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H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

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Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#91

Post by dudul »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #46
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…

This isn't fully correct. For most Canadians, for example, the H1B is the stepping stone between the TN (a nonresident-only status) and EBX. You can certainly get an employment based visa on a TN, but the process is complicated, has many rules and restrictions, and is just a whole lot more simple with a H1B.

It's possible yes. But I think Canada is a special case considering all the special rules that exist between the US and Canada.

An H1B may be "simpler", but considering the lottery stats it's far from being a given. I surely am glad I got mine a while ago before the H1B program became so crazy, with the CAP being reached in literally hours.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#92

Post by 1024core »

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…

> It's a lottery, the most stupid way to pick who gets to enter you country.

Instead of a random lottery, rank the applications by salary (decreasing order) and take the top N. Everyone wins: company has to pay more, it ensures that the visas go to really hard-to-fill jobs, and workers get more.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#93

Post by gherkin0 »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #26
dccoolgai wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've often wondered - I know there are requirements for them to "post" those openings before they get the visa - if there is a way for "concerned citizens" to challenge them through the department of labor or something... we could make a website that would let professional engineers volunteer their spare time go down the list of WiPro's (or whatever the big offender companies are) visa requests and call BS on them.

They just have to post it at their place of business, so the public wouldn't have access to them. This is unlike the EB3 process where a job posting has to be made public as part of PERM.

My understanding is that often the "public" job postings are posted to places where no qualified American tech worker would look, like newspaper classified sections.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#94

Post by 1024core »

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #65
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to fix this and to make sure that the H1-B is used for its intended purpose (to bring in extraordinary talent that is not present in the US) and not just for cheap labor, is instead of a lottery, to give it based on salary. The position that offers the highest salary gets an H1-B visa, then the next highest and so on until the quota of H1-B visas is used up. How much a company is willing to pay is probably th…

Who sets the quota? And how do we ensure the quota isn't lobbied to be resized to the point where it allows cheap labor?

The quota is set by Congress. It was 65K for many years, but I hear during the bubble it was temporarily increased.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#95

Post by pc86 »

shrikant wrote: post #37
dccoolgai wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a joke! This is what it says on the Dept. of Labor site: Who enforces the requirement for offering jobs to qualified U.S. applicants? Questions or complaints concerning any non-selection should be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC), which also administers several statutes concerning employment disc…

For anyone looking for the correct link, here it is : https://www.justice.gov/crt/office-special-counsel-immigrati...

But why just google the name of the office and find the correct link when I can throw my hands up and say "fuck this" on a pseudo-anonymous internet forum?

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#96

Post by ecnal »

1024core wrote: post #92
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…

> It's a lottery, the most stupid way to pick who gets to enter you country. Instead of a random lottery, rank the applications by salary (decreasing order) and take the top N. Everyone wins: company has to pay more, it ensures that the visas go to really hard-to-fill jobs, and workers get more.

Alternately, remove the need for highly skilled workers to get visas entirely, thereby completely preventing companies from abusing the system.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#97

Post by LukaAl »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #61
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…

The way to fix this and to make sure that the H1-B is used for its intended purpose (to bring in extraordinary talent that is not present in the US) and not just for cheap labor, is instead of a lottery, to give it based on salary. The position that offers the highest salary gets an H1-B visa, then the next highest and so on until the quota of H1-B visas is used up. How much a company is willing to pay is probably th…

No, the Visa you are referring to is the O-1 Visa, it is much more difficult and expensive to obtain, but it is not subject to Visa CAP (I know it well, I'm on O-1). H-1B is for specialty worker, and they are not defined by exceptionality but by the fact that they possess a qualification for a specific job, there's a shortage of US Citizen for that job, and they receive market rate salary.

We could agree that the behavior of consulting companies like Tata or Infosys seems like cheating (basically, send thousands of application hoping that a good percentage succeed). But they are hiring for positions that require a degree people qualified; it is difficult to hire for that kind of position (primarily because you could make more money with the same qualification in different companies); and they are paying market rate salaries (or at least, that's what it is certified!).

I could agree that the current H-1B Visa system is broken, but I'm not sure that fixing it just for the perspective of highly paid Silicon Valley Bro is the best solution for the US as a whole. What I'm saying is: are we sure that this kind of cheap specialty labor is not useful for the US society as a whole? E.g.: are we sure that, if System Integration companies have to pay engineers a much higher salary, they will be able to provide prices low enough for other company to pay it? And if few companies could pay for their services, this wouldn't impact their efficiency on one side and the B2B software market on the other side?

I'm not defending the violators nor supporting the "cheap H1B" practices. Just saying that the world is a little bit more complex than that.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#98

Post by davidw »

1024core wrote: post #94
ones_and_zeros wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who sets the quota? And how do we ensure the quota isn't lobbied to be resized to the point where it allows cheap labor?

The quota is set by Congress. It was 65K for many years, but I hear during the bubble it was temporarily increased.

Sounds like a 'magic number' to me. What's it based on?

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#99

Post by mynameisvlad »

dudul wrote: post #91
mynameisvlad wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't fully correct. For most Canadians, for example, the H1B is the stepping stone between the TN (a nonresident-only status) and EBX. You can certainly get an employment based visa on a TN, but the process is complicated, has many rules and restrictions, and is just a whole lot more simple with a H1B.

It's possible yes. But I think Canada is a special case considering all the special rules that exist between the US and Canada. An H1B may be "simpler", but considering the lottery stats it's far from being a given. I surely am glad I got mine a while ago before the H1B program became so crazy, with the CAP being reached in literally hours.

1 in 3 (last year) or 1 in 4 (this year) isn't too horrible when you have a few years to apply before they stop issuing TN(/OPT) extensions. That said, you could get crazy unlucky and not get it each time, in which case, that would really suck. You do have other avenues at that point at some companies, like going the L-1 route, but you'd still have to move.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#100

Post by titomc »

hatred wrote: post #75
GreaterFool wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I had to give in writing to my employer that If I get a promotion which changes my job role more than 50%, my entire process will be reset. So in EB2 the wait time is 7 years. I would have to wait 14 years if a get a promotion or a good raise even. If I change my employer & if I am lucky I can keep my position in the queue. Going by these draconian rules I will never settle at 60 !.I don't believe in luck,but hardwork. US H1B is based on pure luck and not in skills. Canada immigration system is point based and evaluates your skills not your luck. So goodbye US and hello Canada is my course of action.
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