1B, me included, I can say that's not the case. All of the people with H1B I know are paid more than 100k/year (some WAY more than that) at full-time positions with good health care and, for the people who work in startups, decent equity.
True it may be that the first job you get as an H1B might be paid less, I was at 60k when I started, but on my second job almost doubled my salary, and still got a significant increase in my second change.
Second myth: You cannot change jobs with an H1B. This is completely wrong. I have changed job twice in the past 3 years, and it's really easy. You just need to work with your new employer to get a new form which might take 2 to 3 weeks, but the process is pretty straight-forward, and even startups can do this easily without requiring armies of lawyers.
Of course I can't say that this is true for every single H1B employee out there, but from my experience I haven't seen much difference with US citizens/permanent residents, and would even go so far as saying that the most competent people I've had the chance to work with were on H1B visas.
Some people need to stop and learn before saying that "We need H1-B visas because there is a shortage of computer programmers living in the United States who will work for $64,000 a year when the average salary of all programmers is $94,000"...
> I was at 60k when I started, but on my second job almost doubled my salary, and still got a significant increase in my second change.
This is a clear indication that your skill set is in high demand.
> "We need H1-B visas because there is a shortage of computer programmers living in the United States who will work for $64,000 a year when the average salary of all programmers is $94,000"...
Doesn't your previous comment actually confirm this statement?
You took a HIB job paying a wage that did not accurately reflect your skill level and your ability to move up in wage scale so easily is a clear indication of that fact.
First myth: H1B get lower salaries. For knowing a decent number of people with H1B, me included, I can say that's not the case. All of the people with H1B I know are paid more than 100k/year (some WAY more than that) at full-time positions with good health care and, for the people who work in startups, decent equity.
True it may be that the first job you get as an H1B might be paid less, I was at 60k when I started, but on my second job almost doubled my salary, and still got a significant increase in my second change.
Second myth: You cannot change jobs with an H1B. This is completely wrong. I have changed job twice in the past 3 years, and it's really easy. You just need to work with your new employer to get a new form which might take 2 to 3 weeks, but the process is pretty straight-forward, and even startups can do this easily without requiring armies of lawyers.
Of course I can't say that this is true for every single H1B employee out there, but from my experience I haven't seen much difference with US citizens/permanent residents, and would even go so far as saying that the most competent people I've had the chance to work with were on H1B visas.
Some people need to stop and learn before saying that "We need H1-B visas because there is a shortage of computer programmers living in the United States who will work for $64,000 a year when the average salary of all programmers is $94,000"...