[nimish]

The UK's tier 2 and the EU's blue card are strictly better than the US H-1B to green card mechanism and have been for over a decade. You face no 7% per country capping on naturalization. Has it worked out? These visas look like O-1 competitors more than anything, not H-1B.

[alephnerd]

The issue is EU salaries (and the subsequent income tax) simply aren't attractive for most Indian, Chinese, and Koreans engineers in the US - the primary beneficiaries of the H1B program.

The only way a European office can attract Asian American talent on a work visa is to offer a salary comparable to the US, just like what the London offices for Google, Citadel, and Bloomberg do.

Otherwise, they can demand EU level salaries in their home market.

For an Indian on an H1B and working for FAANG, the choice isn't Palo Alto versus Berlin, it's the Palo Alto versus Hyderabad, Bangalore, or Pune.

Basically, the H1B change is causing a reverse brain drain back to Asia now now becuase there is an incentive to fully offshore instead of keeping mixed teams in the US.

I know at least 4 partners at the Indian entities of American VC funds already releasing an open call for startups for any Indian American who wants to return to India after the announcement this weekend, or to pair them with their portfolio companies in India.

> These visas look like O-1 competitors more than anything, not H-1B.

Not really. An O-1 is annoying and difficult to process, and does target a different persona than a blue card.

[fy20]

Will Indians be happy with that? I live in a European country which used to have a brain drain to the US and the main reasons to go were:

a) Money being much more than you could get in Europe

b) Bragging rights - especially for parents

I imagine for Indians it's something similar?

[mcntsh]

There’s more to life than money.

I’ve worked for big tech in the Silicon Valley, worked for big tech in NYC, worked for big tech in Berlin. Though I make way less money here in Germany, I’d never move back to the US.