Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Gaming the H-1B system for good

blog.triplebyte.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 227 posts

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#91

Post by shas3 »

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…

> One is denying the right of people born in the U.S. with parents that are citizens.

Umm, no. You are mistaken. Racial criteria also applied to naturalized citizenship aspirants. Today, once you have a green card, irrespective of where you were born, it takes you 5 or so years to get your citizenship. So, person of white ethnicity born in Switzerland and a non-white person born in India would have the same wait and the same criteria for citizenship. This was not possible before the INA act of 1965 (and other civil rights acts).

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#92

Post by moey »

Someone1234 wrote: post #52
harichinnan wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the chart below. This should explain why H1B employees(Mostly Indians and Chinese) stick with their outsourcers. The legislation would help resolve the backlog. http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bull...

Which chart? And the person above was talking about how few employers will go through the green card process, that page appears to be about H1B approvals, which is outside the scope of what they said.

I think harichinnan meant to reply to shas3's post.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#93

Post by jzwinck »

ambrood wrote: post #75
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)…

> 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. I came here on a student visa at 17, went on get a CS Masters and now live in SF on a H1B almost 10 years later. America is pretty much the only country I know how to navigate a…

If you can get a well-paying job you could move to Singapore, where English is an official language, India is much nearer, and the process from initial entry to permanent residency can be completed within three years (n.b. it is not guaranteed but you can reapply). And if you can navigate in America you'll not have a problem in Singapore.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#94

Post by mandeepj »

davidw wrote: post #86
lettergram wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> I'm very happy with my decision to have been born in the US.

What? you decided your country of birth?

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#95

Post by anpk »

singlow wrote: post #38
anpk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are acting as any recruiter, how exactly are you gaming the h1b system?

By improving the mobility of h1b holders and depleting the return on investment for the staffing agencies.

I understand what they are attempting, but I guess I was more intrigued by the "gaming" part. Was hoping they found some loophole, but its not very interesting if they are acting as regular recruiters.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#96

Post by eanzenberg »

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…

Not sure you know what slavery is.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#98

Post by eanzenberg »

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.

66k absolutely does fly given that the median income in the area is 72k. Unless you're suggesting almost 50% of the bay area is destitute.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#99

Post by transitorykris »

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…

It is not legal for the employee to bear the costs of the green card. Yes, there will be some coordination work with collecting documentation, medicals, etc.

Triplebyte also seems mistaken about how the H1B transfer works:

"If you're working on a H-1B at one of these outsourcing companies, apply to Triplebyte and we'll cover all the costs of transferring your H-1B."

Or are just that many employees being ripped off?

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#100

Post by vaishaksuresh »

chillydawg wrote: post #10
EduardoBautista wrote: post #2

This does nothing to address the problem of the initial application.

No, but it helps create a market for what is essentially a very valuable good that was being farmed by giant body shops. The underlying system is flawed but I doubt the us congress will ever pass a sensible immigration bill so workarounds like these are as good as it gets for now.

Actually the giant bodyshops don't prevent people from transferring. It is the tiny body shops that are operated illegally here in the US that try and do this. I've worked at one big body shop and know for a fact that the H1B via is considered a gateway to come onsite. Many employees can and do choose to then transfer to other companies. What triplebyte is doing is not helping the cause at all. Big companies don't care about people transferring. They'll just file for more visas. This is actually hurting than helping.
Post reply on HN