A recent article in the NY Times exposed how flawed the H-1B lottery process is. A handful of giant outsourcing companies flood the system with applications, making it near impossible for startups to hire international engineers.

These companies are gaming the system. But there is a way to turn this game against them, by exploiting the Achilles heel in their plan - the H-1B transfer. Getting a H-1B is tough because regardless of your personal merits, you're in a lottery with thousands of other candidates. Your choice of employer is limited by those willing to play the lottery. There's no lottery for transferring a H-1B though. The process is straightforward with no quota, you just have to find an employer willing to file the paperwork. This gave us an idea.

We're announcing the Triplebyte H-1b transfer program. If you're working on a H-1B at one of these outsourcing companies, apply to Triplebyte and we'll cover all the costs of transferring your H-1B. We'll help you find a startup doing work you're excited about and walk them through the H-1B transfer process, making it a no brainer for them. We'll also provide you with an immigration lawyer, to answer any questions you have, and we'll cover the cost of that too.

We're going to expand the pool of startups doing H-1B transfers so you have the same choice as anyone else. We recently placed an engineer using a H-1B transfer, at a startup who wouldn't have considered doing this without our help. Many founders mistakenly assume that applying for and transferring a H-1B are synonymous.

Helping great people move here is something that's personally important to us. My life was changed by moving out here to work on my first startup (after a year of struggling with trying various approaches to getting a visa). My co-founder Guilllaume moved here from France to work at Justin.tv and then found his own startup, Socialcam. We want to see more talented people coming here to work on building the future, not being cheap labor for giant corporations.