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The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

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11–20 of 93 posts

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#12
“I am hearing from many constituents, who have been waiting over ten years, for a green card“ -

Constituent - “ any of the voters who elect a person to represent them.”

H1B are not US citizens, and politicians considering them their “constituents” are misrepresenting their true constituents interests.

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#13
post #8

A someone who benefited from the H1-B program I’m 100% behind the idea of adding higher wages requirements. I went to Carnegie Mellon and met some of the smartest people there and it crushed my heart seeing some super talented people lose on the lottery several times and be forced to go back home when they already had an employer in the US paying them 100k+ and willing to go great lengths to keep them. I was lucky en…

I’ve never understood why H1-B applications weren’t sorted by compensation (salary): higher salaries go first. Seems like a trivial way to prevent visa farming.

Won't that unfairly benefit big companies?

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#14
post #8

A someone who benefited from the H1-B program I’m 100% behind the idea of adding higher wages requirements. I went to Carnegie Mellon and met some of the smartest people there and it crushed my heart seeing some super talented people lose on the lottery several times and be forced to go back home when they already had an employer in the US paying them 100k+ and willing to go great lengths to keep them. I was lucky en…

I’ve never understood why H1-B applications weren’t sorted by compensation (salary): higher salaries go first. Seems like a trivial way to prevent visa farming.

Somehow the government doesn't want to fund landowners in California. You'd bet that take-home pay for the same work after taxes and rent is higher in Dallas than in San Jose. I think Facebook is demonstrating this like now.

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#15
Auction, auction, auction - but not with fees, with salaries.

Set a cap on number of entrants, and then "auction" the slots. Adjust the cap on entrants annually. No showing of specific market need required, or educational background of the applicant. Just criminal background and health checks on the applicant.

The bid is the (gross) pay of the role with a minimum commit of 36 months. Winning bids are paid to the employee (i.e. as regular income) over the first 36 months or until their employment with the sponsor ends, whichever comes first. (The fee paid is de minimis, just what's required for processing.)

Employees who voluntarily quit or are terminated are free to take any other job paying at least what the sponsor's job paid, provided they do so within 3 months. The new employer does not need to bid or sponsor them. If the employee can't find a new role, they have to leave. In any case sponsor then pays the remaining bid/salary to the government over the remainder of the 36 month term.

After 5 years keeping your nose clean and remaining employed making more than the starting pay at entry, get a green card and eligibility to apply for naturalization.

At a stroke this would eliminate the abuses of H1-B - lowball salaries, exploitative conditions - and open a legitimate market for global talent. The sponsor has a strong incentive to vet the applicant and not abuse them, as they are on the hook for 3 years of comp whether or not they retain them.

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#16

Every time H1b comes on HN, I see people making the same arguments over and over again. It’s a topic that never fails to provoke. I also wonder if it’s a different set of commenters each time..

Just talk to someone who has been on H1-B. Your ears will ring for days after. He will tell you what he put up with, and then he will tell you what colleagues and friends of his put up with. It's safe to assume that you are poorly informed, just go talk to some people on H1-B.

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#17

Auction, auction, auction - but not with fees, with salaries. Set a cap on number of entrants, and then "auction" the slots. Adjust the cap on entrants annually. No showing of specific market need required, or educational background of the applicant. Just criminal background and health checks on the applicant. The bid is the (gross) pay of the role with a minimum commit of 36 months. Winning bids are paid to the empl…

This is brilliant.

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#18

Every time H1b comes on HN, I see people making the same arguments over and over again. It’s a topic that never fails to provoke. I also wonder if it’s a different set of commenters each time..

Just talk to someone who has been on H1-B. Your ears will ring for days after. He will tell you what he put up with, and then he will tell you what colleagues and friends of his put up with. It's safe to assume that you are poorly informed, just go talk to some people on H1-B.

No doubt. Many H1-B employees are essentially indentured slaves, and those who work with them then have to compete to that level.

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#19
The H1 reform is a great move. The current H1B program made no sense at all. If I wanted to hire: A smart graduate from EPFL, Polytechnique or ETH Zurich who interned at CERN and has contributed to the Linux kernel for a software engineering job at a unicorn startup or

A grad from a second tier "technical college" in India with a visa refusal rate of ~90% for a job doing manual UI testing and QA for a body shop

my only path forward is H1. They'll both be listed as "computer related occupations" and apply for the same visa in the same quota. Does that makes any sense to anyone?

Re: The next US president won’t be great for H-1B visas

#20

Auction, auction, auction - but not with fees, with salaries. Set a cap on number of entrants, and then "auction" the slots. Adjust the cap on entrants annually. No showing of specific market need required, or educational background of the applicant. Just criminal background and health checks on the applicant. The bid is the (gross) pay of the role with a minimum commit of 36 months. Winning bids are paid to the empl…

I really like this plan. Perhaps the salary could go into escrow up front, to make the hook set harder on employers?
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