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Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

reuters.com

101–110 of 1001 posts

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#101

IMO, the fee is the wrong thing that needs adjusting. It's the salary that should be adjusted. The minimum salary for an H1B should be $200k. It's something like 50k right now which is ridiculous especially with all the restrictions an applicant is under. It both suppresses wages and abuses the worker.

The nurse that helped save your life at ER might be on H1B getting paid $80k a year.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#103

IMO the problem is that H1B employees are stuck at the employer for the duration of their green card process, and so end up both paid lower and unable to escape abuse. I think a very high application fee is actually part of a good solution, but is useless by itself. A flawed proposal: * Dispense with the 'need to search for a qualified American' which just complicates the process without achieving the stated goal, an…

You care about that, and you say that's the problem with H1B but I think that, really, a lot of tech workers in the US, and even a lot of the HN crowd _really_ care about protectionism. They want to suppress competition for their jobs, they want to keep their salaries high. I think this is myopic, but... What the heck, your country is speed running some interesting trajectory, this measure is the not even the biggest one on the radical measures pile.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#104
This is going to kill H1B and immigration from countries like India, China and others for skilled workers. Even though $100K isn't a lot considering the overall investment that goes into hiring a full time employee, employers wouldn't risk that kind of money apart from all the document processing they have to. Maybe big tech will hire a few hundred every year but others won't even bother.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#105

IMO, the fee is the wrong thing that needs adjusting. It's the salary that should be adjusted. The minimum salary for an H1B should be $200k. It's something like 50k right now which is ridiculous especially with all the restrictions an applicant is under. It both suppresses wages and abuses the worker.

Is it too complex to just look at the companies taxes and be like... "Hey you are paying H1B workers 25% less than their peers. You get hit with a fine". If you couldn't undercut H1B salaries there is little incentive to use them except for their desired purpose (you can't find any local workers).

Even paid identically, a company might prefer H1Bs for retention purposes. Having an indentured serf who's difficult for other companies to hire and is at constant risk of deportation if they lose their job is a winning prospect for the worst companies.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#106
post #63

While the stated intention is to prevent abuse by consultancies, I think this effectively kills the H1B program. Who will be able to afford this? Not startups. 100k is like 75% of base comp in most bay area startups Among BigTech, maybe like ~20 companies will be willing to pay this per employee.

> Not startups. 100k is like 75% I dont know of a single person here on a visa making less than 150k salary. They get the same stock, bonus and benefits that every one else gets.... it's well over 300k to have that staff member when all is said and done. You're not adding on 100k a year, you're adding on 100k for a 3-6 year employee. Even if that works out to 20k a year, it's pocket change in the grand scheme of thin…

I don't think there is any reasonable evidence to suggest that most workers here on H1-B visas make more than 150k median salary, much less that they are awarded similar options as other employees.

I'm glad to hear this has been the environment you've worked in, but I don't believe it reflects the majority of skilled workers in the US on H1-B.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#107
So, essentially, startups will never be able to hire fresh graduate students again (masters/phd). This means that the best and brightest individuals who have made it to the top US institutions after winning numerous rounds of global talent filtering will be deported.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#108

IMO the problem is that H1B employees are stuck at the employer for the duration of their green card process, and so end up both paid lower and unable to escape abuse. I think a very high application fee is actually part of a good solution, but is useless by itself. A flawed proposal: * Dispense with the 'need to search for a qualified American' which just complicates the process without achieving the stated goal, an…

The last one is tricky because who is going to sponsor a worker at the price tag of 100k with no guarantee of performance. That is rife for abuse. You could get google to sponsor you and then hop to your friends startup on day one.

It is reasonable that if you get a temporary visa to perform work in another country, and you decide you don't want to do that work anymore, you leave. They aren't enslaved or anything if the work is not worth it you can attempt to transfer your status to another employer or leave.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#109
post #63

While the stated intention is to prevent abuse by consultancies, I think this effectively kills the H1B program. Who will be able to afford this? Not startups. 100k is like 75% of base comp in most bay area startups Among BigTech, maybe like ~20 companies will be willing to pay this per employee.

> Not startups. 100k is like 75% I dont know of a single person here on a visa making less than 150k salary. They get the same stock, bonus and benefits that every one else gets.... it's well over 300k to have that staff member when all is said and done. You're not adding on 100k a year, you're adding on 100k for a 3-6 year employee. Even if that works out to 20k a year, it's pocket change in the grand scheme of thin…

> I dont know of a single person here on a visa making less than 150k salary

Don't have data on this but anecdotally the base salary range for most YC startup jobs advertised here is around 150k-200k based on what I see.

You are right that it does amortize if the employee stays long enough.

Re: Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

#110
At that price point, it's cheaper for companies to risk investing in foreign branches and building up work centers outside of the US. You want to keep the price high enough to stop the bodyshops from gaming the system but you want it low enough so that all of the work doesn't get set out of the US.
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