Several in my current circle and I followed that path.
I came to the US earning $63K per year at an outsourcing firm.
I am currently in a SaaS co with sales at $800K / year and 3 employees including me, growing and we will at least double our sales next year.
Thanks to my work (and trying not to brag here), earlier start-ups I've worked at (building their marquee products, pre-fundraising) have raised several millions and employeed 10s - 100s of people.
Once in the US, an H1-B auth holder can move at will to another company without informing the current employer. If the H1 transfer fails, it is a silent failure,
Bargaining power is an illusion once the employee is in the US.
Well, one can pay out using bonuses, distributions and any number of other instruments.
I didn't dispute that the job opportunity had to be posted prominently in the workplace with details exactly as stated in the H1 application.
LCA re-applications / H1 amendments are not required unless the location, the position or the nature of the job change significantly. Pay cuts are simply not allowed without informing the government.
Actual base pay >= prevailing wage? Perhaps my using them interchangeably isn't right. However, given a reasonable chance of approval, I would not apply for an H1 auth promising anything above the prevailing wage.
My tax returns / pay stubs are included in H1 extensions, intermediate steps to a green card and in visa applications. They are well aware of the pay raises.
IANAL and I can check with our lawyer again but this was our company's legal advice. If you are a lawyer or know one, this may be a difference of opinion.
The company applied for my position with a salary of ~$100K/yr (on the LCA and the H1 application) but they actually paid me ~$240K/yr. This year and the next, it will be well north of $300-$330K/yr.
Why would they do this? Simple - to be able to pay me a prevailing wage and keep me in status in case the shit hits the fan.
If they applied to the government saying they'd pay me $240K/yr, and for some reason they had to give me a pay cut, I'd be out of status or we would have to make a less-confident amendment to my H1 auth. A pay cut amendment should be viewed with skepticism in my opinion and I would avoid it.
It's like underpromising and overdelivering.
My actual salary will never be reported in an H1 database. But it will be on my tax returns.
This isn't a common case but just something to keep in mind.
I came to the US earning $63K per year at an outsourcing firm.
I am currently in a SaaS co with sales at $800K / year and 3 employees including me, growing and we will at least double our sales next year.
Thanks to my work (and trying not to brag here), earlier start-ups I've worked at (building their marquee products, pre-fundraising) have raised several millions and employeed 10s - 100s of people.