Caught between a visa and a job: An American woman exposes how the H-1B system exploits both immigrants and US workers

For years, the H-1B visa has been held up as a symbol of America’s openness to global talent. It’s a program designed to attract the “best and brightest” from around the world. Tech CEOs call it essential for innovation; policymakers frame it as a bridge between global education and US opportunity. But one American woman, married to an H-1B worker from India, says the reality is far more exploitative than inspirational. Her candid Reddit post, viewed thousands of times, exposes a system that, in her words, is “not just flawed, it’s rigged.”

Her husband came to the US not from hardship but from privilege. “Not poor. Not desperate,” she wrote. “His family was more well-off than mine. Upper middle class, educated, no trauma sob story.” He came to America to study, to work, and to build a