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H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

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Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#121

Post by pentae »

throw3322 wrote: post #65

Merit-based visa system used by Canada and Australia should be preferred. It is better for the country (more fluid job market; more long-term high-quality immigrants who will contribute more to social security and other social needs; increased competitiveness of companies and startups; larger tax base), the immigrants (more freedom to change companies), and the Americans (less need to compete with people accepting lo…

The problem with the merit based visa system is it locks out highly talented self-taught individuals without college degrees. There's a lot of them in tech. Even though they have tons of experience in their respected fields the 'merit' systems are weighed heavily on education.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#122

Post by Eridrus »

pentae wrote: post #121
throw3322 wrote: post #65

Merit-based visa system used by Canada and Australia should be preferred. It is better for the country (more fluid job market; more long-term high-quality immigrants who will contribute more to social security and other social needs; increased competitiveness of companies and startups; larger tax base), the immigrants (more freedom to change companies), and the Americans (less need to compete with people accepting lo…

The problem with the merit based visa system is it locks out highly talented self-taught individuals without college degrees. There's a lot of them in tech. Even though they have tons of experience in their respected fields the 'merit' systems are weighed heavily on education.

I think that, more than just locking people out, it incentivises people to acquire credentials they don't need.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#124

Post by ummonk »

pm90 wrote: post #86
ummonk wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salaries for other fields would rise due to the reduced supply of foreign labor. That is a good thing.

No it’s not. These are skilled positions we’re talking about. Skills that take enormous social and economic contributions to develop. The US economy will always benefit from having more skilled workers.

Yes, those enormous social and economic contributions should be adequately compensated.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#125

Post by amf12 »

jedberg wrote: post #47
oh_sigh wrote: post #9

Why not just go to an auction system, where the group that is going to give the highest salary gets the visa? You could adjust it for CoL so all H1Bs don't end up in SF and NYC. What would be bad about this system?

I thought this too, until it was pointed out to me that not every H1-B is an engineer. For example, if you want to bring in someone to teach a rare foreign language at a University, they have a qualifying special skill but they certainly aren’t making the six figure engineer salary.

> if you want to bring in someone to teach a rare foreign language at a University

All public universities are non-profit and thus are exempt from the lottery. I get your point, but regardless of the occupation if its a for-profit institution they should pay high salaries to get talent.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#126

Post by amf12 »

pentae wrote: post #121
throw3322 wrote: post #65

Merit-based visa system used by Canada and Australia should be preferred. It is better for the country (more fluid job market; more long-term high-quality immigrants who will contribute more to social security and other social needs; increased competitiveness of companies and startups; larger tax base), the immigrants (more freedom to change companies), and the Americans (less need to compete with people accepting lo…

The problem with the merit based visa system is it locks out highly talented self-taught individuals without college degrees. There's a lot of them in tech. Even though they have tons of experience in their respected fields the 'merit' systems are weighed heavily on education.

Well this is immigration we are talking about. Generally people without college degrees don't even get a H1 visa to come and work in the US. So its not really a problem with the merit based system. Infact a merit based system which does not require college degree and simply provides some points is better suited to such individuals as they could get high score in other factors.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#127

Post by mavelikara »

pm90 wrote: post #110
mavelikara wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience has been that the long tail, in aggregate, form a large segment of the immigrant graduate population. I already stated this in my previous comment as statement A.

Your experience does not the reality maketh. Statiscally, immigration fraud through this route is uncommon.

> Statiscally, immigration fraud through this route is uncommon.

Citation needed.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#128

Post by BurningFrog »

davidw wrote: post #71
BurningFrog wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some politicians got together and agreed on it.

Which is doubtless a terrible way to go about things. See: the article I posted above.

I agree.

But these are unfortunately political decisions in our society.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#129

Post by GordonS »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #55
brucehoult wrote: post #38

As a person from New Zealand without an advanced degree (from anywhere) but with 30+ years industry experience (and previously granted an H-1B in 2001), this seems like the wrong way to tackle the problem of Indian body shops. I was selected in this year's lottery in April and am still waiting for them to start processing the case -- according to their web site it could easily take until sometime in February, ten mon…

Country quotas are bad. It’s not Indians that are the problem, it’s specifically the Indian body shops. No sense penalizing the good candidates who are doing things right. American tech giants are the ones to blame for this problem. They are hiring massive amounts of contractors (“vendors”) through these companies so they don’t have to have FTEs on their balance sheet. They’ll go away on their own once the market sto…

This is a good point, but realistically, most of the body shops are based in India, and that's not likely to change.

Re: H-1B visa shift may favor tech companies

#130

Post by pm90 »

mavelikara wrote: post #127
pm90 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your experience does not the reality maketh. Statiscally, immigration fraud through this route is uncommon.

> Statiscally, immigration fraud through this route is uncommon. Citation needed.

Sure. Provide anecdotes for justifying your worldview but demand citations from others. That seems totally fair and not hypocritical at all.

In any case, here you go: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Unautho...

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