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Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

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Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#11

Post by Eyas »

cldellow wrote: post #8

This calibre of journalism feels like clickbait or, worse, incompetence. > computer programmers are no longer presumed to be eligible for H-1B visas. This is narrowly true based on what the linked document says. But the intent of document seems to be to rescind old guidance that would consider people with associate's degrees, or in some cases, no degrees, experts. That made sense in the 90s when CS was a newer field…

You're not wrong, but I think slightly talking past the point of the article. I don't know which is right, but my understanding is:

Prior to the guidance, H1-B filers could just say "this is a programmer, thus they are a specialist" and now they need to provide evidence (i.e. more effort in filing/submitting impending applications). So while the big H1-B filers might not have had an intention to sneak in an Associates' Degree holder, their ready-to-be-submitted applications for Bachelors and Masters-degree holding developers just got a whole lot harder (if the rest of what the article says is correct).

I understand this is an old guidance, but it is not clear to me why that in itself means it hasn't been in effect. If it was (which is what the article claims), then this is still a fairly significant last minute change that requires additional last minute documentation for these applications.

Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#12

Post by molyss »

highly disingenuous article. Should be "computer programmers without degree will have to prove their specialty to be eligible to H1B visa". And all of a sudden, it becomes way less scary.

Apparently, having a bachelor's degree and a job in computer science was enough, under certain policies, to be H1B eligible. that the bachelor degree might have been in chemistry or in art wasn't relevant to the old policy. The new policy articulates that the degree should be computer related.

On top of it, it seems the old memorandum was not properly informing on the real policy. The given example sounds very odd though (apparently only programmers who were working for a company who's specialty was _not_ software were eligible for the 2-year degree rule...).

Computer programmer is not in and on itself a "specialized occupation" with the new memo. You also would need to be either senior or have the relevant degrees.

Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#13

Post by ouesp »

inputcoffee wrote: post #9

I wish there was a way to distinguish the quality of a worker from the degrees of a worker. Its not just that one wants a "computer technology worker", but one wants an individual who can communicate, work hard when needed, take on responsibility, easily read and comprehend instructions and so on. These are weakly correlated with degrees or how technical a field of study is. An art history undergrad could easily disp…

IELTS score can evaluate a person's ability in English skills. Canada Express Entry gives points for English skills. While H1B (highly skilled visa) is based on "lottery"

Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#14

Post by dudul »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #6

For TN visas (Canadians and Mexicans only), computer programmers and software _developers_ aren't eligible for visas, but software _engineers_ are. Would this exact situation apply to this new policy?

Serious question, no sarcasm: what is used as a clear and measurable distinction between a software developer and a software engineer?

Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#15

Post by ajaimk »

Read through the official USCIS pdf - this seems to target mainly people with a 2 years degree and people who are at Level I (out of 4) of the Labor Certification pay scales.

As someone on an H1B in this field, I do see this as being a legitimate modification to the code.

Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#16

Post by lephty »

If the workers cannot come to the US, won't the work go to the workers? I think we will see more off-shoring to get around this and other work-visa restrictions talked about by the administration. While the outsourcing companies _love_ sending bodies to the US (which enables them to bill the best rate for the same person/work), they can continue their work in their offshore locations.

Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#19

Post by vmarsy »

Eyas wrote: post #11
cldellow wrote: post #8

This calibre of journalism feels like clickbait or, worse, incompetence. > computer programmers are no longer presumed to be eligible for H-1B visas. This is narrowly true based on what the linked document says. But the intent of document seems to be to rescind old guidance that would consider people with associate's degrees, or in some cases, no degrees, experts. That made sense in the 90s when CS was a newer field…

You're not wrong, but I think slightly talking past the point of the article. I don't know which is right, but my understanding is: Prior to the guidance, H1-B filers could just say "this is a programmer, thus they are a specialist" and now they need to provide evidence (i.e. more effort in filing/submitting impending applications). So while the big H1-B filers might not have had an intention to sneak in an Associate…

>Prior to the guidance, H1-B filers could just say "this is a programmer, thus they are a specialist" and now they need to provide evidence

Only at the Nebraska center, not the California one, nor the Vermont one. And it's only a reminder to the Nebraska center that to be considered a specialist you need to hold a bachelor's degree or higher in that field of study. The California and Vermont one were already applying this rule. It's not clear how many H1-B petitions are event sent to the Nebraska center, but according to [1], originally very few.

> their ready-to-be-submitted applications for Bachelors and Masters-degree holding developers just got a whole lot harder

That's not my understanding of the notice, but our definition of "a whole lot" might differ.

[1] https://www.uscis.gov/i-129-addresses

Re: Changes to USCIS policy on eligibility criteria for H1B visa

#20

Post by owenversteeg »

cldellow wrote: post #8

This calibre of journalism feels like clickbait or, worse, incompetence. > computer programmers are no longer presumed to be eligible for H-1B visas. This is narrowly true based on what the linked document says. But the intent of document seems to be to rescind old guidance that would consider people with associate's degrees, or in some cases, no degrees, experts. That made sense in the 90s when CS was a newer field…

Huh? I know a lot of people I'd consider programming experts who do not have a degree. The majority of programmers I've hired in the last few years don't have a degree (at least in something programming related.) Why do you think there are no experts without degrees?
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