>> The mantra: flood the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services with applications, the more that gets in, the better for the company.

Whats so appalling about this ? Since these companies development centers are in India and clients in the US, its essential to their operation that their employees are able to travel back and forth between the two countries smoothly.

Since H1s are running out on the first day the quota opens, the companies need to anticipate their needs 1.5 years in advance.

So they take the largest possible number of H1s that they will need, and apply for the same. Of course, they wont actually use all of them, in the end they will probably use 60% of the visas that they will get.

Whats so appalling about all this ?
- Free Trade ?
- Fact that US immigration make it difficult for hi-tech immigrants ?
- Fact that you are so Xenophobic that you grasp at straws to make your case against H1s.

Really Sudeep? Is this the whole truth? Do you want me to point out Indian recruiting agents who are into a whole lot of scams? I know of some people who have false post degrees and false employment experience letters and still have got H1B visas and now even applied for green cards? Being brought up in an honest culture, it pains you to see how fraudulent people prosper whereas the real hardworking and good people still struggle to survive. I can give you my own example, when we first came to the U.S. six years ago, we were directed to a Bangla Deshi lawyer in New York who told us that he could apply for H1B for us. He take $500 as fees. The next thing he tells us to get a work experience certificate from anywhere. I was appalled! We never went back to him again. God alone knows how many such lawyers (liars) and recrutiing agents take innocent people for a ride?

My husband and daughter are studying in the United States universities and are honors A grade students in math and science, spending our hard earned money for these degrees with the hope that we get an opportunity to work here and our struggle and hard work in this country is rewarded. There are many intelligent American students in the U.S. too. If this could be the first country to send a man to the moon, you mean to tell me that they are not intelligent enough to do the jobs that are being outsourced?

C'mon, I am Indian too, and I can confidently tell you that except for 50% genuine intelligence who find their way to the U.S., the rest do it on money power and on fraud. Don't tell me H1B is all very honest business! I am against any increase in H1B for outsiders. If there is an increase then it should be on first preference for those legally living in the United States and studying in the U.S. educational institutions.

Secondly, you say that 60% of the visas are not used? Do you honestly think this is right? Why block some genuine and good person's chances?

C'mon, let's not be so selfish that we harm others for our own prosperity.

It's good for the executives in academia and business, good for the immigration lawyers, good for the lobbyists, and bad for the millions of bright, innovative, knowledgeable and industrious US citizen STEM workers being displaced.

Come to think of it, it's bad for the end customers, too, who get stuck with bad software, and the people whose privacy is violated through the CRM, ERP, HRMS and medical data-base systems, violations which are only made worse by having personal private data passed off-shore.

And thank you, "Sudeep", for admitting that these visas are abused to facilitate off-shoring.

It's not free trade. Free trade is typified by balancing supply, demand, and price in the absence of initiated force or fraud. This, on the contrary, involves initiated fraud.

Sure, welcome in the truly best and brightest, after they've paid for the proper background investigation. 1K to 5K visas per year would be plenty for them. But this ridiculous flood has got to stop.