What is wrong with referring your friends for a job? It is standard HR practice encouraged by companies.
Keep in mind that every law is enacted in order to serve a public policy. The public policy intent of H1B Visas is that there is an accepted "truth" that High tech type jobs are being unfilled, and thus, the US suffers in technological advancement. Well guess what? In my view that was never the case, and given the current economic environment it is not the case EVEN MORE SO. The H1B visa progam was not intended to increase profits and CEO salaries - but that is exactly was is being done. And those that support the program are usually the types that hate protectionist/pro labor laws. I thought you guys are pure capitalists? If there is a dearth of engineers/scientists, and a college student is aware of this and takes on debt to pursue a degree for a high salary in the future - why should we suppress his future salary artificially? Shouldn't the market determine salaries? And if the law of supply and demand is to be respected - wouldn't more people go into tech jobs because of the higher salaries caused by supply and demand? What does classical capitalism have to say about H1B Visas? Did I miss that chapter in Adam Smith's the Wealth of Nations? You can't be selectively protectionist - whether you prefer protecting labor or protecting profits.
First read the article H-1B video shocker: 'Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified ... U.S. worker' http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...arly_not_to_find_a_qualified_..._U.S._worker_ then watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans ....
I can't generalize this but most of the folks in HR are Americans. HR, Sales, Legal etc are few area where "foreign aliens" have tough time establishing and surviving (there are few exceptions). An "American" teaching another "American" about how to avoid "American" for this opening. Can you digest it? There must be some reason why is this happening. Also the ad process that you are explaining is for green-card. H1B has 6 years restriction so employer is ensuring that the resource is available to them even after the time limit expires.
You won't find many H1Bs in HR, Sales, Legal, Finance etc is because there are qualified Americans available for these jobs and H1B visas will be rejected by USCIS.
No business can toss aside a more qualified applicant. Have you hired any young people lately? American twenty-somethings as a general rule are lazy and entitled. If I find one who is willing to work as hard as a foreigner, I can't afford NOT to hire him. You can take as much issue as you want at a societal level, the Americans will remain unemployed regardless. What I take issue with at a societal level is the way Americans raise coddled, entitled, lazy brats.
Duh... it's to save money. Yet these same companies rely on American Military personel to make sure markets are open and free and no nutjob dictator nationalizes their global assets. It's treasonous...
Not too bright, are you? It's significantly more expensive to hire HB1s than offshore. If they are hiring HB1s, then it's obvious that the site cannot be offshored and neither can the labor. Your argument falls flat on its face.
LOL, spend some time in corporate bureaucracy. The real world works quite different from how you imagine.
Watch the video that was posted a few posts up. Yes, businesses want to avoid hiring Americans, and see what I posted - Bank of America wanted (and did) layoff people to replace them with cheaper foreign workers. I hope those that BofA laid off had BofA mortgages and defaulted on them. Because that's what will happen - probably already is. As for the lazy American thing. I have seen my share of lazy workers, and diligent workers. But you want the US Congress to enact certain immigration laws because you feel an entire generation is worthless? These same lazy kids may be fighting a future war to save your ass. Will the H1Bs protect you? What if the H1Bs are the people we'll be fighting?