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What bothers me about the immigration caps is that they appear to be completely arbitrary, as opposed to being in tune with the industries they "serve" or based

What bothers me about the immigration caps is that they appear to be completely arbitrary, as opposed to being in tune with the industries they "serve" or based on some up-to-date metrics. At the very least, they are not rechecked frequently enough. Is it really good for the economy when a company is unable to hire 10 people, because of a "cap" that sounds like it was pulled out of a congressman's left ear? They market these restrictions as trying to "save U.S. jobs", but ironically the caps will kill U.S. jobs when whole companies fail to remain competitive.

lutorm 18y ago
They are indeed arbitrary. Moreover, there is no ranking of the applications; Apart from requiring they meet the minimum requirements they are just processed in the order received. Since the minimum requirement for an H1B is just a bachelor's degree, it seems hard to motivate that all those are essential. It seems the process could be improved by either ranking the applications by merit or instead of a quota establishing a higher minimum standard such that those accepted are really outstanding. Another alternative would be to simply uncap the category for those with US advanced degrees -- that cap truly makes no sense. (I should disclose that I'm biased here -- I was denied an H1B last year because of the quota.) That said, none of that would help the person in the article. The simple change of letting H1B dependents work would fix that.
- furburger 18y ago
  there is no ranking of the applications; Apart from requiring they meet the minimum requirements they are just processed in the order received okay, all H1-B holders who want their applications held up for a year while a reasonable basis for comparison is accumulated, raise their hands
  - potatolicious 18y ago
    Canadian immigration does do ranking in a fairly efficient way: applicants must support documentation on a wide array of subjects, such as educational background, linguistic capability, etc. This is backed up by verification during the (later) interview process. The idea is that each applicant is scored based on things such as English/French fluency (bonus points for both), educational background, field of expertise, etc. You don't need to carefully pore over every case to do some reasonable level of ranking.
anamax 18y ago
> What bothers me about the immigration caps is that they appear to be completely arbitrary, as opposed to being in tune with the industries they "serve" or based on some up-to-date metrics. They're not arbitrary, they're just not aimed at a goal that you recognize. Always remember that the first priority of a congress critter is to get re-elected.

lutorm 18y ago

They are indeed arbitrary. Moreover, there is no ranking of the applications; Apart from requiring they meet the minimum requirements they are just processed in the order received. Since the minimum requirement for an H1B is just a bachelor's degree, it seems hard to motivate that all those are essential. It seems the process could be improved by either ranking the applications by merit or instead of a quota establishing a higher minimum standard such that those accepted are really outstanding. Another alternative would be to simply uncap the category for those with US advanced degrees -- that cap truly makes no sense. (I should disclose that I'm biased here -- I was denied an H1B last year because of the quota.) That said, none of that would help the person in the article. The simple change of letting H1B dependents work would fix that.

furburger 18y ago
there is no ranking of the applications; Apart from requiring they meet the minimum requirements they are just processed in the order received okay, all H1-B holders who want their applications held up for a year while a reasonable basis for comparison is accumulated, raise their hands
- potatolicious 18y ago
  Canadian immigration does do ranking in a fairly efficient way: applicants must support documentation on a wide array of subjects, such as educational background, linguistic capability, etc. This is backed up by verification during the (later) interview process. The idea is that each applicant is scored based on things such as English/French fluency (bonus points for both), educational background, field of expertise, etc. You don't need to carefully pore over every case to do some reasonable level of ranking.

anamax 18y ago

> What bothers me about the immigration caps is that they appear to be completely arbitrary, as opposed to being in tune with the industries they "serve" or based on some up-to-date metrics. They're not arbitrary, they're just not aimed at a goal that you recognize. Always remember that the first priority of a congress critter is to get re-elected.