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H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

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Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#41

Post by goatinaboat »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #28
tomschlick wrote: post #25

IMO, H1Bs should be given out via action style based on salary where the highest bidders (companies that need to fill the positions) get them. That's the only simple way to make sure they are not trying to replace higher cost US workers with lower cost H1B workers who are beholden to their employers every whim over threat of being kicked out.

But how do you fix the fact that large consulting companies could be paying more than say, a startup ?

The only reason large “consulting” companies do it is to undercut wages. So there is no risk of that happening in an auction system.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#42

Post by cletus »

Average salary? Yawn. Now go and break it down by Indian IT oursourcing companies vs everyone else, with and without visa, and then get back to me.

The inability or unwillingness to see H1B visa abuse by these companies in particular is mind-boggling at this point.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#43

Post by petilon »

cptskippy wrote: post #23
petilon wrote: post #11

This article is comparing the average salary of junior engineers (because H-1B employees tend to be junior, they move off of H-1B into green cards after a few years) with the average salary of software engineers as a whole.

> they move off of H-1B into green cards after a few years In theory, not in practice.

In practice if they can't or decided not to apply for a green card they leave after 6 years.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#44

Post by bumby »

henvic wrote: post #29
bumby wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What other artificial employment barriers do you advocate removing? They may not all be just or implemented particularly well, but I think there are some (e.g., child labour, work-health standards, etc.) that make sure the economy is serving society and not the other way around.

What about if we move this discussion to focus on how you fear people from poor countries might have the competency to be your competitor in the job market? I used to make just USD 5-10 an hour as a senior software engineer before joining a company in another country. I have no sympathy for people who were born in a developed country and feels entitled to get a job I could possibly get just because I wasn't born ther…

This type of reaction doesn't reflect on you very well and doesn't generally fit with the HN guidelines to provide substantive discussion while assuming good faith. I'm sorry you were paid poorly. The unfortunate reality is that we are often paid commensurate with our ability to negotiate and not necessarily based on our skill.

With that said, you made an awful lot of assumptions based on a single comment. I am honestly curious about what (if any) regulations you feel are necessary and which you do not.

I'll help make the discussion easier. Trimming the snark out of your comment, it sounds like you'd rather favor a merit-based immigration policy. What do you think is the best way to implement that?

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#45

Post by klipt »

petilon wrote: post #43
cptskippy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they move off of H-1B into green cards after a few years In theory, not in practice.

In practice if they can't or decided not to apply for a green card they leave after 6 years.

Well if you're from India you can apply but the green card backlog for India is ~80 years so you're still going to be on H1-B for a long time.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#46

Post by shrimp_emoji »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #40
JamesSchriver wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality that is not going to be well received by people here is that you don't seem to understand that the H1B visa is not some exercise in globalist altruism for foreigners over native people in their own homes; it is a ruse, a scam to masquerade the wealth pillage by the ruling class from their own nature middle and working class, by driving down wages and salaries, while also using it to cover up the reality t…

> every "immigrant" that is imported to pillage wealth and opportunities from the native population. You realize the « native population » of the US was victim of a genocide right ?

Sorry, I think he meant current-native.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#47

Post by thatfrenchguy »

cptskippy wrote: post #23
petilon wrote: post #11

This article is comparing the average salary of junior engineers (because H-1B employees tend to be junior, they move off of H-1B into green cards after a few years) with the average salary of software engineers as a whole.

> they move off of H-1B into green cards after a few years In theory, not in practice.

We could just fix that by having employees apply for green cards instead of the company sponsoring them.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#48

Post by whatshisface »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #39
whatshisface wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no evidence outside of my own conjecture to support such a thing Every economist believes in supply and demand curves. If there are any H1Bs being awarded to replaceable programmers (as opposed to specialized programmers with no American counterparts, as was the intended use of the system), then wages are being depressed. It's practically a law of physics.

Except supply and demand for employment is not elastic at all, so it’s not really a fair comparaison.

Demand for programmers is nowhere more elastic than HackerNews, where startups are being created to hire programmers. Supply is also pretty elastic on HackerNews, where many people are learning to code for the first time. The front page is usually full of examples of elasticity in both supply and demand.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#49

Post by mersenne »

commandlinefan wrote: post #6
crb002 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were a VC I would invest huge in Mexico City talent development. Far more under-trained talent there and same time zone so remote from MC is temporally seamless.

Harder to find English speakers there, though. Plus, Mexico's government is a lot more uncertain than India's.

From my experience, it's actually kind of easy to find English speakers here. That's why a lot of US-based tech companies are opening up teams here or recruiting people from here. The government's uncertainty has not affected business for this particular case.

Re: H-1B Visa Most Used for 'Software Engineer,' 'Software Developer' Roles

#50

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

uasm wrote: post #24
petilon wrote: post #11

This article is comparing the average salary of junior engineers (because H-1B employees tend to be junior, they move off of H-1B into green cards after a few years) with the average salary of software engineers as a whole.

> "H-1B employees tend to be junior" You do realize that this generalization can't possibly be true? H-1B are reserved for "highly skilled immigrants" carrying out skilled work. You won't find kitchen staff, taxi drivers or librarians on H-1Bs. As a company, junior engineers simply aren't worth the time and effort that comes with sponsoring H-1Bs. Software isn't an "ass in seat" industry - sponsoring juniors simply i…

You do realize that the "highly skilled" part has been systematically ignored for a couple decades now?
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