I think the US should prioritize training permanent residence over temporary residents that may take their skills (and wealth) back to their home country.

If the h1b program was a perm residence visa, then your argument holds water. When they return home, they will take their 15 years of experience and offshore their capital.

Whereas if a perm resident had that same job, they would keep their money invested in American businesses (and real estate).

If our goal is to brain drain the world, lets replace the h1b visa program with a program with a clear attainable path to perm residency.

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arjie 2 days ago | parent [-]

The H1B is dual intent. I was on one and now I’m here on a green card. Totally normal. The H1B has a clear path to application for permanent residency but permanent residency doesn’t have a clear path from application to completion because of the birth country caps.

You have to ask yourself what other implicit objectives you have because as it stands, raising the green card employment-based cap and raising the per-country cap would get you want immediately.

	▲	itake a day ago \| parent [-]
		I think it would help, but we could still be better. As an America living in southeast with ~40 years of life to plan for, I face the similar issue of: which country can I feel can be a 'safe' home for me to live in? If Vietnam had a f1 -> h1b system (and no country caps), I would still not feel safe to call Vietnam my home. - The h1b is a lottery. I could work my butt off and still just be unlucky. - H1b is tied to employment. If I lost my job due to economic situations, poor politics, or personal health issues, I have 60d to find a new job or buy airplane tickets to leave.