Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

Post by madeofpalk » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:48 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #354

DenisM wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vaguely recall that the "indentured" h1b workers (as oppose to the "proper" h1b like I had) owe money back to home, and that debt becomes instantly due if they bail out. If they were super-stars they would be able to cover it from the Amazon signup bonus (and become indentured to Amazon - your signup bonus is due back if you bail out early). However superstars rarely end up in those jobs. We're looking at people wi…

> We're looking at people with kinda average engineering skills, poor understanding of the American culture, no connections, and grim determination to grind their way out of their old life. I don't think these are the kind of people getting an H1B visa, though. It's usually the super-talented people they hire on H1B.

Post by curiousllama » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:48 PM UTC

908B64B197 wrote: post #197

curiousllama wrote: post #156

I really, really want to like this move. I've written on HN before that the Trump admin's revealed immigration preference is, in effect, "as few immigrants as possible" [1]. Every past move this administration has made with regard to visas has been ill-advised and badly executed (imo). That they solved problem 1 (ill-advised) does not mean they've solved problem 2 (badly executed). In that light, I can't help but thi…

> "you studied math and cs, and now want to work as a data scientist? That's not closely enough related" This could be trivially avoided by simply aggregating the job posting requirements for similar positions or doing any sort of survey of the qualifications and education of currently employed highly paid data scientists.

Post by cambalache » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:49 PM UTC

ponker wrote: post #310

jedberg wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the Canadian system too, but it was recently pointed out to me that the Canadian system is biased towards wealthy immigrants. Many of the points are things that take money to get (like advanced degrees and knowledge of French). And then you end up with the "PhD taxi driver" problem too.

That's not a bug, it's a feature. Wealthy immigrants are more useful to a country than poor immigrants, unless those poor immigrants have a lot of promise which is most easily approximated by educational credentials. The PhD taxi driver isn't a huge problem because it's voluntary on the part of the immigrant and usually those people send their kids to top universites.

Post by someguydave » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:51 PM UTC

nrmitchi wrote: post #309

hal9000-tng wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is really bad. Families are going to get told to leave. I’m surprised that there is no discussion on this thread about the impact to people who haven’t done anything wrong. It's not a moral issue (except for the big H-1B mills that are gaming the system.) But nothing has changed: these are not an offer of citizenship. They are temporary work visas with no guarantees: an opportunity to do temporary specialty wo…

> these are not an offer of citizenship No one said that it was, but there is a difference between submitting for an extension X months ago and fully expecting to get it, and then the rules changing out from under you and being told "No. I understand you've been here for 10 years, but pack up all your shit and leave". 5 years ago it was technically "and leave tonight" (which I'm sure you understand is unreasonable).…

Post by Frost1x » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 11:52 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #354

DenisM wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vaguely recall that the "indentured" h1b workers (as oppose to the "proper" h1b like I had) owe money back to home, and that debt becomes instantly due if they bail out. If they were super-stars they would be able to cover it from the Amazon signup bonus (and become indentured to Amazon - your signup bonus is due back if you bail out early). However superstars rarely end up in those jobs. We're looking at people wi…

> We're looking at people with kinda average engineering skills, poor understanding of the American culture, no connections, and grim determination to grind their way out of their old life. I don't think these are the kind of people getting an H1B visa, though. It's usually the super-talented people they hire on H1B.