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H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

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Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#71

Post by throwaway6497 »

zht wrote: post #48
dudul wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An H1-B is not a path to permanent residence. Having an H1-B does not help in any way with getting a green card. If you apply through employment the sponsoring company does not get any fee reduction, the application is not processed any faster. This is a completely independent petition. The only way you could say an H1B is a path to immigration is for the case where a non-immigrant meets a spouse and get a green card…

It's not a path in the most pedantic term, but if I were born in China or India, the usual path is 1. do masters in the US 2. work on OPT until I am fortunate enough to be picked in H1B lottery, or until my OPT runs out, whichever comes first 3. IF I get picked in H1B lottery, apply for PR 4. wait 4-8 years for my category to be current 5. eventually get PR short of an investor visa, marrying someone who is a citizen…

More like 8-12 years, if you switch a job without getting a I-140 approved and 12+, if you switch jobs and GC process gets reset for each job change.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#72

Post by Overtonwindow »

Something is wrong with this list.... Where's Facebook, Google, Disney, Microsoft, and all of the other major corporations that have systematically undermined and cheated the American workforce by importing cheap labor, and then laying off the fully qualified, educated, and trained Americans?

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#73

Post by [deleted] »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #72

Something is wrong with this list.... Where's Facebook, Google, Disney, Microsoft, and all of the other major corporations that have systematically undermined and cheated the American workforce by importing cheap labor, and then laying off the fully qualified, educated, and trained Americans?

[deleted]

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#74

Post by mcnawoh »

halflings wrote: post #54

A lot of consultancy firms abuse this system, BUT: not all H1Bs are "cheap labor". If you are not American and want to work in a tech company in the US, you don't have much choice: 99% of the time, you have to get an H-1B. I once got a position in a very interesting startup in Palo Alto (with a salary significantly above average in the region), and the company was thrilled to have me join them (because there really i…

As an H-1B worker in Palo Alto (who also had to struggle through the ridiculous immigration process for almost two years), I'm being treated extremely well by my employer. They went out of their way to get me through the long-winded and expensive H-1B application process. I get compensated well, and I'm treated as any other valued employee.

While I recognize that a lot of ambitious and driven engineers from abroad have a similar experience to mine in the Bay Area, I'm also not blind to the fact that our situation is simply not representative of the typical H-1B worker.

The incentive structures surrounding the immigration process are not set up to effectively prevent abuse and exploitation of cheap labor. "Importing" desperate and often undereducated workers is cost-effective enough to happen at a fairly uncomfortable scale, to the detriment of the workers themselves and the industry as a whole.

Immigration is obviously complex for a whole host of reasons, and there's a lot of countries that struggle with (or outright abuse) that process. Of course, H-1B engineers in the U.S. are nowhere near as mistreated as migrant workers in many other nations — including wealthy ones — but it's still a commonly exploited system here. Those of us who have a relatively dignified experience in this mess are not near the middle of the curve.

I'm not familiar enough to know which nations get it "right", if any, but there certainly are lessons to be learned by looking elsewhere.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#75

Post by hatred »

GreaterFool wrote: post #63
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all H1-B's are cheap labor, but the plurality are. We all know how to fix the system (auction the visas by salary), but the abusers block the political will, as does the fact that Congress believes in cheap labor as a principle.

There's a trivial fix to the whole system: free the employees. As long as employees are completely tied to their employer wages will be lower. What else do you expect? Forcing employers to pay a higher salary is a half-measure. I imagine they'd still prefer H1B's over locals for one simple reasons: you hire a H1B employee and they're gonna stick around for a few years. Even if the job sucks. It's worth to pay a bit m…

> you hire a H1B employee and they're gonna stick around for a few years. Even if the job sucks.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? H1b's are free to change jobs. There is nothing that prevents them from doing so.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#76

Post by preetbhinder »

_of wrote: post #68

The H1B visa requires a minimum pay as it is right now. However, what some companies do when they sponsor a foreign worker for H1B is to hire the person part time on paper and thus being able to pay a lower wage, but still in practice requiring him or her to work full time. This is an anecdote I heard but I know it occurs. For many people, having the chance to come to the U.S. is like winning the lottery, and they wi…

They do have a prevailing wage clause but if you look up labor filings by most tech companies the wages are on average MUCH lower than what Americans would expect. I just saw a software developer petition for a company in San Francisco for 79K.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#77

Post by sveiss »

dudul wrote: post #38
bgribble wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a nation of immigrants. As it stands now, H1-B is one of the few paths for technically-educated people to get lawful work and eventual permanent residence and citizenship in the US. I don't think there's anything wrong with sponsoring an H1-B for a talented and qualified person who wants to live in the US. There's room, and there are jobs, and complaining about immigrants is just stupid. That said, the H1-B…

An H1-B is not a path to permanent residence. Having an H1-B does not help in any way with getting a green card. If you apply through employment the sponsoring company does not get any fee reduction, the application is not processed any faster. This is a completely independent petition. The only way you could say an H1B is a path to immigration is for the case where a non-immigrant meets a spouse and get a green card…

H-1B status itself doesn't lead to a green card, but it's much more difficult to get a company to go through the 1+ year process of sponsoring an immigrant worker petition (which does lead to a green card) if you're not able to work for them during that time.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#78

Post by eli_gottlieb »

noer wrote: post #49
farnell wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all visa holders pay all taxes. we even pay social security which we are not entitled to unless we become permanent residents.

To be perfectly honest, the majority of American residents/citizens that are currently paying social security likely won't receive any kind SS benefit.

Well that's politics. Just because the establishment intends to privatize Social Security doesn't mean it's fiscally nonviable.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#79

Post by [deleted] »

halflings wrote: post #54

A lot of consultancy firms abuse this system, BUT: not all H1Bs are "cheap labor". If you are not American and want to work in a tech company in the US, you don't have much choice: 99% of the time, you have to get an H-1B. I once got a position in a very interesting startup in Palo Alto (with a salary significantly above average in the region), and the company was thrilled to have me join them (because there really i…

[deleted]

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#80

Post by eli_gottlieb »

GreaterFool wrote: post #63
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all H1-B's are cheap labor, but the plurality are. We all know how to fix the system (auction the visas by salary), but the abusers block the political will, as does the fact that Congress believes in cheap labor as a principle.

There's a trivial fix to the whole system: free the employees. As long as employees are completely tied to their employer wages will be lower. What else do you expect? Forcing employers to pay a higher salary is a half-measure. I imagine they'd still prefer H1B's over locals for one simple reasons: you hire a H1B employee and they're gonna stick around for a few years. Even if the job sucks. It's worth to pay a bit m…

>There's a trivial fix to the whole system: free the employees. As long as employees are completely tied to their employer wages will be lower.

Why not both? And the answer is: because the abusers lobby to keep any of several available fixes from being implemented.

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