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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

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unemployment != underemployment. So the unemployment rate in your first article is not relevant, missing labor participation rates etc. The second article is about median wages of people who are already in jobs categorized as stem. Same with the third, which is also only about the derivative. > Where, exactly? The most prominent segment can be found by dropping the engineering and tech. Biology, math, physics, chemis…

It seems that data is not relevant, then? I would appreciate it if you were to provide some hard numbers to back your conjecture that immigration is the reason for these cases of "underemployment", like you call it. > However even in engineering we find that the top grads move into software or finance. Software engineering is notorious for being one of the markets with the most H-1B visa holders, yet you are saying t…

I didn’t make up the word underemployment, economists did.

Here is some data that tries to at least look at this question: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/06/does-majoring...

The gross number is only 1/3 of stem degree lead to stem jobs. But that includes quite a bit of soft degree's, still in the ballpark of half of all graduates not working in their field.

> software jobs

Yes there is higher demand for software which is met with higher wages and drawing underemployed people with other degrees as well as immigration. The immigration restriction argument is that increasing that part of the equation will lower wages and increase corporate control of their workforce.

So an alternative way to meet that demand is to hire us citizens who have those qualifications or a related degree that could be trained.

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

#182

I'm an Australian citizen who has lived in the US for over 20 years, gotten degrees from Yale and Berkeley. I've worked as a software engineer for over 10 years and am currently a cofounder. I'm so put off by the immigration process in the US that I have decided to leave the US permanently. Don't worry - i still work for the same US based company remotely from a more cost effective nation. I just don't pay your taxes…

For those confused: Unfortunately, the US focuses on your origin (where you were born) rather than your nationality. alisahik is an Australian citizen, but was not born there. My guess is he was born in India, which has an absurdly long queue in the US immigration process. Really sucks.

What an idiotic system! Any sane policy would just put a max number of annual visas or total active visa holders and choose the best value applicants based on a scoring system, but no we can't have nice things.

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

#183
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about lol. Plenty of people work remotely for American companies and get paid over wire transfer.

[flagged]

The US has double taxation treaties with tons of countries. Every remote worker I knows benefit from it.

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

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now this hypothetical version of myself waits as short as two years (China-born) and as long as eleven years (India-born) China and India are the outliers. For most people, pre-pandemic (and post financial meltdown), the wait was under 2 years - almost everyone I know got it in under 2 years (EB-2, MS or higher degree). If you weren't born in China/India, and had an "advanced degree" in a STEM field (i.e. MS or hig…

I suppose majority is factually true, but I think it’s worth being specific that nearly three billion people are in that situation.

How many of those 3B would qualify for an H-1B absent any caps? How many more STEM professionals could the US absorb at something close to current salaries?

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

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Letters from current or former employers documenting at least 10 years of full-time experience in your occupation Thats if you are in the second row in the table above. i.e "Exceptional Ability". You don't need it if you have masters or bachelors + 5. > Meanwhile, they’re trying to maintain work authorization There is no 'meanwhile' , they are not in eb green card queues without going though the h1 lottery first. I…

Fair on the first point, I’ll adjust the text to clarify the need for a BS. On the second point, first claim, you can be in an EB-1 queue without an H1-B (e.g. OPT or TN [1]). On the second claim, I admit to not knowing someone who is in the queue and in the lottery but they’re on TN, preparing materials for an EB-1 and applying for an H1-B. My understanding was that they’d apply for both concurrently (due to the EB…

Yes correct, Greencard is not tied to maintaining current employment or having a visa, its a separate process. I know ppl who came to USA for the first time on a greencard. I was addressing the word "meanwhile" in your comment, i guess it technically possible that someone gets their greencard applied while they are on OPT/vistor visa/some other visa ect and then go through the h1b lottery.

just saw this.

> What else is wrong?

> And when they finally get PR/citizenship, their (now quite old) parents have no hope of receiving PR/citizenship

Family based greencards have current wait time of ~11months start to finish.

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

#186
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…

> The US is and always has been a country of immigrants Settlers founding new places are different from immigrants. The US was created by British settlers. Its language, laws, political system, and to a great extent its culture are British. If you look at various statistics, the Anglo countries share strong commonalities, even though people of British descent are now a distinct minority in the US (while being a major…

Its language, laws, political system, and to a great extent its culture are British.

This is ahistorical enough to have been inaccurate at the end of the 18th century when Canada and the US were barely in their larval stages. The perceived cultural and systemic distinctions were already invoked for propaganda purposes even then, curiously mirroring US/Canada tropes to this day:

By delivering abundant food with a paternalistic flair, the British sought to strengthen loyalty in Canada. Lord Grenville assured Dorchester that the aid would impress “the minds of His Majesty’s Subjects under your Lordship’s Government with a just sense of His Majesty’s paternal regard for the welfare of all his People.” In 1791 the Crown canceled that debt with a flourish meant to contrast British benevolence with the crass commercialism of the republic. Upon arriving in Canada, the king’s son, Prince Edward, announced: “My father is not a merchant to deal in bread and ask payment for food granted for the relief of his loyal subjects.” By contrast, in the republic, the bread merchants ruled and imprinted their names on their towns. In the Mohawk Valley, the people renamed one town as Paris, not after the French metropolis, but to honor Isaac Paris, a merchant and miller who had loaned them food in 1789. The British promoted a Canadian identity framed in contrast with the republic, understood as an amoral land of greedy competition where demagogues flattered the common folk but exploited the poor among them.

From: The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies, Alan Taylor

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

#187
post #4

Expect further downward pressure on US tech salaries.

My employer cannot hire H1Bs. They are prohibited by law. All employees must be US citizens. They pay extremely competitive rates. They are the reason for and a source of complaints regarding gentrification in my area. edit: as an example the starting rate for high school work-study and college interns is the hourly equivalent of $78k/yr plus the same benefits as full-time employees from the second they show up. The…

I'm a U.S. citizen who does 1 hour of linear algebra first thing in the morning, when I'm not getting crushed by PhD-related deadlines. Currently working through Lang's _Linear Algebra_ for a new take on the material.

(side note: for the first 5 months of 2023 I did 1.5 hours a day of real analysis. I'll probably get back to doing that after getting through most of Lang.)

Can you give me a hint of the types of employers I should be looking for who would value this? How should I go about finding them?

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

#188
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about lol. Plenty of people work remotely for American companies and get paid over wire transfer.

[flagged]

You can google this fact very easy. Look at this article https://www.deel.com/blog/foreign-independent-contractor-tax...

Scroll over to the title "You live and perform all the work in your country"

| Form W-8BEN is used for foreign individuals that perform work outside the US. In this case, your income isn’t taxable in the US, and you’re responsible for paying your own taxes in your country.

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

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My employer cannot hire H1Bs. They are prohibited by law. All employees must be US citizens. They pay extremely competitive rates. They are the reason for and a source of complaints regarding gentrification in my area. edit: as an example the starting rate for high school work-study and college interns is the hourly equivalent of $78k/yr plus the same benefits as full-time employees from the second they show up. The…

What is staff level total compensation? In big tech you can make $1M/year with 8 years of experience.

You could do that with rapid valuation increases in tech shares over the last 10 years inflating your RSU award, and even then you're talking < 1% of engineers at that comp level. And that path is very likely closed now at FAANG (poor staff SWE will have to suffer with $400K TC). TCs in the millions will be reserved for high ranks at large companies, a few lucky early engineers at billion dollar startups, and phds in AI or whatever the new hotness is at the time.

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

#190

>“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…

How about any company that is found to have engaged in discrimination against any protected class loses their ability to sponsor visas for a decade.
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