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

reuters.com

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

#311

Post by tottenhm »

valkmit wrote: post #279
jpadkins wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top end of H1B has been great for America. In the last few decades, there has been growth of abuse of the program to get mid level talent at below market rates which really hurts the middle class in America. People need to understand that most reformists don't want to get rid of the truly exceptional immigration to the US. We need to limit the volume, especially the immigrants that are directly competing with a h…

How valid is this premise in an increasingly global world? Most of the companies that are paying salaries could (and already do!) have offices in other jurisdictions where they could hire the same talent. Better to bring this talent onshore, where the wages are taxed, than force these companies to hire from satellite offices? It doesn't make much financial sense for companies to stop sourcing talent globally just bec…

Same basic question -- at the price of $100k/ea, it does seem cheaper to build-out more satellite offices.

But there's a parallel push around taxing American firms using foreign labor (https://www.moreno.senate.gov/press-releases/new-moreno-bill...).

If multiple new policies are put in place at the same time, then... I dunno... it seems harder to predict...

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

#312

Post by guyzero »

the_real_cher wrote: post #310
guyzero wrote: post #248

Everyone in these threads always points out all sorts of issues with the H1B system, which are mostly true, but it's not like there's a suggestion for a replacement here. This is a de facto shutdown of the program, not a reform. I'd be happy to see a reformed skilled immigration program for the US, but this isn't it. The US makes up about 4.5% of the global population and it seems silly to think that the FAANG compan…

Yeah but no offense if you're paid the same as your peers, you're not necessarily exceptional. There's literally millions of talented Americans out of work in the tech industry right now while companies continue to hire H1B. The companies post impossible requirement job ads in obscure locations..to get around the requirements to hire Americans first.

> Yeah but no offense if you're paid the same as your peers, you're not necessarily exceptional.

Says you. I work in Lake Wobegon.

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

#313

Post by kilroy123 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #302

If H-1B workers are too expensive to hire, tech employers have two options: 1. Hire more American workers (pay more, maybe they don't exist so don't hire) 2. Move their offices overseas (already happening, we should see an acceleration) Ok, I guess AI could also start replacing more roles, but we won't see that productivity for a year or two. If companies choose 2 over 1, it will mean fewer jobs overall in the USA (i…

What about just hiring remote contractors?

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

#314

Post by pyuser583 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #302

If H-1B workers are too expensive to hire, tech employers have two options: 1. Hire more American workers (pay more, maybe they don't exist so don't hire) 2. Move their offices overseas (already happening, we should see an acceleration) Ok, I guess AI could also start replacing more roles, but we won't see that productivity for a year or two. If companies choose 2 over 1, it will mean fewer jobs overall in the USA (i…

Yep - I expect to see a lot more job postings for overseas. Not the time to encourage offshoring.

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

#315

Post by varispeed »

roughly wrote: post #85

I think there’s plenty of interesting debates to be had about immigration policy and its effects on the labor market, but one thing worth noting here is that the primary problem that damn near every other country on earth has isn’t immigration, it’s brain drain. A core strategic strength of the US over the last century has been that everyone with any talent wants to come here to work, and by and large we’ve let them…

In the UK it is mostly immigration policy. Thanks to something called Boriswave, corporations could import knowledge workers at close to minimum wage (so locals couldn't even compete for those jobs) and now it changed a little, but still it's fraction of what local worker would command for similar job. This has basically collapsed the IT market. Then you have more people competing for the same resources, meaning rents going up, you wait longer for a doctor's appointment and so on. Just don't get me wrong - I don't blame immigrants. If I was in a poor country and had talent, I'd grab any opportunity to get more experience and get foot in the door so to speak.

It's corruption of the government.

Now, by the way I understand H-1B, $100k still seams cheap for essentially getting a slave.

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

#316

Post by bamboozled »

pigpag wrote: post #57

$100k filing fee cannot be legally viable. But I support the direction in general. There is virtually no gate control, causing the visa category to be flooded by fraudulent applications (including unqualified hires, duplicate lottery shots). H1B visas are initially designed for economic efficiency, so using monetary means to control it is justifiable.

It depends how this is implemented but I think that only “rich” people including criminals will use this as a way to bring undesirable people in. Again it spends on implementation but when you’re “paying” for someone to enter , is there extra leeway on the approval ? How strict will the entry requirements be ?

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

#317

Post by declan_roberts »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #302

If H-1B workers are too expensive to hire, tech employers have two options: 1. Hire more American workers (pay more, maybe they don't exist so don't hire) 2. Move their offices overseas (already happening, we should see an acceleration) Ok, I guess AI could also start replacing more roles, but we won't see that productivity for a year or two. If companies choose 2 over 1, it will mean fewer jobs overall in the USA (i…

This is happening in tandem with work to tax offshoring ("No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act")

Companies could already hire offshore for 50% of what they pay in America, so I don't expect a dramatic change there.

https://thefactcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/No-T...

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

#318

Post by trollbridge »

jpadkins wrote: post #123
roughly wrote: post #85

I think there’s plenty of interesting debates to be had about immigration policy and its effects on the labor market, but one thing worth noting here is that the primary problem that damn near every other country on earth has isn’t immigration, it’s brain drain. A core strategic strength of the US over the last century has been that everyone with any talent wants to come here to work, and by and large we’ve let them…

The top end of H1B has been great for America. In the last few decades, there has been growth of abuse of the program to get mid level talent at below market rates which really hurts the middle class in America. People need to understand that most reformists don't want to get rid of the truly exceptional immigration to the US. We need to limit the volume, especially the immigrants that are directly competing with a h…

Exceptional migrants can still qualify under O-1, which hasn’t really changed at all. Most tech startup founders can qualify for O-1, unless your startup is really pointless.

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

#319

Post by non_aligned »

Illniyar wrote: post #274
non_aligned wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A core strategic strength of the US over the last century has been that everyone with any talent wants to come here to work, and by and large we’ve let them do so. That's largely a myth, though. The vast majority of smart, driven people have no path to lawfully immigrate to the US. By a wide margin, the main immigration pathway are family visas (i.e., marriages and citizens bringing in relatives). H-1B visas are a…

I mean there's somewhere between 10-20k o1 visas issued a year. o1 is literally the visa for smart and talented people. There is also EB with National Interest Waiver - including for profession like Doctors and such. Not to mention a lot of employment based visa, if you work for a US employer - L1, EB1/2 directly etc... There isn't a permanent resident visa for Driven people - but you can get entrepreneur visas if yo…

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Yes, if you're truly exceptional, you can get in the US. You can also get into any other country in the world. And the Trump administration doesn't seem to be interested in changing that.

But only a tiny sliver of what you would consider successful, skilled people can qualify for O-1. To my original point: if you're "merely" hard-working and good at something, you - as a general rule - have no lawful pathway to immigrate to the US.

Here's another way to look at it: let's say that in any country, roughly 10% of people fall into the category of "talented and hard-working" - not superstars, but the kind of people who would conceptually enrich the economy. Worldwide, that's probably what, 400 million adults? Further, let's say that about 10% would be interested in living in the US. And before all the EU folks sneer at that: that's probably a big underestimate, because a good chunk of the world is living in places with a much lower standard of living. So that's 40 million who probably want to come. And the total number of employment visas is ~100k/year. We aim for the global top <0.1%.

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

#320

Post by rdtsc »

roughly wrote: post #85

I think there’s plenty of interesting debates to be had about immigration policy and its effects on the labor market, but one thing worth noting here is that the primary problem that damn near every other country on earth has isn’t immigration, it’s brain drain. A core strategic strength of the US over the last century has been that everyone with any talent wants to come here to work, and by and large we’ve let them…

> but one thing worth noting here is that the primary problem that damn near every other country on earth has isn’t immigration, it’s brain drain.

It's great if you only root for the US, but taking more global perspective, let's have other countries improve their situation as well. There are almost 200 or so countries, I am ok with them improving their economy using their equivalent of H1-B programs.

This is a golden opportunity for others to step in an eat Americans' lunch so to speak, let's see if they capitalize on it.

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