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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

#241

Post by matrix87 »

alephnerd wrote: post #202
coredog64 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now they'll make contributions to India, Eastern Europe Good! There’s a billion people in India and plenty of opportunities for growth. The net benefit for all of humanity is larger if they stay there. Put another way, is it really all that great that the US drains the top talent out of India and Eastern Europe?

It does when those people who leave have a chip on their shoulder due to bad experiences with the US. For example, the founder of Zoho (Sridhar Vembu - I actually lived in the same apartment complex in the Bay Area that he started Zoho at) has become a NatSec cabinet advisor to Narendra Modi's administration, and has a chip on his shoulder about his experience dealing with US immigration. It was a big reason he retur…

> The US Immigration system exudes a sense of American exceptionalism because voters say "Love it or leave it". But the people who leave end up becoming successful, but still angry at how much effort and stress was expended for naught.

That's funny. I guess every visa holder is some little genius doing particle physics work

You're going out of your way to give very specific anecdotes here, the average level of talent I've met on a visa is something very easily matched domestically. It's pretty hilarious actually, some of them can't actually program and have an SWE job title

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

#242

Post by rajup »

stackskipton wrote: post #179
abduhl wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump attempted to implement a points based system and was met with fierce resistance: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/05/17/key-facts... https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2020/08/06/h-1b-...

Yea, companies using H-1B to hire cheap workers fought the changes hard.

Nah democrats fought it hard because it would “reduce diversity”.

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

#243

Post by mkii »

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…

The per-country limits are a good thing, the "bottleneck" is a feature not a bug

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

#244

Post by alephnerd »

krisoft wrote: post #86
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…

Your take sound reasonable and practical. The only problem with it is that the problems it solves are problems for people who don’t have a say in the matter. While the drawbacks it implies affects people who have a say in the matter. (Either through voting or lobbying) The fact that the current system imposes a form of long identured servitude on imigrants is not a bug but a feature. This benefits the employers in ve…

> The fact that the current system imposes a form of long identured servitude on imigrants is not a bug but a feature

I was on the hill when the initial congressional negotiations over immigration began in the mid-2010s.

The stumbling block has always been illegal immigration. [0]

The Dems congressional leadership at the time decided that no reform on legal immigration would happen without illegal immigration reform (eg. DREAM act)

The GOP congressional leadership at the time decided that no reform on illegal immigration would happen without legal immigration.

Neither side budged, and neither side really cared because immigrants (legal or illegal) can't vote.

[0] - https://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/nancy-pelosi-immigrat...

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

#245

Post by Clubber »

alephnerd wrote: post #223
jimbob45 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigrati... China and India combined take in less than a tenth of the immigrants the US takes in yearly. There's really no reason anyone should take their opinions on immigration seriously.

I think you missed the entire point of my post above. The US's biggest strength is it's soft power at the elite level. Because of bad experiences like immigration, the US has been losing influence as foreign decision makers soured on the US due to crap treatment.

>Because of bad experiences like immigration, the US has been losing influence as foreign decision makers soured on the US due to crap treatment.

So what?

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

#246

Post by bdowling »

ryandrake wrote: post #229
satya71 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I know this is a little controversial, but I wish our software development culture would discourage patents as taboo, something to not be proud of. Software patents are a truly terrible arms race, and they essentially aren't protecting anyone except the big boys. "Having N patents" should be something that gets frowned on, not something you highlight on your resume. When asked about this myself (during interviews or…

> "… do not put my name on it or associate it with me in any way."

If you invented it, then they have to put your name on the application as the inventor. There’s also a declaration that the inventor is supposed to sign as part of the application. If the inventor is dead or otherwise unavailable (e.g., refuses to sign), there’s an alternative form that can be filed.

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

#247

Post by natas »

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…

[flagged]

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

#248

Post by mkii »

BeetleB wrote: post #131
aiisahik wrote: post #80

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.

That's a feature, not a bug. Otherwise you could find X country that is loose with citizenship requirements and get around the US' per-country limit.

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

#249

Post by gourabmi »

peyton wrote: post #237
gourabmi wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "unlimited number" argument is a common dog whistle. If the Dept of Labor is certifying each one of the qualified immigrants and vetting the credentials, how is this unlimited?

Dog whistle for what? Calling for deportation? The comment is literally just “we can’t take every immigrant.” What other position is there?

You should not take every immigrant. Take immigrants who bring their skills and productivity to you. Don't make their lives difficult with unnecessary hoops to jump through. Skilled immigration is not asylum or illegal immigration.

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

#250

Post by creato »

alephnerd wrote: post #223
jimbob45 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigrati... China and India combined take in less than a tenth of the immigrants the US takes in yearly. There's really no reason anyone should take their opinions on immigration seriously.

I think you missed the entire point of my post above. The US's biggest strength is it's soft power at the elite level. Because of bad experiences like immigration, the US has been losing influence as foreign decision makers soured on the US due to crap treatment.

He didn't miss the point. You're missing the point that if these people soured the US because it was hard to immigrate, they are being very hypocritical. It's hard to immigrate anywhere ("crap treatment"), including the countries they came from.
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