meebo and the h-1b

I blogged not too long ago about Microsoft, Intel and a few other big tech firms pushing Congress to up the number of H1-B visas issued annually. Microsoft's government affairs head honcho called it the software firm's "top legislative priority." Well it seems that it's not only the big boys that are frustrated by this inane policy.

Found this as I was logging in to my favorite "let's see what I can do that doesn't involve software strategy" activity:
the current immigration policies of the United States government are making it extremely difficult to build such a diverse team. This creates a situation in which the U.S. can be a less competitive and attractive environment in which to do business...The impact of this restrictive immigration policy on meebo is quite significant. Because part of the team might not be able to join us in California, we won’t be able to take advantage of having the whole team under one roof, and our productivity will take a hit. We will also have to spend thousands of extra dollars and days of extra time trying to figure out if there’s another way for them to work in the country.

So because of Congress mis-guided attempts to "protect American jobs" (namely their own by deceiving naive voters that they have the country's best interest in mind) meebo has a choice of 1) hiring the "next best" set of employees or 2) being sub-optimally efficient because of a geographically distribued team. Either way, it's gonna cost them more. I'd say write your congressman, but it seems they're busy.