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Gaming the H-1B system for good

blog.triplebyte.com

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Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#41

Post by vskarine »

I transferred H1-B multiple times and here is my take on this: This can solve some problems but not all. Some things to think about:

- For example, if you go work for outsourcing company that pays only when there is work to be done (this is illegal by the way) then as soon as you try to transfer visa, you will be kicked out of US and company will be in trouble. The reason for this is that when you transfer visa they require you to provide pay stubs for at least trailing 3 months. If these pay stubs don't add up to what you were suppose to get paid, you and the company will be in trouble.

- Early stage StartUps will generally pass costs and co-ordination of getting green card on you.

- More problems will come when you try to apply for green card. Transparency in salary is not something startups like so management will be reluctant to advertise your salary publicly which is mandatory during the process (postings around the office, outside the building, newspapers, company website, etc).

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#42

Post by negrit »

[deleted] wrote: post #34
djb_hackernews wrote: post #24

I sort of like this except startups typically pay below market salaries which is sort of against the spirit of the H1-B visa right? And if the startups aren't paying below market salaries then why do they need H1-Bs? Suppose I am an SF based startup and I get a candidate from triplebyte that is on H1-B and is paid 66k by a body shop as a Level 1 Computer Programmer [0] but she is obviously talented and got taken adva…

[deleted]

You should not throw number like this out there. It's misleading and It's not how it works :)

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#43

Post by lobster_johnson »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #24

I sort of like this except startups typically pay below market salaries which is sort of against the spirit of the H1-B visa right? And if the startups aren't paying below market salaries then why do they need H1-Bs? Suppose I am an SF based startup and I get a candidate from triplebyte that is on H1-B and is paid 66k by a body shop as a Level 1 Computer Programmer [0] but she is obviously talented and got taken adva…

Paying below-market salaries is illegal. The visa has a minimum wage that is defined by your position (developer, designer, etc.). Edit: Of course, one could argue that the wage tables used by the government aren't "market".

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#44

Post by outworlder »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #24

I sort of like this except startups typically pay below market salaries which is sort of against the spirit of the H1-B visa right? And if the startups aren't paying below market salaries then why do they need H1-Bs? Suppose I am an SF based startup and I get a candidate from triplebyte that is on H1-B and is paid 66k by a body shop as a Level 1 Computer Programmer [0] but she is obviously talented and got taken adva…

Not sure if they are paying below market salaries. H-1B households are restricted to a single income. They could be paying below average market salaries, but 66k won't fly in the bay area. I haven't seen to many software engineers living under the bridges.

Disclaimer: the single income restriction is why I fought to get a L-1 visa instead.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#45

Post by FD3SA »

ammon wrote: post #32
FD3SA wrote: post #25

Does Triplebyte do TN visas? They're almost trivially simple to do, so the candidate could take care of it themselves without any help from the sponsoring company.

Yes, we do

That's great to hear, you'll be getting a few Canadian applications in the future.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#46

Post by shas3 »

harichinnan wrote: post #19

I was on H1B with a true blue American startup. They developed cold feet when it came closer to sponsoring Green Cards. To start with GC wage levels are much higher than H1B levels. Also close to 15K+ needs to be spent for processing+ years of patient follow up to USCIS queries/denials and surprise site inspections. The new fangled startups won't have the long term strategy/planning to get me a green card. I had much…

No country is allowed to get more than 7% of the green cards each year (roughly speaking). This GC-H1B lock-in problem is very unique to Indians (~10 year wait), and to a lesser extent, Chinese (~4 year wait). The 7% quota would be illegal were it applied to US citizenship, according to civil rights legislations of the 1960s (prior to which non-whites were discriminated against in naturalized-citizenships via quotas).

However, unlike pre-civil rights citizenship quotas, the green card quota seems ok to everyone. This a moral discrepancy, IMO. Unfortunately, it won't be addressed in the near future, because though the population affected may be in the hundreds of thousands, they are not important to any political players. Even on a generally enlightened forum like HN, you routinely encounter hateful comments about H1B workers. I think H1Bs deserve some level of representation in such matters simply because these workers pay the exact same taxes as all Americans. The situation for many people is utterly hopeless and it should be of humanitarian concern, here is a moving account from Seattle: http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/while-their-...

I think the notion that after working (and paying taxes) in the US for 6 years, a person has to wait another 10 years to reap the benefits of permanent residency simply because they were born in a particular country is morally indefensible.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#47

Post by Amanjeev »

vskarine wrote: post #41

I transferred H1-B multiple times and here is my take on this: This can solve some problems but not all. Some things to think about: - For example, if you go work for outsourcing company that pays only when there is work to be done (this is illegal by the way) then as soon as you try to transfer visa, you will be kicked out of US and company will be in trouble. The reason for this is that when you transfer visa they…

> you and the company will be in trouble.

If you as an employee take action for not being paid while on H1B status, you are more or less OK. This step includes filing for a DOL complaint and adding copy of that complaint as the H1B transfer.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#48

Post by FD3SA »

boulos wrote: post #35
FD3SA wrote: post #25

Does Triplebyte do TN visas? They're almost trivially simple to do, so the candidate could take care of it themselves without any help from the sponsoring company.

Careful about TN though. The T in TN is temporary, so it prevents you from applying for say a Greencard or an H1-B (which are attempts to be not temporary). Disclaimer: IANAL but I recently looked into a lot of this.

TN allows for 3 years per visa and unlimited visa renewals, so as long as you demonstrate that you aren't trying to gain citizenship, the US embassy shouldn't mind.

As a Canadian, I have no interest in becoming a US citizen. On a TN visa you can open bank accounts (including investment), buy cars and real estate and do everything other than start a company. It's incredibly convenient and painless compared to an H1-B.

Most people gunning for H1-Bs want to become US Citizens. Canadians have no such need, we just want to work in the US legally and be able to buy stuff and make investments, all of which you can do easily on a TN.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#49

Post by odonnellryan »

outworlder wrote: post #44
djb_hackernews wrote: post #24

I sort of like this except startups typically pay below market salaries which is sort of against the spirit of the H1-B visa right? And if the startups aren't paying below market salaries then why do they need H1-Bs? Suppose I am an SF based startup and I get a candidate from triplebyte that is on H1-B and is paid 66k by a body shop as a Level 1 Computer Programmer [0] but she is obviously talented and got taken adva…

Not sure if they are paying below market salaries. H-1B households are restricted to a single income. They could be paying below average market salaries, but 66k won't fly in the bay area. I haven't seen to many software engineers living under the bridges. Disclaimer: the single income restriction is why I fought to get a L-1 visa instead.

Can't people commute? I mean, certainly not everyone in the bay area makes > 70K a year.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#50

Post by Someone1234 »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #31
Someone1234 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That legislation has absolutely nothing to do with employers helping their employees gain a green card. It just redistributes the H1Bs differently. Did you reply to the right post?

If the H1Bs are distributed differently, couldn't employees move to the employers who are willing to help them? This benefits helpful employers. Seems right.

It doesn't distribute them to different employers, it distributes them to different countries. Not the same thing at all.

There's no reason at all to think that anything would change in terms of the H1B Vs. employer relationship if that legislation would pass. We'd just have different nationalities in the same situation we do now.

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