H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers • Hacker News Board

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#111

Post by falsestprophet » Thu, May 05, 2016, 5:43 PM UTC

bgribble wrote: post #17

ProAm wrote: post #11

I think if you use H-1B for your company you should be denied from using any tax breaks when filing US taxes.

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…

"US is a nation of immigrants"

The US is a nation full stop and we can write whatever laws we please without regard to when people arrived here in the first place.

Are Madagascar, Mauritius and Haiti also disallowed from having immigration restrictions because they were also populated in the Modern era?

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#112

Post by maverick_iceman » Thu, May 05, 2016, 5:45 PM UTC

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.

65K open to everyone and 20K for those who possess US masters degree or higher.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#113

Post by RealGeek » Thu, May 05, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

supercanuck wrote: post #64

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 baffles me that some people believe most non-American employees are just "cheap labor". It is not a "belief" because they are cheaper. Everytime this topic comes up, a bunch of Ph.D's are shocked, SHOCKED! to learn that there are companies abusing the system and to learn that Infosys, Wipro and Tata are the leading H1-B Sponsors with an average salary of ~$73,000 http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2015-H1B-Visa-Sp…

Most of the abusers of H-1B are such body shops and consultants. A simple solution is to disallow consultants from sponsoring H-1B. Only the direct employer should be able to sponsor H-1B.

One of my friend was recruited by Tata in India, and then sent to work for Citibank in US. His visa was sponsored by Tata, he gets his paycheck from Tata ($72,000), but he works for Citibank in their office. Citibank pays Tata more than the market salary, and Tata's business model is arbitrage. Citibank could directly hire him at market salary and cut off the middle men.

They are not just abusing H-1B, but L1 visa too.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#114

Post by davidw » Thu, May 05, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

SilverCurve wrote: post #106

davidw wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's Congress's work, so it's likely a compromise between parties.

Which means it's entirely a number pulled out of someone's ass rather than anything related to reality.

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-optimal-number...

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#115

Post by surds » Thu, May 05, 2016, 6:03 PM UTC

supercanuck wrote: post #64

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 baffles me that some people believe most non-American employees are just "cheap labor". It is not a "belief" because they are cheaper. Everytime this topic comes up, a bunch of Ph.D's are shocked, SHOCKED! to learn that there are companies abusing the system and to learn that Infosys, Wipro and Tata are the leading H1-B Sponsors with an average salary of ~$73,000 http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2015-H1B-Visa-Sp…

I have worked at one of the above mentioned companies and I have seen that A LOT of people would be interested in getting to work here at ~73000, which might be lesser than average but works fine for them.

Also, they probably have several other considerations in this matter: - Get the work experience of working in a different country at a client location that means more responsibility, more learning, etc. - Get the option to travel and explore another country, and the job salary covers for the expenses.

Now, usually, the role and responsibilities are that of a technical or functional consultant. But they are not an individual employed directly by the US company. Their employer, one of the above mentioned companies or one of the several ones out there, is contracted.

Note that I haven't worked here in US at any company while being an employee of a consultancy.

I believe that the US based company where the individual works might be charged at a higher hourly rate but only a certain percentage of it makes to the employee and thus they may have lesser salaries. I would love to have this belief clarified, if anyone has any input.

All that being said, I agree that the abuse of H1-B sucks. Though it is all too common outside the bay area. Haven't come across any instances here yet.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#116

Post by khare_ashwini » Thu, May 05, 2016, 6:12 PM UTC

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…

>99% of the time, you have to get an H-1B.

Not if you are a citizen of:

Canada : TN

Singapore, Chile : H1-B1

Australia : E-3

Thanks to trade agreements

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#117

Post by adrenalinelol » Thu, May 05, 2016, 6:15 PM UTC

No Disney or Tata?

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#118

Post by praxulus » Thu, May 05, 2016, 6:18 PM UTC

LukaAl wrote: post #97

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…

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 beh…

>there's a shortage of US Citizen for that job, and they receive market rate salary

That's not quite right. If you can't hire somebody at salary $X, then $X is not the market rate for someone in that position. The language I've heard is "prevailing wage", which can be less than the "market rate" if workers aren't making full use of their bargaining power.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#119

Post by Manishearth » Thu, May 05, 2016, 6:18 PM UTC

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?

Don't know about Disney, but the tech companies pay exactly the same for hires at the same level regardless of where they are originally from.

H1B may have the benefit of being somewhat bonded labor for them, but its not cheap.

Re: H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers

#120

Post by titomc » Thu, May 05, 2016, 6:20 PM UTC

anonte wrote: post #34

There are many Indian consulting/vendor shops out there that flout many H1B rules. 1. They take H1B filing fee from employee. 2. They keep you on bench. if you have no job, the consulting firm will run a dummy payroll for you to maintain legal visa status and you have to pay back payroll taxes to them to make up for their loss. 3. Most of the time they will not have a job before hand as required by H1B programme. The…

Here is the big picture.

Path 1 - worker outside US.

  1. Worker outside US gets in touch with body shops in US. 
  2. The body shops forces the worker to fake their work  experience, take money and apply H1B. 
  3. If it gets thru lottery,the worker lands in US. 
  4. The body shop provides cheap accommodation for the worker.
  5. The body shop runs fake payrolls. 
  6. The workers finds a contract job by faking skills and doing proxy interviews, lip syncs on video interview calls. 
  7. Gets the contract job. 
  8. Gets fired when the employer realises that the worker is fake.
  9. Goto step 5.
 10. In parallel , the body shop will start GC process and the fake worker becomes Green Card holder and finally a citizen.

Path 2 - Foreign students comes for MS in US

  1. Many students comes to US to do master's degree after their bachelors. 
   (especially people from a particular state from India,I do not want to mention the state)
  2. Finishes masters ( 2 years ). Gets an OPT work permit for 2 years.
  3. The body shops recruit these students with nil experience.
  4. Fake up their work experience to say 5 - 6 years.
  5. Runs fake payroll when they are job hunting.
  6. Send these students to work as a contractor and applies H1B for them. Since they have an MS degree , the odds are high for them to get selected in the lottery.
  7. These fake workers outsource their office job to India at night and get it done from an experienced worker for a small amount.
  8. At some point , the employer understands the worker is fake,fires the contractor.
  9. Goto step 5.
  10. In parallel,the body shop will apply for GC in EB2 category and the fake workers becomes a Green card holder within 7 years and eventually a citizen.