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H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

economist.com

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Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than students it would suck for universities, less funding, less infrastructure growth, it would cause a domino effect. If not US then somewhere else, students will figure it out, they are young but it will have a long lasting effect on US. If talented students don't have options out side their home country they will improve the conditions of their home country and cause less brain drain. Especially China and In…

I think students want to study in US (or are willing to pay to study in US) is because after completing education there, they are eligible to find work there. I dont think students want to spend great sums of money studying overseas, because they dont have options in their own country.

There are a ton of Americans studying medicine in India. Simply because its cheaper. So it goes both ways.

I'm pretty sure these Americans plan on working in America after residency.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#332

Regardless of where these jobs are going, H1-Bs are used for the cheap labor, not the best skills. This system has been abused especially by the financial services corporations. First hand experience: If you have an open request to hire, you are required to first look to one of the few outsourcing firms we have a contract with. You cannot post the job for external until you have searched for the "best" person within…

Steve Jobs's dad was a Syrian immigrant. Edit: Changed country.

Syria

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#333
post #321

Why doesn't Germany have the same problem with their 'blue card' which is even more generous than the H1B visa? For an IT graduate, a German blue card only requires a minimum salary of €39,624. Workers can switch jobs easily and there is no lottery - if you have a degree and a job you are pretty much guaranteed a blue card. There is a language barrier, but my guess is that's not a big problem. There should be plenty…

Language barrier is a bigger deal that you might think. One "advantage" Indian nationals have is that they learn English as a second language from childhood, and many schools and most colleges use English for instructions and in textbooks. This is a big motivator for emigrating Indians to choose the US.

Also, US has won the mindshare as the country to immigrate to. It is due to a combination of being the biggest economy, having the largest tech industry and research universities, and the "American Dream" being sold in the media.

Objectively, I would rate Canada and Australia as being more favorable destinations for most potential immigrants. But I must admit that ultimately I chose the US as well. But my reasons were slightly different, I fell in love with the national parks, the interstate highways, and the US constitution (especially the 1st, 2nd, and the 4th amendments).

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#334
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has always been an O-1 visa for super-specialized and talented PHDs.

I came to the US on an H1-B. I work in embedded security (think silicon, PCB level attacks, bootloaders, kernels) which is a field that has, by my best guess, less than a 1000 individuals in it. For whatever reason they are largely European and while there are some that hold PhDs (mostly on the silicon side, some of the attacks there require lots of math) most while barely have finished a bachelors degree (Yours trul…

O-1's are not exclusively for academia. You can have extraordinary ability or achievement in many ways. You just need to be able to prove that.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think students want to study in US (or are willing to pay to study in US) is because after completing education there, they are eligible to find work there. I dont think students want to spend great sums of money studying overseas, because they dont have options in their own country.

There are a ton of Americans studying medicine in India. Simply because its cheaper. So it goes both ways. I'm pretty sure these Americans plan on working in America after residency.

Really? I've never heard of people doing that, how many is "a ton" and how realistic is their hope to practice in the US?

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#336
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to remember is that colleges do take a lot of international students, specifically because they pay a lot more in tuition generally than in-state tuition. http://www.businessinsider.com/foreign-students-pay-up-to-th...

Almost no student pays for PhD or MS programs in the top universities. If you look at the post graduate programs of top universities, it is still dominated by non US students. Why do you think that is the case?

It's mostly economics and a bit of societal incentives.

For an American CS graduate, the opportunity cost of joining grad school is too high. It makes more sense to join the industry immediately and start paying back the massive loans.

For an Indian college graduate, it makes more sense to spend 2-5 years in the grad school if it means getting a job in the US later. With little or no loans to pay back, the earning potential is worth the extra few years of study.

Also on average, Indians and Chinese people tend to value higher education more than their US counterparts. Anecdotally, I have met few Americans who would prefer their spouse and children to go to grad school instead of working full-time after college.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#337
post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no student pays for PhD or MS programs in the top universities. If you look at the post graduate programs of top universities, it is still dominated by non US students. Why do you think that is the case?

It's mostly economics and a bit of societal incentives. For an American CS graduate, the opportunity cost of joining grad school is too high. It makes more sense to join the industry immediately and start paying back the massive loans. For an Indian college graduate, it makes more sense to spend 2-5 years in the grad school if it means getting a job in the US later. With little or no loans to pay back, the earning po…

Great response, totally agree.

One more thing, I've seen a lot of people who go to undergrad in China or India, then go to graduate school in the US. The name of their undergrad doesn't matter, but really it's about getting a reputable name that US companies trust so a US company will hire / sponsor them. On this level, they are usually treated on par with someone you don't have to sponsor with a good undergrad degree.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#338

I went through the entire comment thread and feel like you guys are missing a lot of the H1B benefits by focusing just on tech and the effect of the Indian consultancies. Most PhDs, specially in STEM, math, stats, econ, etc. are not American. And almost all of them end up with a H1B visa at some point if they remain in the US. It might be lottery based if you go to work at any firm, or quota-free if it is in academia…

You are misleading people here. Top CS PHD or other PHDs won't go through H1B; they are most likely going through EB1 which is more efficient. You don't need to wait years to get a green card. Also, people from countries like Australia, Canada, Germany, don't need H1B. Only people from Iran, India, and China need H1B. The better solution, as I talked to variety people and many people suggests, is to raise the salary bar from 60k-ish to 100k-ish, and filter out the unequaled candidates.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#339
post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a crash of the web server or kernel" That rules out 99% of people who are successfully doing the work right now.

It rules out 99% of the people successfully doing something which they claim to be "full stack". They might be great at their jobs, but I don't consider them "full stack". Low-level stuff is always part of the stack. I guess there has been a sort of grade inflation on "full stack". When I go looking in the "Who wants to be hired?" threads for people, my reaction to seeing "full stack" is that the person is almost cer…

I think you're missing the "web developer" part of the full stack. It means you know all tmthe stack required for web development.

Either way, aren't debugging crashes with c/ASM still taught at uni? Or is the idea of using gdb too much these days?

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#340

I went through the entire comment thread and feel like you guys are missing a lot of the H1B benefits by focusing just on tech and the effect of the Indian consultancies. Most PhDs, specially in STEM, math, stats, econ, etc. are not American. And almost all of them end up with a H1B visa at some point if they remain in the US. It might be lottery based if you go to work at any firm, or quota-free if it is in academia…

Even Melania Trump came on H1B to the US. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39632182 But H1B abuse needs to stop. It would even help you if there was a proper alternative​.

H-1B3 are specific for fashion models, so it makes sense that she got one, no? https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-worker...
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