[blueriver]

These days, any tech position will get hundreds of qualified applicants, which would tank an alien certification.

No one is monitoring this. All a company has to do is prove that they placed the ad. No checks are made to determine if a qualified American applied. If the checks were being made there would have been no H-1B's granted in the last two years for high tech jobs.

[thoughtomator]

Check the stats for the past 2 years. The number of H1-Bs issued has dropped to around 65k, and I would be that is almost entirely renewals at this point.

There is a check, it is called your state labor department. They can take years to process these things, and many do get denied, which would imply they do something other than rubber-stamp every application that comes in the door.