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

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351–360 of 684 posts

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

#351
I’m curious. HN has largely agreed that the current pandemic showed that remote work is absolutely doable. At the same time, people are claiming that the H1B visa, which allows immigrants to work in the US at largely American salaries, are taking away American jobs.

So the stated solution is to do away with the visa and send those people back to their home countries.

So why does anyone believe that when those people go back to their home countries, their employers would choose to hire someone else instead of keeping the same people hired at a fraction of the cost?

I mean, people seem to think that companies would be unhappy about paying someone 75k/yr who was costing them over 200k/yr (salary + payroll taxes, etc) in the US.

It makes absolutely no sense that the job would go to an American. The likelihood is that the job would remain with the same person but now they would pay taxes and spend dollars in their home countries at a fraction of the cost.

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

#352

thank god, I've seen a lot of americans rejected especially POC of varied backgrounds turned down in favor of some H1B nonsense to often it really impacts the ability for folks to rise up and move to new industries

Please explain more, your comment is suspicious given your sign-up time.

what's to explain? h1bs are widely used to gain access to bodies instead of training/developing local talent it's a joke every interview template i've been given seems like it was made to exclude many people who would otherwise be fine

it's not like immigration is bad or anything but the balance is screwed up and and it's causing long term damage it's bad for immigrants and bad for americans

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

#353
post #315

So many people here are celebrating this order due to its supposed abstract benefits but are somehow unaware of the its cruelty. So many visa holders in this country will be unable to leave and enter the country for the foreseeable future. If they have sick parents abroad they will not be able to visit them or, in the most tragic circumstances, say goodbye in person. It won't matter whether someone is a world-class r…

> So many people here are celebrating this order due to its supposed abstract benefits but are somehow unaware of the its cruelty. To be blunt, a nation's citizens and permanent residents' rights to economic prosperity outweigh any temporary worker's right to continued employment. Yes it may be viewed as cruel in the individual case, but the point of these visas are not to provide a vehicle for those workers to come…

How does preventing a legal employee from visiting home and returning to the US help anyone who happened to be born in the US? It serves absolutely no purpose except to be cruel and to satisfy people in this country who enjoy cruelty towards immigrants.

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

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this is indeed an issue. I’m a manager and I am trying to hire. 100% I’d rather find a person who can start in a couple of weeks than several months for a candidate who needs immigration. But there are rarely any local applicants and even when there are they don’t make in the interview. We pay in excess of 300k for all roles so it’s not like we are trying to find cheap talent.

Maybe your recruiting to get interviewers into your pipeline and the interview process just isn't that good. Or perhaps nobody wants to work at your company. Bad management? Bad glassdoor reviews? Don't engage with the local tech scene?

> We pay in excess of 300k for all roles

If it's in excess of $300k for all roles it sounds like a Netflix type company or Netflix itself. I highly doubt nobody wants to work for that company.

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

#355

Disclaimer: I'm an immigrant. There are companies like Cognizant/InfoSys/Tata/... whose business model is based on abusing the H1B system, and that's obviously wrong and I'm quite surprised they get away with it. I'm not defending that. To those who broadly argue against skilled visas, consider this: Most H1B immigrants are between 20-30 age range. The prime age to join the workforce. Think how much investment you ha…

It is very strange that people in this comment section shout "nationalism, BAD" when someone says that skilled people should stay in their own country and potentially help these countries to grow out of poverty, and statements like the one you just made - essentially rob these country of talented people and bring them into US - is somehow not nationalistic and good.

I left my country to escape a totalitarian regime. I think just because you are born in a place doesn't mean you have the responsibility to completely sacrifice your life. Humans collectively have an obligation to help lift poor countries out of poverty. The question is are you against immigration because you genuinely care about the poverty in my country?

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

#356
I worked in the finance industry, IT side. I can say that these work Visas are abused in that industry. Less so in tech and startup space. I think having a min salary that's 2x average for the job would also solve this. I'm will to see what type of data this pause provides.

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

#357
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a nationalist, I think it would be better for those other countries to keep their skilled workers and so benefit. I think every nation has a right to its own existence, space, and policies. And they also get to decide what's right for them 'as a people'. Always optimizing for performance of 'the economy' is not in the best interest of the actual citizens of this country.

Ironically given your username, your mentality would appear to have fit quite well in East Germany where exit visas were required.

There's a reason why Apple wasn't founded in Syria or Google wasn't founded in Russia.

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

#358

All data indicate there is no shortage of US Citizens that could fill STEM positions and that H1-B holders on average make well below market rate. Outright ban is the wrong tool and I can't imagine that this is a reasoned policy response to a well understood abuse of wage-arbitrage. The right answer would be to mandate comparable wages for H1-B immigrants as for median employee with the same experience/tenure etc...…

So 60% draw salaries that are lower than the 50%th earner in that occupation. In other words, they draw salaries that are largely in line with the occupation, although slightly on the lower end.

I suspect if you now do the calculation after adding the fees companies are required to pay the government, along with the lawyers fees most companies have to pay for an H1B visa holder, both of which in most cases will be closer to $10k per year, the H1B earners will be completely in line with the occupation they are employed in.

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

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not letting people in status travel and come back is crazy. It just shows the lack of common sense of the US government. It's the same lack of common sense of the US police and why it's such a mess (besides the systematic racism). Those people wouldn't leave the country as a result - all it means is that you prevent them from visiting their family, sometimes even in emergency situations. It has nothing to do with job…

There is a chance that common sense prevails and they probably will allow some exceptions for those in status. I’m just saying from what I read from immigration news sites and forums so far. We will know soon enough or they might leave it intentionally vague too.

> they might leave it intentionally vague too.

I speculate this is what’s going to happen. When there’s enough backlash, they will clear up the language or ease some restrictions. Meanwhile, people who really need to go out of the country or are re-entering have their lives and careers ruined, probably irreversibly.

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

#360

Terrible idea. Upping the salary requirement for H1-B achieves the goal of using it only for highly-skilled workers. Instead, now employers have to make do with bootcamp grads instead of foreign engineers at lower level positions, hurting businesses.

Yes, thanks, that summarizes the whole situation. Just make min salaries 200k, it could push up us salaries a little, but would mean many or most of those people like those laid off from us universities working in it would not have lost their jobs.
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