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Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

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Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#161

Post by jaaron »

noobermin wrote: post #84
samfisher83 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can look at the data, SV companies aren't paying H1B people low wages. Unless you think 200-300k is low wages.

Is this true? The argument I've seen is that H1B's are liked by SV because they can be paid less.

My anecdotal experience as a hiring manager in tech firms for over a decade: it’s not about money, it’s about quickly finding qualified employees. Unemployment has been (until recently) low. There wasn’t some large supply of unemployed, qualified engineers sitting around. Nearly everyone I hired already had a job. Expanding the search globally just gave me a better chance of finding someone.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#162

Post by beervirus »

fredfoobar wrote: post #128
retortio wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to remember is that in many cases H1-B workers are brought over by sponsoring companies which take a huge cut (I know cases of 40% or more) out of their salaries for the service of securing them the Visa. So those salaries might appear to be a certain number but the workers themselves may actually receive significantly less while some rent seeking company stashes the differences. I know for a fact that in m…

I'm sorry to break it to you, if your company isn't paying prevailing wages, they're doing something illegal. They need to be shut-down, not the whole fucking program.

Why would that be illegal?

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#163

Post by tracer4201 »

samfisher83 wrote: post #66
retortio wrote: post #59

H1-B was intended for highly skilled workers that the US had a real shortage of. But now it's just being abused to bring in captive workers that are willing to accept lower wages and worse working conditions than otherwise while crowding out US workers. What if, instead of bowing to corporate greed which cares not a bit for our country or our people, we actually invested in our own population and trained them to do t…

You can look at the data, SV companies aren't paying H1B people low wages. Unless you think 200-300k is low wages.

I’d love to see comprehensive data on this. I worked at a fortune 10 oil and gas company in Houston. We had onshore contractors across a range, but I know a few of them made less than $18 an hour. The rest that we paid went to two different contracting companies.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#164

Post by blntechie »

rantwasp wrote: post #145
blntechie wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Application process starts in April but even when visa is approved and processed, the holder can’t enter before October 1.

yeah. it starts in October but they cannot take the visa back, right?

Apparently all visa holders will be denied entry so basically they can’t enter until this order expires.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#165

Post by pkaye »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #69
dx87 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If H-1B visas were being used how they were intended, they would be a good thing, but we often see them used as a way to get cheap labor, or even directly replace American workers. The company I work at has H-1B junior web developers, hardly "very niche, hard to fill" positions that they can't find any qualified Americans to do.

For a while I wasn't sure if this was just some "talking point." Then one day, on a hiking meetup, I met a guy who was ranting about his job that was to write "oddly hyper-specific job descriptions that might seem to make no sense" to bring in cheaper h1b candidates. So yeah, it's a problem.

Years back I had a college friend who was hired on an OPT visa. When they wanted to convert his visa to H1B (I think) they kept getting suitable candidates so had to rewrite the requirements so its only suited to him. He confided this to me as he felt bad but really needed that job.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#166

Post by goostavos »

noobermin wrote: post #84
samfisher83 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can look at the data, SV companies aren't paying H1B people low wages. Unless you think 200-300k is low wages.

Is this true? The argument I've seen is that H1B's are liked by SV because they can be paid less.

I think it's more that they're fairly indentured. Their visa is tied to a specific _kind_ of work, they're legally prevented from making money in any other way other than their current job, and while they can change jobs, my understanding is it is generally viewed as risky (for instance, if the new place doesn't work out, you've got a few short months to find employment or your visa is no good and you have to uproot your life)

It'd be really interesting to see data on how often H1B's change jobs compared to the rest of the population.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#167

Post by pmoriarty »

retortio wrote: post #59

H1-B was intended for highly skilled workers that the US had a real shortage of. But now it's just being abused to bring in captive workers that are willing to accept lower wages and worse working conditions than otherwise while crowding out US workers. What if, instead of bowing to corporate greed which cares not a bit for our country or our people, we actually invested in our own population and trained them to do t…

"What if, instead of bowing to corporate greed which cares not a bit for our country or our people, we actually invested in our own population and trained them to do the jobs H1-B workers currently do."

Who's this "our people" you're talking about?

As a US citizen, I consider every person in the world as part of my people, and I don't begrudge any individual coming and working or training in the US.

The more people, from whichever country, have access to good education and good jobs, the better.

Good education and jobs should not be reserved for people who happen to live or be born in a particular place, be descended from particular people, nor just those who managed to get certain bureaucratic paperwork.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#168

Post by ckaygusu »

armada651 wrote: post #88
ckaygusu wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't get kicked out because lack of visa. For people in country in status, effect of this would be the inability to get back into US if one leaves.

You need a Visa one way or the other to stay in the US as an alien. Besides even if you weren't kicked out, how are you going to make a living without a work authorization? Overstaying your Visa is illegal. I know ICE isn't going to knock on your door right away, but it's going to negatively affect future Visa applications (visiting also requires a Visa).

No, you do not need a visa to STAY in the country. Legal status and having a visa in your passport is not tied together.

Your legal status is shown in your I-94. You can get into the country in a status, and adjust to another, without having a visa to reflect the new status.

If you leave the country and want to get back in, however, you need to have the right visa.

Again, a visa is only required to have a CBP officer admit you into the country in a specific status. After getting in, it does not have much importance.

What Trump is trying to do is, hack his way into enforcing the policies he thinks it is a good idea. Since SCOTUS gave him a carte blanche with respect to admitting aliens into the country, in order to stop H1B, he is using the same legislation. That lets him only to stop people from getting in; other ways of stopping it either takes time or needs to go through Congress.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#169

Post by on_and_off »

retortio wrote: post #59

H1-B was intended for highly skilled workers that the US had a real shortage of. But now it's just being abused to bring in captive workers that are willing to accept lower wages and worse working conditions than otherwise while crowding out US workers. What if, instead of bowing to corporate greed which cares not a bit for our country or our people, we actually invested in our own population and trained them to do t…

I came to the USA on an H1B visa 2 years ago.

On a high salary and with the promise of being sponsored for a green card.

I got my green card just before covid impacted the USA and still have a pretty high salary (in the same range of my US born colleagues).

I already had a great job in my home country, I was not going to come to the USA to be paid a pittance.

Yeah, there is abuse of the green card system but it is in place because there aren't enough skilled workers in the USA.

Re: Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year

#170

Post by akira2501 »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #2

The Silicon Valley was built on the backs of H1-B workers. There’s the bay wouldn’t be the technical hub without access to the global workforce.

The biggest employers of H1-B workers have almost always been consulting companies, most of them located well outside the valley.
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