Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

mercurynews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 235 posts

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#41

Post by Mountain_Skies »

yazan94 wrote: post #37
koolba wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's awesome about this approach is that it naturally leads to max revenue for the government as well. The only counter I've heard to it is that Joe's Tech Corp in Podunk, USA cannot compete with big city salaries and would never be able to get any filled. Though I see that as a feature not a bug.

Why would that be a feature not a bug? The Amazons, Googles, and Goldman Sachs of the US aren't the only companies that need talent.

And even if they were, Google and Amazon (maybe Goldman Sachs too) have talent spread out across the country, even in what is dismissively called flyover country. Certainly these locations aren't their main wells of talent but they're still important to the companies.

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#42

Post by Mountain_Skies »

Old_Thrashbarg wrote: post #31
privateSFacct wrote: post #4

Ugh, these cases give H1B's a bad name. I do wish there was crackdown on crap like this. Where I work the H1B applicants (who don't get selected) have masters, from a US university, for a degree that applies specifically to their job. These folks should be on the red carpet to US citizenship. They have checked every box. Instead they get treated like crap. They should SHUT DOWN these other players who clog up the pro…

> They should SHUT DOWN these other players who clog up the process. Or we could focus on making the process uncloggable and work towards the free movement of labor which could add $78T to the global GDP. https://www.economist.com/the-world-if/2017/07/13/a-world-of...

How evenly would that $78 billion be distributed. Would some countries or groups end up as net losers?

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#43

Post by repiret »

dllthomas wrote: post #6
privateSFacct wrote: post #4

Ugh, these cases give H1B's a bad name. I do wish there was crackdown on crap like this. Where I work the H1B applicants (who don't get selected) have masters, from a US university, for a degree that applies specifically to their job. These folks should be on the red carpet to US citizenship. They have checked every box. Instead they get treated like crap. They should SHUT DOWN these other players who clog up the pro…

> c) allow all employers one applicant before awarding more slots, so the body shop mills have to compete with small business who have real jobs for real people and are not just playing percentage games (100K applications with 5k actual jobs available). Won't that just mean the body shops create 100K subsidiaries?

Probably. Another approach would be to cap the percentage of H1B employees you have.

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#44

Post by fernandopj »

usaphp wrote: post #39
throwaway082729 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been here for 17+ years, earn $650k/yr and I'm still in the same boat. I'm at the mercy of the govt. if I want to change jobs. Moreover, I need to restart the labor certification process and reapply for my green card though I get to keep the same priority date. There's no end in sight i.e. I cannot predict when I'll get my green card due to the per-country cap and backlog. Worse, I cannot quit and take time off…

Why not get an investor visa? It's easily convertible to green card according to several people I know who did it. You only need $500K or so for the whole thing. And investment money were returned even with some profit.

As I recall it doesn't even need to be $500k upfront, you have to (show/prove) you'll invest that and generate jobs in a couple of years.

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#45

Post by akshat_h »

m0zg wrote: post #25
wharnal wrote: post #14

> Sagarwala, according to the ruling in Washington, D.C. U.S. District Court, received an H-1B visa in 2012, but those visas are tied to specific employers. So when she sought to change jobs in August last year, the prospective new employer, outsourcing firm HSK Technologies, had to go through the visa application process again. So she had lived in the US for six years and still had to beg the government for permissi…

You only have to do that if your new job is significantly different than your existing one. You do have to notify the government (USCIS probably) that you're changing jobs, bu that's not "visa application process again" if your new job is similar, and you're unlikely to be denied. Job changes are very dangerous for H1-Bs in other ways and employers know it (and abuse it, nearly all of them). Basically if your employe…

and you'll have to GTFO the US within (IIRC) 2 weeks.

I think there was a grace period of 60 days introduced in 2017 though I am not sure on the status of it now.

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#46

Post by duxup »

paxys wrote: post #36
duxup wrote: post #28

I'd really just like to see some sort of minimum pay that is relatively high so that is these are roles that are something the company feels strong enough to shell out the money. $120k? Something like that?

$120k qualifies for low income benefits in San Francisco, so yeah that's not going to matter.

Maybe it should be a bidding process ;)

Want the spot, spots are starting at 120k...

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#47

Post by yazan94 »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #5
privateSFacct wrote: post #4

Ugh, these cases give H1B's a bad name. I do wish there was crackdown on crap like this. Where I work the H1B applicants (who don't get selected) have masters, from a US university, for a degree that applies specifically to their job. These folks should be on the red carpet to US citizenship. They have checked every box. Instead they get treated like crap. They should SHUT DOWN these other players who clog up the pro…

The simple solution is to give every h1b worker a temporary green card or somehow allow them free mobility of work within the United states. Being allowed to move jobs at will, vs being beholden to the hiring companies for sponsorship, will quickly kill these body shops and also let us know if tech firms really are being honest about a shortage of skilled engineers.

I don't think this solution makes sense. I agree that , from an ethical standpoint, there should to be better protections for H1B holders. But giving everyone free reign to change jobs is also ripe for abusing the system and possibly flooding the market without a general way to gauge need for that particular H1B applicant's skillset.

Currently, the process is that you need to find a company that is willing to sponsor you, then that company needs to file paperwork with the government to explain the wages, job description, etc. And then this application is either accepted or rejected based on whatever guidelines they use[1].

If we keep this situation and start allow workers to move around wherever they want, the company just ate the paperwork legal costs and the role they hired for might not even stay filled for long, prompting them to redo the process.

[1] https://www.immi-usa.com/h1b-application-process-step-by-ste...

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#48

Post by trustfundbaby »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #7
trustfundbaby wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simple solution is to give every h1b worker a temporary green card or somehow allow them free mobility of work within the United states. Being allowed to move jobs at will, vs being beholden to the hiring companies for sponsorship, will quickly kill these body shops and also let us know if tech firms really are being honest about a shortage of skilled engineers.

Would never happen. Too many people benefit from having a slave that can't leave their job without getting deported. > shortage of skilled engineers ...at peanut pricing.

exactly. It makes too much sense. Which is why it needs to happen, Canada has a skilled worker program and they give you a green card when you arrive. America doesn't need a visa designation in my opinion, just copy the skilled worker designation from Canada and you're there.

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#49

Post by scarejunba »

usaphp wrote: post #39
throwaway082729 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been here for 17+ years, earn $650k/yr and I'm still in the same boat. I'm at the mercy of the govt. if I want to change jobs. Moreover, I need to restart the labor certification process and reapply for my green card though I get to keep the same priority date. There's no end in sight i.e. I cannot predict when I'll get my green card due to the per-country cap and backlog. Worse, I cannot quit and take time off…

Why not get an investor visa? It's easily convertible to green card according to several people I know who did it. You only need $500K or so for the whole thing. And investment money were returned even with some profit.

It's a million dollars now. They changed it.

Re: H-1B: Federal judge backs government’s narrower view of ‘specialty occupation’

#50

Post by favorited »

jimbob45 wrote: post #13

It's tough to convince America that you need to import immigrants because there isn't a single American that can possibly fill the job. Some candidate (cough) is going to bring that up in the next election and I'm not sure I've seen a legitimate argument against it that isn't a generalization.

Big tech companies aren't going to replace H-1B consultants with Americans, they'll just fill those roles offshore.
Post reply on HN