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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

#481

I am on H1B visa currently, one of those with high paying jobs in my current geographic area. I did my Masters in EE and have been on H1B since 2008, waiting for my GC, which may or may not happen. I want to ask a question to those who feel that I should not be here. Why is it wrong for someone like me to move from my home country legally as a student, then decide to work and live here, since it is legal and that opt…

I don't have a strong opinion on whether you should or shouldn't be here, but I wanted to give a different perspective. It's really only tangentially related to this whole discussion. A lot of Americans have been taught that the U.S is the land of opportunity, a place where anyone can come and through hard work can make something out of themselves. What people probably imagine when they think about this is poor immig…

Thanks for that perspective. I understand that it can appear unfair for someone whose ancestors had to build everything from scratch, to watch folks start leading a luxurious life, right from the moment they land here.

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

#482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a strong opinion on whether you should or shouldn't be here, but I wanted to give a different perspective. It's really only tangentially related to this whole discussion. A lot of Americans have been taught that the U.S is the land of opportunity, a place where anyone can come and through hard work can make something out of themselves. What people probably imagine when they think about this is poor immig…

Thanks for that perspective. I understand that it can appear unfair for someone whose ancestors had to build everything from scratch, to watch folks start leading a luxurious life, right from the moment they land here.

On the other hand, there are Americans who firmly believe that highly educated people like yourself from poorer countries shouldn't be giving your knowledge and work to first world western countries that are already wealthy. They think that people like yourself should be back at home, trying to make their own country better, rather than coming to make some other country richer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_drain

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

#483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ke…

> 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. So, you're telling me that…

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

#484

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.

That's simply not true. SV was built in the 60's thru the 80's long before the H1-B visa program started in 1990.

Correct, I meant all immigrants, not just H1-B.

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

#485

I am on H1B visa currently, one of those with high paying jobs in my current geographic area. I did my Masters in EE and have been on H1B since 2008, waiting for my GC, which may or may not happen. I want to ask a question to those who feel that I should not be here. Why is it wrong for someone like me to move from my home country legally as a student, then decide to work and live here, since it is legal and that opt…

I don't have a strong opinion on whether you should or shouldn't be here, but I wanted to give a different perspective. It's really only tangentially related to this whole discussion. A lot of Americans have been taught that the U.S is the land of opportunity, a place where anyone can come and through hard work can make something out of themselves. What people probably imagine when they think about this is poor immig…

[deleted]

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

#486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H1B Employee with 100k Salary contributes $12,400 to Social Security and $2,900 Medicare every year. (Total:$15,300 per year). Majority H1B from India and China are stuck in green card backlog; with the current immigration system, they will never get the green card. Option for them is to stay in the USA on H1B in green card waiting queue or return home. (I do not think this is right or wrong people who are stuck in t…

Just wanted to say that Social Security's Old-Age Income program is available to all non-citizens , regardless of immigration status. It is a good thing to be aware of. The only requirements to meet is 10 years of work in the US (i.e. "40 quarters of coverage (QC's)"). I spoke to someone from India sometime ago, who had come to the US in their late 40s or early 50s. They were planning on going back to India after the…

The max term of H1b is 6 years. You can stay on H1b beyond 6 years either by being on the green card backlog queue (after passing a certain stage you can renew your H1b beyond 6 years), or maybe leave US and come back again (likely requires another H1b lottery?). What I'm saying is sure stay in the US for 10 years on H1b is possible, but it's also quite hard.

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

#487

This has gotten very old very fast (beyond the obvious cruelty). I have several friends who keep watching their colleagues just have to up and leave over this and it’s causing a ton of issues for businesses that employ folks on work visas in general. It’s just disruptive to be disruptive/feed the base.

Instead of H1B, we should be issuing green cards and limiting the amount of leverage that companies have over workers. Eliminate H1B and expand green cards for skilled people who want to live here.

I'm here on an L1 (intra-company transferee). I was initially supposed to come on an H1b, however, lost the lottery twice.

(Lottery is difficult to win due to rampant abuse by certain Indian-US outsourcing companies)

For H1b, you can at least change jobs. An L1 cannot change jobs at all. So, you are completely at the mercy of your employer. Fortunately my employer is benign, but that is not the case for everyone.

Having a proper points system (not one that is easily gamed) and giving people a greencard to enable them to change jobs would be a much better system. This would prevent low-skilled workers and the suppression of US salaries. And if there is a high demand, the US can just take those with the highest points (as the Australian system does).

There are two very good systems: 1. Australian 189 permanent resident system. Example of points:

https://www.am22tech.com/au/australia-points-calculator-for-...

There is limited positions, so only those with the highest points are selected.

(Compared to H1b where the bar is low and people are selected via lottery. This incentivises outsourcing companies to have 4 people apply for every one true position).

2. Japan's point-based high skill visa (Technical stream)

http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/system/index.html

Processing time for this is 5 days guaranteed and very easy to apply for (I got mine in 4 days).

This is not permanent residence, but you can apply for permanent residence after 1 year.

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

#488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that possible, given that these people are paid above the prevailing wage? That's literally one of the requirements for the Visa, the minimum has been repeatedly raised to address this problem. So? Want to explain that to me?

If you classify someone as foo and have them do bar you can pay them above the prevailing rate for foo while actually being below the prevailing rate for bar. It can also serve as a way for third party to earn a sizable chunk of that persons wages which would be a less likely scenario for someone hired stateside.

So, as long as you're willing to commit fraud, you can commit fraud?

How is fraud a problem with the visa or the visa holder?

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

#489
post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1 - I am the first one to complain about our broken hiring practices, but just because you get a first interview does not mean you are qualified for the job. 2/3/4 -> FAANG have a ton of money but no incentive at all to spend it on philanthropy. I wish it was not the case, but their only job is to make their investors happy. 3 - is it dishonest ? For sure there are some kids in SV, LA,etc that could work in tech if t…

This is not a correct reading of what I wrote. Investing in local (or at least domestic) employment pipelines at all is not philanthropy. Seeing it as philanthropy is patronizing. Let's just have a thought experiment (maybe we'll see what happens if the ban continues) - what will Big Tech do if H1B is not a thing anymore? Second thought experiment - who benefits most from H1B? First of all, the H1B holders themselves…

How is it not philanthropy when there are already skilled workers they could hire right now ?

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

#490
post #373

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…

Also (if we leave aside the abusers like InfoSys etc), employers pay an additional cost for H1B visa workers (comparable salary + the cost of sponsoring the visa itself). Presumably this means there is a net benefit to the American company doing the hiring to be hiring these H1B workers. Seems like a win-win situation here all around. If the concern is with abuse, then let's crack down on that.

HN needs to stop pretending only companies like Infosys and Tata abuse the h1b.

Even big tech companies like Amazon and Facebook hire h1b workers so they can create sweatshop environments. H1b workers are afraid of being deported if they do not perform well, and a certain percentage of workers are forced to be on the PIP plan every year in the stack ranking.

Can even lead to suicides or suicide attempts. Ex:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/15/facebook-employee-i-was-fire... https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-share-thoug...

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