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New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#411

Post by selimthegrim »

ianai wrote: post #383
_Wintermute wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreign science grads are what is driving the US as a leader in R&D. Look at the post-docs at labs in MIT, look at the US Nobel prize winners - the majority of them are immigrants If companies are limited to domestic scientists then they'll quite happily move their R&D departments to countries with more relaxed immigration laws. Foreign universities will happily take the best researchers from around the world that ar…

The elephant no one seems to talk about is: Why are universities not accepting more "local" grad students? In my experience, it was the standardized tests. I was completing an undergrad in math while attempting to the GRE. Meanwhile I heard stories of students in other countries essentially focusing on the GRE as their undergrad equivalents weren't as time consuming/rigorous.

If you want to go to grad school and you spend more than like maybe two weekends studying for the general GRE, maybe you should consider other options. (The subject GREs are another can of worms entirely)

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#412

Post by hn_news »

WildUtah wrote: post #363
_Wintermute wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There should be no problem continuing to hire PhDs and other foreigners with actual unique skillsets at $130k. You're applying your software-dev tainted view of salaries to the sciences - how much do you think a typical PhD-holding research scientist earns?

Scientists used to make a good living in the USA. Now the market is flooded with cheap foreigners and science is a road to poverty. Ending the employment of cheap foreigners, including as TAs and RAs, would go a long way to making science a respectable profession again. And it would open the field to American women. When math and science professors can't make a decent living to support a family until after their prim…

In grad school i was one of those TAs teaching science to 1st/2nd year university kids. Let me tell you, i was horrified and could not believe these kids paid $50k/year to attend these essentially "baby sitting" classes with high school level information.. at most. 95% kids knew nothing IMO and were planning to go to med schools, i pissed off many of them (as i later discovered) by not giving them anything higher than a C (honestly they deserved to fail). They thought i was too hard one them, but all i was looking for is understanding of the subject and they clearly had very over the surface level of understanding .. Where i come from they would not even be able to enter the university at all...

To me the educational system is clearly broken, most schools in USA are unable to produce quality talent. One of the things that annoyed me was the love of multiple choice tests .. i never encountered one in academia until i came to the USA. What, they tell you the answer when you take the test? Whats the point of the test?

Until USA fixes education system ground up starting from the elementary school to high school to college there will continue to be a need for talent from outside of the country. Until teaching becomes a highly respected and competitive profession (see Japan) - things will not change.

There is a lot of demand for smart well educated people in this country and Since America does not have enough of these people inside (see last election results lol) there will continue to be a flow of brains from the outside of the country.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#413

Post by selimthegrim »

BuckRogers wrote: post #110
readhn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people with core science backgrounds are working on h1b visas today in this country. This bill can really screw up a lot of lives.

I'd argue the situation already has. Untold hollowing out of American kid's futures to save a couple bucks on K-12 education and a bit on wages.

In what sense? Why are they entitled to a PhD?

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#414

Post by mavelikara »

kstrauser wrote: post #183
hocuspocus wrote: post #7

Color me surprised, I commented on many related threads recently but this sounds actually pretty good! $130k is maybe a little high for seed stage startups but given that we're talking about relocating engineers to the most expensive region in the world, I believe it's fair. And the path from F-1 to Green Card will solve companies taking advantage of people on OPT status, at least partially.

Well, and given that the premise of H1-B visas is that "we literally couldn't find a local who could do this", I'm OK with that. Outside the Bay Area, you're probably not going to pay a frontend website programmer $130K on an H1-B. You're not supposed to, though! You can find plenty of that talent already in the country. If you need specific PhD-level STEM skills that you haven't been able to find locally, you're pro…

> Well, and given that the premise of H1-B visas is that "we literally couldn't find a local who could do this", I'm OK with that.

H-1B visa does not have such a premise. Green card applications do though - are you confusing the two?

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#415

Post by neeleshs »

gautambay wrote: post #325
ones_and_zeros wrote: post #25

Here is the summary straight from the horses mouth: https://lofgren.house.gov/uploadedfiles/high_skilled_bill_sx... A few points: - This does not raise the salary requirement to $130k/yr. This only applies to employers that do not want to do the extra paper work for "attestations regarding recruitment and non-displacement of U.S. workers" - It takes a "market based" allocation strategy which allows "cash bonuses and…

Thanks for this! I've been on multiple H1B visas, at both large companies and startups. I've also sponsored H1B visas as an employer. I would support this bill. The headline is a classic example of sensational journalism by the Times of India. The $130k salary requirement applies only to "dependent employers", defined as employers with over 15% of their workforce on H1Bs. This is clearly aimed at reducing H1B misuse…

There are enough unscrupulous actors that will pay 130k on paper and have ways of paying much less in reality. Enforcement and audits will also have to increase correspondingly, and penalties must be severe.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#416

Post by mavelikara »

foldr wrote: post #229
gregw2 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is an issue. On h1b your (non-citizen) wife cant legally work without getting her own working h1b or other visa which can be tricky.

I thought that this changed recently? It's now, at least theoretically, quite easy for spouses of H1B visa holders to apply for permission to work.

Spouses of certain H-1B holder - those you are in the green card backlog - can get work permit. This is typically called H4EAD. Here is the relevant notice from USCIS: https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-worker...

This provision came into existence in 2015. There are rumors that Trump administration might rescind this provision.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#417

Post by hn_news »

tempw wrote: post #294
readhn wrote: post #22

Whoever is working on the bill is disconnected from reality and the damage it is doing long term here. Why's everyone so focused on IT? Everyone can learn how to code, it's not a real science.. Oh it's hacker news :) Now walk into any major university science department. See who the newly minted PhD students are in biology, chemistry, physics, math ... Most are foreigners. This bill will send them home after they gra…

You and some other folks seem to be oblivious on how H1-B works and this bill itself. You need to have 12 years of working experience OR bachelors degree OR a mix of both for H1-B eligibility. Regarding students (PhDs or anyone on F-1 visa), they will get straight path to permanent residence.

There is no straight path for students from F-1 visa to permanent residence.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#418

Post by manicdee »

neeleshs wrote: post #415
gautambay wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this! I've been on multiple H1B visas, at both large companies and startups. I've also sponsored H1B visas as an employer. I would support this bill. The headline is a classic example of sensational journalism by the Times of India. The $130k salary requirement applies only to "dependent employers", defined as employers with over 15% of their workforce on H1Bs. This is clearly aimed at reducing H1B misuse…

There are enough unscrupulous actors that will pay 130k on paper and have ways of paying much less in reality. Enforcement and audits will also have to increase correspondingly, and penalties must be severe.

In Australia, 7-11 was paying staff minimum wage then demanding half of it back in cash. Literally mugging their own staff.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#419

Post by [deleted] »

itshoptx wrote: post #63

This increase in salary is not for the H1-B workers benefit; rather, it's to make hiring them more expensive so American workers will be considered first--as they should be. I would support any law that REQUIRED American companies to hire Americans first and then consider foreigners ONLY if no qualified Americans can be found in the 50 US states. If America wants to do good by her workers, she needs to put Americans…

[deleted]

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#420

Post by ajmurmann »

sokoloff wrote: post #338
ajmurmann wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for the cash bonuses. All the workers might underperform and never see the bonus.

Here's where software people find "loopholes" like they're looking for edge case bugs in code. Suppose Tata pulls exactly what you describe. Do you think that stands a half a chance in hell of standing up to scrutiny by DoL?

That's interesting. So the laws aren't being taken literally?
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