Microsoft Proposed Pay to Play Visas

The quick take - 20,000 extra H-1Bs with a $10,000 per visa price tag. 20,000 green cards (presumably taken from the lottery) with a $15,000 price tag. It's hard to claim that employers willing to pay these kind of fees would be trying to push down wages for American workers and the fact that it would only apply to a group of visas not currently in the pool would mean that employers that can't afford to pay these salaries (public school systems, non-profit charitable organizations, universities, etc.) would still be able to operate under the status quo. I suspect that the proposal isn't going anywhere, but the idea is interesting.

Comments

[Jack]

The 20,000 green card numbers each year would come from green card recapture, not the DV lottery. http://bit.ly/QVCfmD