H-1B visa holders are trapped at their employer for 5-15 years waiting for a green card — quitting means deportation

An Indian software engineer on an H-1B visa at Google wants to start a company. They cannot. Their employer sponsors their green card, and the India EB-2/EB-3 green card backlog is 10-15+ years. If they quit Google, their green card application resets to zero. They must find a new employer willing to sponsor them within 60 days or leave the country. So they stay at a job they have outgrown for a decade, watching less-talented colleagues start companies, switch jobs freely, and negotiate raises with competing offers. So what? The US immigration system turns the most ambitious immigrants — people who want to start companies and create jobs — into indentured workers. They cannot negotiate salary (leaving means deportation), cannot start companies (no self-sponsorship on H-1B), and cannot take entrepreneurial risks. Studies show that 55% of US unicorns were founded by immigrants, but these founders either waited out their green card or found workarounds (O-1 visa, marriage). The hundreds of thousands of potential founders trapped in the H-1B/green card queue never get the chance. Why does this persist? The per-country cap (7% of green cards per country regardless of demand) means India and China have 10-15 year waits while most other countries have no wait. Eliminating the per-country cap has bipartisan support but Congress has failed to pass it for 15+ years because it gets bundled with controversial immigration reforms. The employer-tied visa structure benefits large tech companies who get below-market labor from workers who cannot leave.