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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

#201

Post by FlyingSnake »

chrisper wrote: post #155
FlyingSnake wrote: post #105

I was working on H1-B for 6 years in the USA. The long wait time, and utter unpredictability of the Green Card system was insane. Being Indian didn't help either, as we are subjected to 12+ years of wait (EB3 quota). The stupid H4 laws made my highly qualified wife unable to work. Finally I kicked the plush job and American dreams and moved to Europe. My employer called me ungrateful and selfish for leaving after he…

Hi! I am currently on a student visa in the U.S. and was considering trying the H-1B route. However, since it is so tiresome and it literally can make you waste years of your life, I was thinking to not even bother. When I was doing research, most people say that the US is the best place to be at as a SE. This makes it sound like if you are doomed everywhere else. I am happy to see that you seem to be a counterexampl…

The people who say US is the best haven't seen the world. Europe and Canada has a fair share of brilliant SEs. The people I've worked with in Europe are not an ounce less talented than the US SEs and I feel much more productive here. Pay is lower, but honestly. I will take my social healthcare, 28 leave/year, unemployment insurance, kick-ass public transport, and well traveled multi-kulti friends over $200K in SFO living in a bubble.

If you're looking for options out of USA, I would seriously recommend Canada. It has a culture similar to the US, but better visa regime and healthcare.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#202

Post by FlyingSnake »

xbeta wrote: post #142
FlyingSnake wrote: post #105

I was working on H1-B for 6 years in the USA. The long wait time, and utter unpredictability of the Green Card system was insane. Being Indian didn't help either, as we are subjected to 12+ years of wait (EB3 quota). The stupid H4 laws made my highly qualified wife unable to work. Finally I kicked the plush job and American dreams and moved to Europe. My employer called me ungrateful and selfish for leaving after he…

And Europe life isn't bad either. I'm glad it works out for you. I'm considering similar option, maybe we should chat? :-)

It's actually pretty easy. Just find a job and apply for Blue Card and you're all set. Lots of startups are sponsoring visa and desperate for talent. The visa regime is pretty humane compared to USA, and please learn the local language (A2 minimum) before moving :-)

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#203

Post by baby »

shas3 wrote: post #46
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)…

> No country is allowed to get more than 7% of the green cards each year

It works by zones, not by country.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#204

Post by baby »

snotrockets wrote: post #134
negrit wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also assume they won't terminate the H-1B when the employee is leaving.

IANAL, but you can apply for a transfer without the original employer knowledge, and once that transfer is approved, then the previous employer can do nothing about that.

From everything I read, your current employer HAS to accept the transfer. Makes it way more trickier than what the blog makes it look like.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#205

Post by briandear »

MCRed wrote: post #154
FlyingSnake wrote: post #105

I was working on H1-B for 6 years in the USA. The long wait time, and utter unpredictability of the Green Card system was insane. Being Indian didn't help either, as we are subjected to 12+ years of wait (EB3 quota). The stupid H4 laws made my highly qualified wife unable to work. Finally I kicked the plush job and American dreams and moved to Europe. My employer called me ungrateful and selfish for leaving after he…

To those people who want to keep immigrants out of the USA-- unless you're pure blood native american you're an immigrant. Plus, what gives any people- including the government- the right to interfere with Freedom of Association. Like Gay Marriage, the right to hire whome you want is an exercise of this basic right. Alas, there wasn't an amendment to the Bill of Rights (though there doesn't need to be, read the pream…

Can you spare us the pontification? My issue with H1s is when employees that are clearly qualified are fired and forced to train cheaper replacement. H1 is about filing shortages not about helping Disney save money.

The same crowd that supports unlimited immigration, ironically oppose free trade. If it's ok to let in $60,000 engineers because there is a shortage of professionals willing to work for $60,000, why is it not ok to let in tarrif-free cars because people don't want to spend $20k on a Chevy?

There is no shortage of software devs. There is a shortage of software devs willing to work for $60k. The H1 system ought to be for exceptional cases such as a data scientist proficient in R, Haskel and Ruby which experience on mobile API design. It shouldn't be for effectively entry or mid level work. Many of the Infosys and Tata engineers with whom I have worked have been reasonably competent, but far from spectacular and some have been downright dangerously incompetent. Not a single one has been a field-leading expert.

Someone mentioned about what if plumbers were the primary recipient of H1s.. That would be interesting because it would expose the scam that is the enterprise-level H1 system.

It's about cheap labor (generally) and not about some imagined shortage of people. Honestly, outsourcing firms ought to be excluded from H1 eligibility; only primary employers should be allowed to apply. The program should also have more oversight. For example, you claim you can't find an engineer that can work in C and interact with SOAP APIs. Before your H1 request is allowed to proceed, the government (or quasi-government) should then be allowed to send you US resident prospects that meet your requirements. If there are none, then you get the H1 application processed. Essentially affirmative action for US citizens and resident. If you are unwilling to hire the employee, you would need to justify why. Salary discussions would be forbidden until after you make a hiring decision. If you say yes but the salary is too high, then there would be kind of an arbitration system.

My point is that H1 is about lower cost most of the time and has little to do with an actual shortage.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#206

Post by DrScump »

titomc wrote: post #177

This is my life story in US till now. My H1B visa was applied thru one of the biggest Indian consulting companies and I started working in Kansas. The project was awesome and I loved the work and our team was programming for the connected cars. We were paid peanuts by our employer around 62K which was the bare minimum mandated by LCA in Kansas location. But I didn't care about the peanuts they were giving me , I love…

You described the U.S. immigration regulations as "broken immigration system" three times in that one posting.

Is it substantially easier for foreign workers to immigrate into your home country?

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#207

Post by aianus »

kspaans wrote: post #182
aianus wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it counts as a 'source' but tech companies in NYC/Seattle/SF pay $75,000/yr+ to 19-20 year old interns with almost no experience. And not as a rare occurrence, I had 10 offers at the same time any given term and so did most of my classmates. Hardly sounds like they're being exploited and suffering due to a glut in supply. Either that or "exploitation" rates in the US are double the market rate in Cana…

I started at $70k CAD in 2012 in Waterloo, ON right out of uni. Admittedly I had "2 years of experience" due to my co-op work terms while studying at UW. Counting for cost of living and exchange rate the US offer is probably still higher, but not 2x. (That said, I've seen startups in Toronto offering $50k/year lol!)

$70-90k US was the co-op rate in 2011-2013 when I was doing it. The starting grad rate in SF is closer to US$150k (CA$200k) right now after stock.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#208

Post by aianus »

finance-geek wrote: post #194
aianus wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it counts as a 'source' but tech companies in NYC/Seattle/SF pay $75,000/yr+ to 19-20 year old interns with almost no experience. And not as a rare occurrence, I had 10 offers at the same time any given term and so did most of my classmates. Hardly sounds like they're being exploited and suffering due to a glut in supply. Either that or "exploitation" rates in the US are double the market rate in Cana…

Except that you dont get to decide whether someone is being exploited at a certain salary or not. The Market Decides, that is how markets work. If you want to pay below market, usually the only way is to broaden the labor pool by importing workers. If that is your goal, then just be honest about it. Dont say "x wage is good enough." Since you do bring up salaries though, after taxes, health premiums, co-pays, 75 will…

You can't ask the government to protect your salary from foreign competition and idolize the free market in the same breath. The fair price of labor is at the intersection of supply and demand.

Absent government interference, that includes supply and competition from foreign workers who, surprise, by and large do not feel exploited making more in a year than their parents back home make in a decade.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#209

Post by MagnumOpus »

refurb wrote: post #196
dirkdk wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In San Francisco you need $4,225 for a 1br http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2015/06/02/san-franciscos-...

That's not true at all. Check out Craigslist. You can still find one-bedrooms for under $3K.

He talked about the median from Zillow. You are talking about the bottom decile 1-bed being hawked on Craigslist. Ask yourself, as a developer on six figures, would you want to live in the latter?

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#210

Post by gizmo »

refurb wrote: post #197
finance-geek wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying they can leave with the same ease that citizens can leave? That's not true.

Of course not, they aren't citizens. Are you suggesting we give immigrants the same rights as citizens as soon as they arrive?

Giving people equal rights?? The horror!

All people living in the same region should obviously have the same rights. They pay taxes like everybody else so of course they should get equal representation as well.

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