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Gaming the H-1B system for good

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Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#81

Post by ojbyrne »

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…

I've transferred several times, and I've never been asked for more than 2 check stubs (i.e. 4 weeks).

Also companies have to advertise your salary publicly (at least around the office) for H1B.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#82

Post by edudar »

kirubakaran wrote: post #53
outworlder wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"H-1B households are restricted to a single income" This isn't true anymore http://www.immihelp.com/h4-visa-ead/

Still true. H4 EAD falls into very specific categories, both are listed by the link. Either post I-140 which is 2/3 to a GC or beyond 6 years which is quite specific.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#83

Post by tosseraccount »

tosseraccount wrote: post #69
shas3 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no tech labor shortage. "Tech labor shortage" is not a clear-cut black-and-white issue. The market is not fully elastic to easily use terms such as 'shortage', etc. Say, you need to build a team of 5 machine learning scientist with specific experience in image recognition, there may be 100 people in the country specializing in this field, and perhaps 10 of them are the job market, and 7 are international c…

Are you saying high tech is not really affected by supply and demand like other industries? Many industries claim they need special laws. How is Silicon Valley different than any other business?

Ha ha. The Ycombo super moderator came by and "voted" down every anti special guest worker subsidy post on this page. Two to three down hits every post.

Thanks for the thoughtful contribution to the debate !

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#84

Post by steego »

sytelus wrote: post #59

Whole H1B system is essentially modern form of slavery. I've seen people becoming multi-millionaires exploiting this slavery system. Companies in India have amassed massive revenues exploiting the same. The way it works is you put advertise in newspaper for minimum expected wage for tech worker. Then you buy a genius 3rd world tech worker and sell him/her to clients for approximately twice that rate. Then you put sig…

I love your conclusion (Make it for H1B workers to shop for or switch jobs), but I can't agree with calling this slavery or even indentured servitude because it frankly isn't. That sort of talk makes you come off as hyperbolic and people will use it to discredit your otherwise valid conclusion.

I think it's important to emphasize that rigged immigration systems like this hurt Americans and immigrants alike. There's no reason blue blooded Americans and immigrants shouldn't be united on this. Immigrants don't want to come here to be treated like a second class and we don't want to have to compete with exploited workers.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#85

Post by ojbyrne »

kirubakaran wrote: post #53
outworlder wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"H-1B households are restricted to a single income" This isn't true anymore http://www.immihelp.com/h4-visa-ead/

Also, there are couples where both are on H-1B or other visas.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#86

Post by davidw »

lettergram wrote: post #76
shas3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. One is denying the right of people born in the U.S. with parents that are citizens. The other, is limiting the number of people not born in the U.S. and without parents that are citizens. In other words, its a choice to come here. Not saying it is morally right or wrong, but you may consider distinguishing between the tw…

Despite some flaws with the country, I'm very happy with my decision to have been born in the US.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#87

Post by vaishaksuresh »

kirubakaran wrote: post #53
outworlder wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"H-1B households are restricted to a single income" This isn't true anymore http://www.immihelp.com/h4-visa-ead/

Yup, but with a big caveat. Not everybody on H4 qualifies for an EAD. The H1B holder should have gotten his or her i40 application approved. So OP's comment still is very much valid.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#88

Post by elbigbad »

sytelus wrote: post #59

Whole H1B system is essentially modern form of slavery. I've seen people becoming multi-millionaires exploiting this slavery system. Companies in India have amassed massive revenues exploiting the same. The way it works is you put advertise in newspaper for minimum expected wage for tech worker. Then you buy a genius 3rd world tech worker and sell him/her to clients for approximately twice that rate. Then you put sig…

So, if I understand this correctly, they're essentially casting the H1Bs as commodities? "Purchasing" them for X salary, and then "selling" them for x + y salary?

If this characterization is correct, isn't this essentially what a typical staffing company does? That is, put a worker in a position at a third party company as a temp paying them x salary, then collecting from the client third party company x + y salary. With the only difference being in this case that the person placed comes from another country on an H1B.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#89

Post by newjersey »

lettergram wrote: post #76
shas3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. One is denying the right of people born in the U.S. with parents that are citizens. The other, is limiting the number of people not born in the U.S. and without parents that are citizens. In other words, its a choice to come here. Not saying it is morally right or wrong, but you may consider distinguishing between the tw…

Psst, we should not try to take a moral high ground here given how many times something as straightforward as the DREAM act has failed.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#90

Post by IndianAstronaut »

kgp7 wrote: post #15

This assumes that the H1B's filed by the outsourcing companies are engineers your startup would want to hire. Unfortunately thats not true, most good quality engineers are almost never employed by these outsourcing firms. The general nature of their work also is mostly maintenance based , and it tends to attract bottom of the barrel 'engineers' who often couldn't find any other job. I am skeptical whether any of thes…

This is why they should keep resumes on file for H1Bs. The major reason they are poorly qualified is because they lie on their resumes.

My friends brother is 24 and has listed 5 years of experience on his resume even though he has none. Now he is working for a major bank in critical financial infrastructure.

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