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New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

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Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#51

Post by cogman10 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #29
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #3

>“You don’t have any accomplishments,” the lawyer told him. “You don’t have a patent, or even a product.” That scolding spurred Sanjay to make a list of what he needed to do to achieve his goal of staying permanently. He improved the technology his AI-based firm was developing, expanded its customer base, and filed for a U.S. patent, which was awarded earlier this year. In May those efforts paid off, allowing him to…

As a US citizen interested in improving the visa process who regularly interfaces with policymakers, propose an objective rubric that is better and I will get it in front of policymakers. Can't guarantee an outcome, will guarantee the effort. Patent quota is bullshit, but also "I know talent when I see it" (even though I do and how I hire) isn't going to fly. Sorting hats are hard, Goodhart's Law, etc. High level, yo…

Degree from a recognized school. Verified work history in the field.

Those wouldn't be perfect metrics, and they might be easy to fudge. So it then becomes a question of if disqualification of the capable is worse than qualification of the incapable.

I personally prefer to let more people in than less. It's not like it's smooth sailing in the US if you can't do skilled work.

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#52

Post by jmyeet »

pc86 wrote: post #40
jmyeet wrote: post #8

There's no changes that affect the real bottleneck: the annual quota on green cards and the per-country limits of 7% or children aging out. Those all require Congressional action and that's just not going to happen in the current political environment [1]. Here's my take: you get a work visa for 3-5 years that's tied to your employer and allows you to freely leave and re-enter the US. Believe it or not, we still have…

Won't this just dramatically shrink the number of initial work visas given out? Because you'll have to assume each one is now just a green card with extra steps.

Why do we need a quota for qualified people getting work visas (or green cards) at all? We don't.

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#53

Post by apwell23 »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #38
fnord77 wrote: post #2

would love to see the breakdown by STEM field. I'm guessing most are going toward computer programming/support roles, but I could be wrong

Having worked in STEM fields other than IT, I can assure you it is not the only one affected here.

> it is not the only one affected here.

Thats why parent comment said most.

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#54

Post by meragrin_ »

satya71 wrote: post #6
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #3

>“You don’t have any accomplishments,” the lawyer told him. “You don’t have a patent, or even a product.” That scolding spurred Sanjay to make a list of what he needed to do to achieve his goal of staying permanently. He improved the technology his AI-based firm was developing, expanded its customer base, and filed for a U.S. patent, which was awarded earlier this year. In May those efforts paid off, allowing him to…

Not any more than other patent applicants. Currently all the layers in patent application process is incentivized to ignore quality. 1. Large companies pay a bonus for every patent applied and bigger one for approval. 2. Patent lawyers are paid for filed patents. 3. Patent office makes money on each patent. They view the review process as a cost center and optimize it for fast approval.

How do you define "fast approval"?

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#55

Post by jupp0r »

dougmwne wrote: post #15
lgleason wrote: post #4

Expect further downward pressure on US tech salaries.

This affects very few immigrants of extraordinary ability. Such people are likely to be job creators with the companies and products they build. I agree that if we were to lift the cap on H-1b visas it could easily destroy tech salaries. Thankfully that’s not under consideration.

Most H1-B visas don't go to engineering roles. Expanding those quotas wouldn't affect engineering salaries, but probably IT support roles, etc.

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#56

Post by pvg »

jmyeet wrote: post #49

I'm a little surprised to see a number of anti-immigraiton comments on this thread, some of which you could describe as reactionary. The US is and always has been a country of immigrants. Your idea of who is and isn't an immigrant is simply a question of what time window you choose. In 1800, the US had a population of ~2 million. by 1900 it was ~50 million. You want to guess how itt got that way? Let's dispense of th…

I'm a little surprised to see a number of anti-immigraiton comments on this thread, some of which you could describe as reactionary.

Threads change pretty fast and prefixing your comment with that kind of goady meta makes it strictly worse and less effective at advancing your arguments.

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#57

Post by trgn »

abduhl wrote: post #10
lgleason wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just created a giant loophole that will be easy to game. Patents are easy to get and someone will come up with a startup mill that will be nothing but a visa factory.

>> Patents are easy to get How many do you have? Patents are more difficult to obtain than HN gives credit and they cost a non-inconsequential amount of money too.

Yeah, some larger organization have a good admin and legal support structure around it, so it feels frictionless to the applicant. But it is a total slog, and can take years to materialize.

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#58

Post by bequanna »

addicted wrote: post #13
lgleason wrote: post #4

Expect further downward pressure on US tech salaries.

Ah yes, the last 30 odd years of increasing immigration has exerted tremendous downward pressure on US tech salaries. And countries in Europe that have not seen as much Tech immigration have seen huge boosts in Tech salaries. Comparable Europeans earn almost 1/3 - 1/2 what their American counterparts do today!

I’d be curious to hear opinions on why this large compensation discrepancy exists.

AFAIK, my company has never considered outsourcing to remote Euro workers. Is there a perceived difference in engineer quality? Time difference?

Re: New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers

#59

Post by xtreme »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #29
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #3

>“You don’t have any accomplishments,” the lawyer told him. “You don’t have a patent, or even a product.” That scolding spurred Sanjay to make a list of what he needed to do to achieve his goal of staying permanently. He improved the technology his AI-based firm was developing, expanded its customer base, and filed for a U.S. patent, which was awarded earlier this year. In May those efforts paid off, allowing him to…

As a US citizen interested in improving the visa process who regularly interfaces with policymakers, propose an objective rubric that is better and I will get it in front of policymakers. Can't guarantee an outcome, will guarantee the effort. Patent quota is bullshit, but also "I know talent when I see it" (even though I do and how I hire) isn't going to fly. Sorting hats are hard, Goodhart's Law, etc. High level, yo…

You don't have to look far, Canada has already implemented a point based system for granting permanent residence to skilled workers. It assigns scores to applicants based on education, skills, employment offer, language speaking ability, etc. I believe it can be a good starting point for a more objective selection criteria than the current system which is more based on luck.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...

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