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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

#281

Post by joelbluminator »

pkaye wrote: post #174
joelbluminator wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Canada is more strict, not at all, but would like to hear from commenters who moved to Canada. Especially draconian is the fact that the spouse of a h1b holder can't work (last I checked). As an immigrant in the Netherlands that's not the case there and it's a huge deal breaker for me to ever think of the U.S.

In the US the spouse of an H1B visa holder can work.

You may or may not be right (maybe it has changed recently), but the fact it's such a constant struggle for spouses would deter me as an immigrant https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2019/02/25/h1b-vi...

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

#282

Post by fredfoobar »

OzzyB wrote: post #227
runawaybottle wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free college I guess. Oh wait... That’s a very interesting thing, I had no idea. So a sensible thing to do would be to increase that fee substantially and have it go straight to subsidizing degree programs that aren’t creating enough home grown talent. In other words, the company should expect to pay close to market rate per H1B plus the fee. We remove the incentives to abuse the program for cost reduction, and strai…

That's a good idea, but alas I fear such a proposal would be deemed too... umm nationalistic or something... better to have local talent pay through the nose for their qualifications so that they can then compete on the global market with folks that don't have such debt.

It's easy to paint the "other" as the enemy and rail against them for your troubles. In reality, the problem is much closer at home.

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

#283

Post by triceratops »

tracer4201 wrote: post #176
fredfoobar wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There’s nothing illegal going on here. I posted earlier that I was at an oil and gas company in Houston, a Fortune 10 company at the time. We had IT contractors from Larsen and Toubro. As an example, one guy who reported to me was paid < $20 an hour after L&TI and another contracting company in the middle took their cut. He wasn’t thrilled with that situation but his other option was to quit and go back to India. The…

> The worst part was I couldn’t hire him directly because of his contract. He wasn’t allowed to quit and directly work for us.

How so? Presumably he signed his contract in India - how would his company enforce it?

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

#284

Post by weyland108 »

pkaye wrote: post #165
alexandercrohde wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is no “opt” visa it’s “optional Practical training”. It’s for a limited duration after he graduates also the rules are sketchy if he Would be let back into the country if wants to travel home to see family . If the employer wants to continue his employment he has no choice but to go on H1b. And then H1b has its own requirements and problems with it. Try to understand a lot of people “abusing” the system have not other legal recourse to keep their lives going.

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

#285

Post by tinyhouse »

triceratops wrote: post #270
tinyhouse wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salary is not even the issue. The main issue is the employment restrictions. Instead of making H1-B a visa that lets an individual full freedom (like green card), it's tied to an employer and moving jobs is not that easy, and many employers also sponsor for green card, which is another process that can take years and make it harder to move. During this time the employee has little leverage asking for promo or raises.…

H-1B holders can change jobs even without a green card. It's more of a hassle (takes 4-6 weeks) and has been made worse by this administration's repeated suspension of premium processing of applications. But visa holders aren't "tied" to their employers or "indentured servants".

I said it's not that easy, not that it's impossible. Also, H1-B transfer cost some money and involves lawyers, so some companies, like many startups, don't want to deal with that. The bottom line is that H1-B employees are at a disadvantage.

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

#286

Post by austincheney »

rootsudo wrote: post #267
austincheney wrote: post #233

My common sense frustration here is how can the US possibly have a critical shortage of developers on languages that are 20 to 50 years old? We have the third highest population in the world and claim to have excellent education, and these are high paying jobs at 2x-3x the national average yearly income. So what qualifies the shortage? Is it like agriculture where Americans are too entitled for the work? Are American…

1. Developers dying, aging out, retiring. 2. No real investment/push into learning legacy langauges. 3. Philippines/Indian BPO encourage and actually train on the job. If you look at accenture/whatever agency, even IBM, they'll guarantee a job in that country if they stick with the on the job training. In those countries, entry level, know nothing developers make $500/$1000 a month, best, vs being experienced in the…

> 6-12K/yr is waaayyy cheaper then, 70K/yr.

Isn’t that irrelevant? People working in the US on an H1B are not earning such low foreign wages.

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

#287

Post by joelbluminator »

toast0 wrote: post #199
joelbluminator wrote: post #25

And yet everyone and their mother wanna move there no matter the price paid in uncertainty, pressure and mental health. They could try go to a country with a straight forward immigration process like Canada, but money is more important than anything else to some people.

If you're immigrating for economic opportunity, it would make sense to try to make the most of it. A lot of people have a plan to make a bunch of money for 10-20 years and then go back and be entreprenerial in their home countries etc. Canada may (or may not) be a better permanent home, but if the goal is to make a bunch of money, that's not the best place to do it.

That's fine, as long as they realise there's a big price to pay.

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

#288

Post by BeetleB »

fredfoobar wrote: post #253
BeetleB wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying H1-B less than prevailing wage is illegal/fraudulent. However, there are many legal tricks to get around it.

if you know them, make them public, push them to be illegal. Also, I'm curious to know what those "tricks" are.

I'm not referring to a deep secret. This is well documented. Just search the Internet for H1-B "prevailing wage" loophole and you'll find some.

(Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but it is quite nuanced and I don't remember the details).

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

#289

Post by runawaybottle »

fredfoobar wrote: post #276
runawaybottle wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free college I guess. Oh wait... That’s a very interesting thing, I had no idea. So a sensible thing to do would be to increase that fee substantially and have it go straight to subsidizing degree programs that aren’t creating enough home grown talent. In other words, the company should expect to pay close to market rate per H1B plus the fee. We remove the incentives to abuse the program for cost reduction, and strai…

> In other words, the company should expect to pay close to market rate per H1B plus the fee. what's different now? they're legally required to do both as of now. Are you telling me that the H1-B that is hired doesn't do any work and free-loading off the American economy without paying any taxes (like Social Security, which they don't get to access). Could you share what that job posting was? I'd love to look at it,…

I’m not implying anything about the actual workers.

I’m mostly being suspicious of corporations that have over 50% of their staff as h1bs or off shore. I feel that’s probably set up that way for one of the common reasons in business ($$$$).

Just trying to learn how the math works out. I have no doubt Google is hiring the very best worldwide, but I have sincere suspicions that your average enterprise found a way to keep tech costs down by using these loopholes.

Also to your last point, this is something no one can prove. How am I going to prove that a company can hire that talent locally? They’ll just say they met with candidates and they weren’t up to snuff. You can’t prove anything in that situation, all you can really do is look at the numbers from a bird’s eye view and see that hey, over half your staff is world class rare talent apparently.

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

#290

Post by QuixoticQuibit »

bguillet wrote: post #241
seibelj wrote: post #187

Simple solution - auction off the H1B visas. This will ensure only the most needed, highest-value employees get it. Works with any number of visas. I fail to see why this easy, simple fix that also earns money for the government is not applied.

Because then no small company can compete with the big ones in the auction...

Reserve an allotment for smaller companies using the existing lottery system.
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