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H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

theregister.com

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Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#101

Post by tivert »

terse-broccoli wrote: post #81
pkoiralap wrote: post #52

Something that I personally feel unfair about the H1B lottery is that it doesn't consider where you live and what you are currently doing. Students that graduate through a STEM degree get to work for 3 years in their OPT (Optional Practical Training). This extends then to them having 3 chances (one per year) at getting the H1B. Now what's unfair is that an employer in the US can apply H1B for employees living oversee…

So basically you want to extend the luck/financial privilege that those people have had to be able to study in the US to extend to additional advantages for future visa applications. Not sure that I’d clasify that as fair, personally. As you mentioned, they already get multiple chances at a H1-B already. Side note: my understanding is that there’s already a secondary lottery for people who hold a US masters (the adva…

> So basically you want to extend the luck/financial privilege that those people have had to be able to study in the US to extend to additional advantages for future visa applications. Not sure that I’d clasify that as fair, personally.

It's not fair to uproot someone from a life they've already established, just to give someone else a chance.

Also, this is a US policy meant to serve US goals. Absolute fairness to some overseas person is not the point. It makes sense to favor an existing immigrant over a potential immigrant in similar way as it makes sense to favor a citizen over an immigrant.

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#102

Post by orangevelcro »

shmatt wrote: post #78
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #15

Just question. For software jobs. Why is there a demand that can drive abuse. When there are so many people that can't find jobs? It seems like right now there should not be enough demand for H1-b (for software) to justify abuse. Like it shouldn't be profitable enough.

The unfortunate answer is: love them or hate them, people can't pass the leetcode interviews I've worked as a hiring manager in multiple companies, and recommending or not recommending a hire is done without any knowledge of their status, but solely on the 45 minute interview I did. If they need some sponsorship thats done without communicating to me, I just say yes/no. And with that, somehow most of the Yes's need s…

I've always suspected that this was the real reason for the leetcode interviews.

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#103

Post by ethagknight »

ethagknight wrote: post #17
cherryteastain wrote: post #9

Why is there a lottery anyway instead of a salary ranking/salary threshold system? This'd disincentivize bad actors, ensure the US domestic labor pool is not undercut, and (more or less) lead to higher quality H-1B immigrants.

Kickbacks, my guy!

Downvoted but im honestly not sure why. If you stack rank visa allocations based on pay, the same pervasive fraud culture will find ways to bid rig, including… “paying your employees high but require they rent their office space, health insurance and IT equipment from you.”

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#104

Post by shermantanktop »

The H-1B system is voluntary indentured servitude.

It’s well paid, especially by the standards of the source country. Employers love it. Visa applicants still find the prospect appealing, even if their experience may not be great.

But the power dynamics of the situation are not that different from what a migrant lettuce picker in California has to navigate. The lettuce picker actually might have more freedom.

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#105

Post by tivert »

throwv666 wrote: post #93
terse-broccoli wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically you want to extend the luck/financial privilege that those people have had to be able to study in the US to extend to additional advantages for future visa applications. Not sure that I’d clasify that as fair, personally. As you mentioned, they already get multiple chances at a H1-B already. Side note: my understanding is that there’s already a secondary lottery for people who hold a US masters (the adva…

[flagged]

> most of the students who pay these high tutution fees are sons and daughters of corrupt.

While there's some of that, at least in regards to China, I don't think that's broadly true. Chinese families are prodigious savers and value education very highly. Middle class households can pay those high tuition fees for their only child.

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#106

Post by oooyay »

tivert wrote: post #84
rtkwe wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect that to be partially counter balanced by companies being more willing to sponsor someone already in the US over someone currently overseas? Haven't had to go through that process fortunately but seems likely from a practical standpoint.

[replying to deleted child comment] > Sponsored green cards take like 1.5+ years to process, so someone could be OPT the whole time but the employer would have to get the application rolling quickly after hiring or else risk their employee having to go back to their home country for some period of time when OPT runs out and the green card is approved. Add to that: 1. Some (many?) companies do not file for green cards…

I had a friend that was at 12 and counting. He was a pretty talented technologist too.

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#107

Post by shagie »

weberer wrote: post #87
freeone3000 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be my naiveity, but, shouldn’t highly-skilled and in-demand professions be the highly valued ones? Something’s gone terribly wrong if there’s few teachers, it’s hard to get new teachers, but the price of teachers remains the same. It makes no sense from a labor standpoint.

>Something’s gone terribly wrong if there’s few teachers, it’s hard to get new teachers, but the price of teachers remains the same. It makes no sense from a labor standpoint. Its because the state has a near monopoly on hiring teachers, so they can keep wages artificially low.

The school has a budget that comes from property taxes (in most cases) that people tend to be resistant to raise.

Let's double the teachers' wages, but first you need to double the budget, and for that, need to first double the local property taxes.

Put doubling the property taxes on the next ballot and see if that passes. If not, there is no money to raise the wages for teachers.

Where wages can go up is when teachers move from a cost center to a profit center ... such as with a private school, though that is still limited by the amount that people are willing to pay to go there.

A local private high school (midwest - median household income is $75,000) is $16,000 per year with enrollment of about 500 students. You have $8M to use. There are 100 people on staff (this includes grounds and maintenance). Let's apply a broad stroke and say that this is 75 teachers and 25 kitchen, maintenance, grounds, and secretarial jobs. Pretending that all other expenses are $0 and that the non teaching staff is $0 also... $8M into 75 is $106k. That places an upper bound on the amount that teachers make there ... unless we raise that $16,000 tuition or find other revenue sources.

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#108

Post by throwaway5959 »

shmatt wrote: post #78
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #15

Just question. For software jobs. Why is there a demand that can drive abuse. When there are so many people that can't find jobs? It seems like right now there should not be enough demand for H1-b (for software) to justify abuse. Like it shouldn't be profitable enough.

The unfortunate answer is: love them or hate them, people can't pass the leetcode interviews I've worked as a hiring manager in multiple companies, and recommending or not recommending a hire is done without any knowledge of their status, but solely on the 45 minute interview I did. If they need some sponsorship thats done without communicating to me, I just say yes/no. And with that, somehow most of the Yes's need s…

Maybe stop doing leetcode interviews and start doing interviews that measure whether or not the candidate can actually do the job?

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#109

Post by addicted »

Muromec wrote: post #82
Rinzler89 wrote: post #2

Every system who's main job is controlling or gatekeeping a limited resource in high demand will 100% always get abused to some extent for personal gain or for profit. Same with housing. Especially when there's litte to no negative consequences for those caught abusing it. Like why wouldn't you? If you don't abuse it, then you're basically leaving money on the table versus your competitors who do abuse it. Until law…

Wait, one can file fraudlent applications for visa sponsorship, get caught and will not be banned for like 5 years from the system? Why? It makes no sense

This is not true. If you commit fraud you will be punished.

The problem however is that Congress refuses to fund USCIS.

For example, until a few years ago, USCIS was incapable of taking digital payments because Congress refused to fund any digitization efforts for over 2 decades.

They’ve still only allowed this only at the margins, so applications are not digitized. They exist in massive boxes of documents in basements. So they don’t even know who’s applied and how many times they’ve applied.

Re: H-1B visa fraud alive and well amid anti-abuse efforts

#110

Post by user_7832 »

throwv666 wrote: post #93
terse-broccoli wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically you want to extend the luck/financial privilege that those people have had to be able to study in the US to extend to additional advantages for future visa applications. Not sure that I’d clasify that as fair, personally. As you mentioned, they already get multiple chances at a H1-B already. Side note: my understanding is that there’s already a secondary lottery for people who hold a US masters (the adva…

[flagged]

In my experience most folks either use their parents' savings or take bank loans. Sample size in the dozens. Stop generalizing this unsubstantiated crap.
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