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H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

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Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An enormous loss for America, no doubt.

This must be sarcastic because this seems like Amazon.

It’s not a public company so there’s no reason to care about this. You cannot invest in it. You cannot benefit from it. You can merely use it, but as you said, it’s just a shittier version of Amazon, so why bother?

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#192
post #90

Simple solution is to give visas to the applicants with the highest salaries instead of just giving these out at random.

US will lose most nurses and other non-tech, but essential talent

Pay them more if they are so vital then. Or would the business really rather just go out of business instead of raising wages? And if the business can't operate without raising wages, maybe it's not a sustainable business anyways.

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#193
post #69

Simple solution is to give visas to the applicants with the highest salaries instead of just giving these out at random.

A variety of other non-software jobs also rely on H-1Bs: See, for instance, lab technicians. A change to highest salaries, while probably way better for the software industry, and applicants in general, would wipe out other sectors. The system definitely needs fixing, but simple solutions often have all kinds of negative side effects.

The simple solution is to pay them more if they are so vital. Their value is directly related to their pay.

The issue often isn't that talent can't be found... it's that talent can't be found at the price the corporation wants to pay. We need to encourage corporations to pay more which should correspond to the most essential positions needed, not just find the cheapest worker.

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The criticism is tying visa status to employer. No reason to do that unless you want to suppress wages for US residents.

That is why there are other visa types. You are talking about a type of visa specifically intended as a mechanism to fill a specific seat at a specific company. For other forms of immigration, there are other types of visas.

Like what? I went over the USCIS page and Wikipedia and there does not seem to be very many options for skilled workers besides H and L, both of which are tied to employers.

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#195

Simple solution is to give visas to the applicants with the highest salaries instead of just giving these out at random.

Wouldn't that be unfair to any potential start ups that needed an H1B for some complex subject matter?

If your startup is already H-1B dependent, then I don't feel super bad. Raise more and find local talent at the market rate or go out of business--but startups aren't entitled to a pool of cheap, foreign labor via H-1Bs.

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most countries I've looked into take up to 10 years. The set of countries you want to compare with are the countries that claim they want to welcome immigrants. You don't want to compare with countries that you like but are hostile. America claims to be immigrant friendly but compared to other immigrant friendly nations, the process is brutal and eats away entire lives. > A lot countries I've looked into take 5-10…

No 14.5 months is the average for naturalization. https://www.boundless.com/immigration-resources/how-long-doe... Total time is 18.5-24 months to wrap up everything, but the 14.5 months you're able to be in the US which is what matters. How does that compare to other countries? What's your ideal country that has the best immigration times? - edit - Green card from nil is also just a year or so on average, in which ca…

Here's a better, more holistic overview, in case you want to see what starting "from nil" actually entails (hint: you don't just step off a plane and tell Uncle Sam that you want to be a citizen):

https://immigrationroad.com/green-card/immigration-flowchart...

> The time it takes to become a permanent resident varies dramatically, affected by many factors such as USCIS processing, visa availability, labor certification/background check delays, the applicant's qualifications, nationality, residence, profession, luck, and so on. Most people are probably looking at 5 - 15 years. Some also spent several years in a nonimmigrant status prior to starting the immigration process. After green card, add roughly 5 - 7 years towards citizenship

In addition to the time, as others said there's a high probability the path will fail for most. The process starts with winning a visa that allows you to immigrate (tourist/business/student visas don't count). I say "win" because you need to find a company willing to pay and apply for that on your behalf, go through a lottery based on degree to see if you even get the opportunity to apply, and then hope the application isn't rejected on the grounds of the job being something a U.S. citizen can do. if you studied in the U.S., you get 1-2 more years to work under your student visa on what's called "Optional Practical Training" to convince your employer you're worth the hassle of sponsoring an immigration visa. Once you have that visa (e.g., an H-1B visa), you have 3 years to try rise to a senior position and convince your employer that you are valuable enough to splurge on a green card application. If that fails, you can apply for a 3 year extension and try again. If that also fails, you must leave the country for at least a year, and start over. If you succeed, you wait some number of years depending on your birth country and quotas imposed on each before you get the chance to start applying for a green card and get this process rolling. Hence 10-22 years, for those lucky few who didn't get rejected at any of the aforementioned points.

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An enormous loss for America, no doubt.

This must be sarcastic because this seems like Amazon.

Snapdeal revenue (not profit, just top-line revenue) in 2021 (after 11 years in business): $64 million USD

Is that Amazon-like? Amazon was founded in 1994 and AWS was created in 2006, 12 years later. Did Snapdeal launch their own Indian AWS competitor in 2022? How's their revenue growth holding up compared to Amazon?

For comparison, my own 4 person e-commerce startup had ~$6.4 million in revenue in 2021 with gross margins around 30%. Of course, we've only been in business since 2018, not 2010 like Snapdeal. If we take Softbank money (2014, Snapdeal), will we also be an Amazon-like "unicorn" in seven years with mediocre revenue?

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#198
post #26

In the early 1990s when I came here, the prevailing wisdom was that its categorically better to immigrate to the US from India if you get a chance. India was too far back in the tech space, too much bureaucracy, corruption, red-tape etc etc... In the 2020s, the consensus is quite mixed. A lot of people I personally worked with, who successfully got their visas and green cards, have given it all up and gone straight b…

One reason not to go back to India: climate change and heat. People are basically burning alive there and due to the high population, many people will starve in the coming decades as droughts cause crop failures. This will cause food and water wars as rising instability of the subcontinent means many people will need asylum. The area will not be geopolitically, financially, or otherwise stable in such a time. If I we…

> People are basically burning alive there and due to the high population

This is only true for poor people. It might sound bad, but average Indian live much worse life than someone who could afford/have skills to visit US.

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#199
post #111

As an American from an immigrant family, I think the US is really losing here. We should be giving visas out liberally to any skilled professional who wants one. Immigration is the only thing that ever truly made the US stand out. On the other hand, as a global citizen with multiple passports who hasn't lived in the US for some time, maybe this is a good thing for the rest of the world. Spreading innovation out a bit…

It’s tough because many of our societal problems are only exacerbated by population growth, especially in the areas where these types of workers tend to congregate. Highly skilled workers don’t go to the Midwest or the deep south. They go and drive up rental prices in New York and San Francisco, where the jobs are. Well the first order effects of having a more skilled in competitive work for us are good, the second o…

I work with a bunch of highly skilled immigrants. They live in Texas, Kentucky, Colorado, and a bunch of other places. Now that remote work is prevalent, people are moving to all sorts of places.

Re: H1B rejected – builds unicorn back home

#200
post #111

As an American from an immigrant family, I think the US is really losing here. We should be giving visas out liberally to any skilled professional who wants one. Immigration is the only thing that ever truly made the US stand out. On the other hand, as a global citizen with multiple passports who hasn't lived in the US for some time, maybe this is a good thing for the rest of the world. Spreading innovation out a bit…

What always boggled my mind is we allow students to come study in the University system, but then when they graduate send them away. I suspect a platform of "We will train foreigners to enrich their homelands" wouldn't get much popular support, but it's the de-facto rule we live under.

As a citizen of the US, I like having a vibrant tech economy here in the US and I love working with brilliant people, so I would like it if everyone educated in our world class universities could stay here if they wanted. Also as a citizen of the US who likes stability in the US, I like that the children of elites all over the world come to the US for university and many return to their native countries with a fondness for the US from their time in our universities.

As a citizen of the world, I think there's tremendous value in distributing knowledge and our best ideals all over the world.

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