> I'd be surprised if more than 5-10% of H-1B positions are ones where the hiring company has even looked for US applicants.
But H1B employers are required to certify that they took good faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for these positions and were unable to find qualified candidates to hire.
You really think a business would do that? Just go to the government and tell lies?
"Good faith" by the letter of the law is often established by chichanery like posting job ads with nebulous requirements in print newspapers, requiring mail in resumes, and slowrolling a process.
Filtering out real information from data and anecdata is a challenge at the best of times, but I am ill convinced of the honesty of most of the recruitment market.
Yes - it seems this is routinely done for H-1B positions. You meet the requirement for having advertised the job by running an ad for 1 day in the back of the fisherman's chronicle. You tailor the job description so closely to the H-1B candidate you've already decided to hire, that it'd be easy to defend why you rejected other candidates (should they inconvenience you by seeing the ad and applying).
There are no newspaper ads involved in the H-1B program. There is a separate process (LCA) to ensure the H-1B worker is paid the prevailing wage in the location where they're hired. It relies on the Department of Labor making such determination.
Newspaper ad is required for PERM, which is part of the green card process.
You really think a business would do that? Just go to the government and tell lies?