Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress • Hacker News Board

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#181

Post by HaZeust » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:50 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #123

mattnewton wrote: post #11

Not only are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I feel like the current rhetoric in the US doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of the metaphorical baby anymore. The strongest advantage of the US has always been the ability to absorb global talent. I don’t think that is a popular view anymore, and we are instead stuck talking only about stopping abuse that is ultimately still bringing skilled workers to t…

US looked like the next stage of humanity, if you are ambitious you go to USA. Anyone can become American and didn't feel like betrayal to the country or the people who raised you. Whatever you achieve in USA it will be available to all the humanity. Fast forward to mid 2020s, now USA feels like old style European country that is rich as f and about to go through stages of great suffering to eventually become a natio…

"We live in an era of fraud in America. Not just in banking, but in government, education, religion, food, even baseball... What bothers me isn't that fraud is not nice. Or that fraud is mean. For fifteen thousand years, fraud and short sighted thinking have never, ever worked. Not once. Eventually you get caught, things go south. When the hell did we forget all that? I thought we were better than this, I really did."

- Steve Eisman, 2008

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#182

Post by ffsm8 » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

SilverElfin wrote: post #159

ffsm8 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from Germany, and from an outsiders perspective I can only say that your argument wouldn't convince me. I looked into the h1b for myself before, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to start my own successful business while on it. You're aware that there will continue to be immigration without the h1b visa, right? That's just a common way big corporations use to import cheap labor, at least that's what I looked…

> That's just a common way big corporations use to import cheap labor In the case of H1B, they’re paid slightly more on average. It’s myth that they’re cheaper. Usually they’re a lot more expensive given the costs of dealing with the immigration process > I suspect overall net negative, because often the h1b visa recipients will transfer their money back to their home country, which makes this into a net-negative aga…

You left out the context. It's not an issue at an individual level. I very explicitly stated that I was talking about societal level.

That means that the society is worse of if everyone does it

And importing goods is a good example why the scale matters. People usually import items worth maybe some small fraction of their yearly income, whereas some immigrants are known to sent back more then they spent locally.

Which is fine if they're actually world class talent, because then there will be very few people doing so, and their intellectual contributions likely offset any other issues. However, as you scale up the immigration percentage, it eventually does become a societal problem.

And the governments job is explicitly to look at the well being if the society - at least ideally. How much they actually do (vs just trying to siphon as much tax payer money as they can get away with) is another question I'm unqualified to say wrt the USA

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#183

Post by optionalsquid » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

myk9001 wrote: post #77

RealityVoid wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because of the salaries. They are much higher in the US. Also, the SV bay area has an absurd concentration of talent that you probably can't find anywhere else. Having a head start from anyone else helps. But don't worry, I'm sure that in the current climate Europe will be able to gather and retain talent. I personally would be much more happy to work for lower pay than contributing to the prosperity of such a predat…

> I personally would be much more happy to work for lower pay than contributing to the prosperity of such a predatory country. Even if that pay was so much lower that you'd have to split your rent with flatmates? (yes, European comp is typically that bad, not oveblowing this) Then I admire your principled position, but you're one in a million.

According to eurostat [1],

> In 2020, 70% of the population in the EU lived in a household owning their home, while the remaining 30% lived in rented housing.

So it does not seem like the price situation is as dire as you suggest, though Germany is on the lower end of the ownership scale.

Personally, I had a flatmate (rented a room) for one year during my studies, but I don't know anyone currently living with flatmates. Plus, it's not like you have to live in the middle of the capital, thanks to extensive public transport

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/w...

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#184

Post by sifar » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

cmxch wrote: post #73

willvarfar wrote: post #47

This is going to be an interesting take but I think it is plausible that we'll see a quiet growth in American tech companies having even bigger offshore campuses instead. Google Zurich or Google London could grow, Google does hardware in Taiwan and Apple and Intel do hardware in Israel, and pretty much all the big tech companies have the biggest chunk in Hyperbad. The withdrawal of the H1B means companies can't compe…

And with these new structures, new penalties for their existence will follow. Properly executed, those offshore structures will have to incur losses to exist, or will no longer exist.

History indicates regulation always trails corporate accountants.

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#185

Post by optionalsquid » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

myk9001 wrote: post #104

RealityVoid wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, I am an EU citizen and I absolutely don't have to split rent with any flatmates. In fact, I own my residence. Second, I did in fact split my rent with flatmates during my 6 years of college, we lived 5 people in about 200sqft, then my first job I split and apartment with 3 other people. That was luxurious already! Sure, it would tricky to live like that if you have a family, but as a young person? It's…

If you own, you hit a jackpot, basically. Then, yes, life in Europe can be very nice. Sharing an apartment while in college is OK, even fun in my book. We're talking about immigrants though, right? (If you don't want more of us in your country, I don't think you're a monster, btw. But entertain me anyway?) Go check out, say, Berlin salaries on levels.fyi or glassdoor or wherever you prefer and filter out US companies…

> So after rent you're left with what, 1860 euro? Good luck getting through the month with that money in Berlin.

I live in a higher cost-of-living city than Berlin, and could easily make it through the month on 1860 EUR, once rent and utilities have been paid

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#186

Post by sifar » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

draebek wrote: post #174

palmotea wrote: post #145

Literally who cares? Most bills that are introduced go nowhere, and this one was introduced by a congresswoman who recently resigned (Marjorie Taylor Greene). But what Congress really needs to do is introduce an onerous tax on offshore labor, that's a much worse problem.

https://www.eisneramper.com/insights/tax/halting-internation...

" “Foreign persons” is broadly defined in the bill as any person who is not a United States person. However, the bill does not include “any corporation or partnership organized under the laws of a possession of the United States” in that definition of foreign person. "

Most offshoring companies don't pay directly to individuals - either they are employees of their own subsidiaries or those of offshoring entities. So, this is not going to change anything.

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#187

Post by _DeadFred_ » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

SilverElfin wrote: post #33

distortionfield wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is little reason to believe that low hiring will be improved in any significant amount by removal of the H1B pool.

Yep, all H1B workers combined are less than 500K people. A tiny, tiny portion of the job market, which is like 175 million jobs

65% of H1B jobs are in one industry, “computer-related” jobs as of 2023. There are over 700,000 H1Bs in the USA, so almost half a million tech industry specific H1B jobs. Considering there are roughly 6-10 million tech jobs in total in the USA, that's 5-9% of tech jobs.

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#188

Post by myk9001 » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:21 PM UTC

optionalsquid wrote: post #185

myk9001 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you own, you hit a jackpot, basically. Then, yes, life in Europe can be very nice. Sharing an apartment while in college is OK, even fun in my book. We're talking about immigrants though, right? (If you don't want more of us in your country, I don't think you're a monster, btw. But entertain me anyway?) Go check out, say, Berlin salaries on levels.fyi or glassdoor or wherever you prefer and filter out US companies…

> So after rent you're left with what, 1860 euro? Good luck getting through the month with that money in Berlin. I live in a higher cost-of-living city than Berlin, and could easily make it through the month on 1860 EUR, once rent and utilities have been paid

What would your expences look like, if you don't mind sharing?

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#189

Post by calculatte » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:23 PM UTC

SilverElfin wrote: post #39

calculatte wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think anyone working with the global talent can tell you there are absolutely no controls around measuring their quality. The skilled talent simply isn't skilled at all. They are willing to engage in kickback schemes. Even the O1 "genius" visa is being given to onlyfans models. Immigration is completely broken and it's by design.

Who are you to claim the talent isn’t skilled at all? Maybe you’re the unskilled, unemployed one who is now asking the rest of us for a protectionist tariff to save your employability. The business owners who are hiring these people are making the choices that are the best for their business, and they’re judging the quality. It’s their money, and they’re betting with it - and confidently too. But let’s assume you’re…

Go ahead then. Explain how the US government measures the skills of work visa applicants. Because they just exposed millions are buying fake diplomas in India and getting visas. On the contrary, you sound like an H1B worker defending your position to parasitically drain US resources.

Re: Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress

#190

Post by calculatte » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

leptons wrote: post #29

calculatte wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think anyone working with the global talent can tell you there are absolutely no controls around measuring their quality. The skilled talent simply isn't skilled at all. They are willing to engage in kickback schemes. Even the O1 "genius" visa is being given to onlyfans models. Immigration is completely broken and it's by design.

Your take only applies to recent developments. For the entirety of the H visa program, it has brought in very valuable talent, which stayed here to generate incredible wealth for the country. "onlyfans" is a recent thing. The kickbacks are a relatively new thing. Sure immigration is broken, but that's what happens when the government is intent on breaking the country.

Well you are right about one thing. Government is intent on breaking the country. But rampant immigration immigration fraud and abuse has been around for decades.