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Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

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Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#801

Post by exdsq »

I'm currently looking at moving to the US next summer and I can't believe how awkward the process is for me. My partner is starting a 2 year postdoc at Stanford and I can get a J2 visa to go with her, but then need to apply for a work visa which can take several months to process. I currently work remotely for UK-based companies earning around ~$100k including overtime/freelancing work yet I'll have to quit these roles rather than just take them with me. Because I don't have an undergrad degree I'm unable to get a normal work visa or have my employer relocate me.

I wish there was some globally accepted visa like what Barbados has recently rolled out where if you earn over a certain salary remotely you're allowed to move there for a finite time period as you'll be able to contribute more than if you were unemployed and waiting for a work visa for a few months.

If anyone has any advice on how they did something similar I'd really appreciate it (I'm from the UK).

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#802

Post by [deleted] »

exdsq wrote: post #801

I'm currently looking at moving to the US next summer and I can't believe how awkward the process is for me. My partner is starting a 2 year postdoc at Stanford and I can get a J2 visa to go with her, but then need to apply for a work visa which can take several months to process. I currently work remotely for UK-based companies earning around ~$100k including overtime/freelancing work yet I'll have to quit these rol…

[deleted]

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#803

Post by foldr »

rayiner wrote: post #677
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes the immigration process in the US truly horrific is the extraordinary time it takes to approve or reject a greencard petition. In many cases it takes years - or even over a decade or more. That's insane. People bring their spouses here, they have kids who are born and go to school here, and all along the way their immigration status is uncertain. And meanwhile they are tied to whatever job they're in. It's…

It’s insane because it’s a kludge. The US doesn’t really have a general purpose skilled immigration visa. The H1B visa is a temporary worker visa. There is this whole legal fiction where, when you get one, you have to announce non-immigrant intent with a wink, then once you’re here you say “I just now changed my mind and I want to stay here, can I get a green card.” It was never designed to be a payday to permanent r…

H1-B is dual intent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_intent

(Not sure why doingmyting's comment saying the same thing is flagged. Virtually all of this user's comments seem to be flagged for some reason.)

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#804

Post by necrodome »

exdsq wrote: post #801

I'm currently looking at moving to the US next summer and I can't believe how awkward the process is for me. My partner is starting a 2 year postdoc at Stanford and I can get a J2 visa to go with her, but then need to apply for a work visa which can take several months to process. I currently work remotely for UK-based companies earning around ~$100k including overtime/freelancing work yet I'll have to quit these rol…

You are allowed to work full-time with J-2 without a work visa. But you need to get an EAD ("employment authorization document"). Not sure about the recent processing times, but I usually received mine in ~50-60 days from sending the application.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#805

Post by what_ever »

rayiner wrote: post #677
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes the immigration process in the US truly horrific is the extraordinary time it takes to approve or reject a greencard petition. In many cases it takes years - or even over a decade or more. That's insane. People bring their spouses here, they have kids who are born and go to school here, and all along the way their immigration status is uncertain. And meanwhile they are tied to whatever job they're in. It's…

It’s insane because it’s a kludge. The US doesn’t really have a general purpose skilled immigration visa. The H1B visa is a temporary worker visa. There is this whole legal fiction where, when you get one, you have to announce non-immigrant intent with a wink, then once you’re here you say “I just now changed my mind and I want to stay here, can I get a green card.” It was never designed to be a payday to permanent r…

H1-B is dual intent - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_intent so there is no winking required. H1-B can last for 6 years (can be extended beyond that too but let's not get into that) and I think 6 years should be enough for one to get the GC.

But otherwise I agree with rest of your points.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#806

Post by PeterisP »

ocommentator wrote: post #792
reissbaker wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The higher pay seems like an overall positive change to reduce the prevalence of "body shops" and so that H1-Bs aren't an easy way for companies to lower overall pay rate. I'm not sure that narrowing degree qualifications is a win; high-skill immigration is a significant boon to America's economy, and I think ability to do the work, and American company willingness to pay above-rate salaries (legally mandated now to…

"…to lower overall pay rate." What's with this nationalism and view human value? Just because a person was or wasn't born in a certain place, something they had no ability to affect, they have more or less right to a certain job with a certain salary in a certain place? Looking at it from the other perspective of the individual who can get a job, they are probably not lowering their salaries, but rather significantly…

The duty and role of a government is to act in the best interest of their citizens which that government represents.

The interests of outsiders are simply not relevant to that - they have their own government to represent their interests, which can and should enact policies that benefit them, and negotiate in international agreements policies that will help their citizens. If it's a win-win situation (which is the expected situation for skilled immigration visas) then sure, we should look at how the incentives are aligned; but when it's a tradeoff between the interests of your citizens and foreigners, then the government is elected to ensure that the interests of their citizens are facilitated - if need be, at the expense of others, to whom the government has no inherent duty whatsoever except the voluntarily undertaken commitments to certain international treaties. And if the government is implementing some policies that hurt their citizens to benefit others (which it may well do for all kinds of reasons - e.g. governments do humanitarian aid, which costs your citizens and benefits others, but presumably with support from the voters/taxpayers), then that has to happen due to the choice and consent of these citizens, otherwise they have all right to replace the government with something that will act as the citizens desire.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#807

Post by swyx »

vamega wrote: post #712
sisama wrote: post #664

I estimated the new prevailing wages for NYC/SF/SEA using z-scores and the new %-iles. For NYC: (I II III IV) = (116,003 137,323 160,321 203,405) For SF: (I II III IV) = (138,283 162,157 187,910 236,155) For SEA: (I II III IV) = (128,082 148,708 170,957 212,639) The level for an applicant is determined by their education + experience. Level I is supposed to correspond to an entry-level role requiring specialized skil…

Amazon definitely comes under considering base salary only. I hear they have a cap 165K for base salary (185K in NYC/SF). No matter how senior the position, it seems the person wouldn't qualify for Level IV. What would the consequences of that be? Can they just hire them at a Level 3?

does the rule not consider stock based comp?

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#808

Post by redditmigrant »

webinvest wrote: post #610
AQuantized wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a big difference between requiring a minimum wage for anyone and specifically requiring a higher wage for existing H1-Bs. In particular, the fact that H1-Bs will have to emigrate if it isn't increased.

It’s an H1-B temporary work visa. They are required to emigrate back regardless after 3 years or less.

The H1B can be and does get renewed by 100s of thousands of people. AC21 provision allows for an H1B to be renewed in perpetuity (even beyond 6 years) until an approved green card petition is pending. The approved green card petition can stay pending for a really long time due to country based immigration queues which disadvantage people from large population countries.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#809

Post by redditmigrant »

hiram112 wrote: post #653
Cherian_Abraham wrote: post #117

“ Because those required wage increases take effect this week, existing H-1B holders looking to renew their visas might not qualify unless their employers raise their salaries accordingly.” 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.

H1Bs were never supposed to have been immigration visas. Congress set the law to two 3-year stints - max of 6 years and then you're gone. Somewhere in the last 20 years, they began rubber stamping renewals for anybody who'd paid a few thousand dollars to get into the Green Card line, which is absurd because the Green Card line for Indians is at about 100 years due to their population. You didn't do anything wrong exc…

Rubber stamp? Have you ever tried applying for an H1b renewal? There is constant anxiety over ever changing rules and RFEs. Not to mention the run around to get a visa stamp every 3 years.

Few thousand to get into green card line? Have you ever tried doing this? There is an elaborate over a year long process to get into this line. and even then its a broken broken system that stipulates that queues are country based, which mean a Lithuanian who enters the queue today will get a green card before an equally qualified chinese or indian person who has been in the queue for 10 years!

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#810

Post by redditmigrant »

mamon wrote: post #216
notJim wrote: post #67

The new rule is that H1B workers need to earn higher salaries relative to the distribution of salaries in their profession. The worker must make the 45th percentile wage, where previously it was 17th. Won't this primarily hurt people early in their career, or does it also take into account experience level?

I think this is by design. You don't want to issue visas to "people early in their career" - those jobs should go to Americans first. You only hire from abroad if there really is a shortage of specialists in some profession, and you want those professionals to prove their worth in their home country first, before allowing them to the US.

Typically younger working age people are a net benefit to the system. They pay taxes, but their kids dont go to schools, they dont require as much healthcare (which can be publicly funded in some countries).
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