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New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

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Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#31

Post by alistairSH »

foxtrot8672 wrote: post #3
bearjaws wrote: post #2

Not surprising, H1B for my entire career was a cost cutting measure. Every time we had a layoff some portion would be replaced with H1B. Every H1B that shared their salary with me has been underpaid. I know its anecdotal but sharing to see if anyone has seen similar.

yep. I see the same thing. Trump isn't wrong to hike fees for H1-B. For companies that shift development overseas they should face tariffs as well.

How do you determine the "correct" location of a job?

My employer sells software internationally - are you claiming any international job should be subject to some sort of fine simply because the company is HQed in the US?

I suppose we could try slicing revenue or profit by sales region and comparing against headcount expense per region? But with salaries abroad being a fraction of in the US, that math might still work out in favor of keeping international employees.

EDIT - I dislike the H1B system overall. Just not sure "fine companies that operate overseas" is something we should consider as a replacement.

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#32

Post by chopete3 »

nekusar wrote: post #6

I'd be happier if H1B's (read: employment slavery) was completely redone and not tied to a single sponsor company, or gotten rid of completely. I know so many IT folks who are unemployed. And compounding that is unmitigated slop machines for both generating resumes and filtering them. Its fraud all the way down every where I look.

The USA is the capitalist economy. The businesses do get protection and advantages.

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#33

Post by r_lee »

rfgplk wrote: post #12
nekusar wrote: post #6

I'd be happier if H1B's (read: employment slavery) was completely redone and not tied to a single sponsor company, or gotten rid of completely. I know so many IT folks who are unemployed. And compounding that is unmitigated slop machines for both generating resumes and filtering them. Its fraud all the way down every where I look.

Yep. Taking advantage of desperate people from developing countries who think a $90k salary is something extravagant.

> who think a $90k salary is something extravagant

I guess Europe is then part of these "developing countries"

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#34

Post by techpression »

throwawalien wrote: post #7
toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call your congressional rep. The HIRE Act: 25% tax on outsourcing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45161419 - September 2025 Ohio senator introduces 25% tax on companies that outsource jobs overseas - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45146528 - September 2025 https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/297...

is 25% enough to move the needle?

Also curious about loopholes, could said company start another company out of state that was the outsourcing entity and then the parent company paid that company. You're theoretically hiring from within the US, because I assume said policy doesn't go all the way to sub-contractors etc?

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#35

Post by vidarh »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4
foxtrot8672 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yep. I see the same thing. Trump isn't wrong to hike fees for H1-B. For companies that shift development overseas they should face tariffs as well.

Call your congressional rep. The HIRE Act: 25% tax on outsourcing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45161419 - September 2025 Ohio senator introduces 25% tax on companies that outsource jobs overseas - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45146528 - September 2025 https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/297...

So you'd move companies overseas and buy services instead of outsourcing work.

It's really hard to do this in a way that won't be trivial to work around, and often in ways where you're likely to like the work around even less.

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#37

Post by lokar »

cogman10 wrote: post #22
adrr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H1B should have never been a lottery. It should be a stack rank by salary to deal with the over subscription.

Oh that's a really good way to handle it that would actually follow the intent of the program. You can't find someone to do a job? Then you need to compete on wage with other companies to bring someone in. Or, you know, raise your salary for local employees.

A simple stack rank and cut has the problem of where to draw the line.

Also, how to value pre-ipo stock

There are other good options as well (an auction, etc). They all have problems, but there are mitigations. It could be vastly improved even if it’s not perfect.

It’s just the will to do it.

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#38

Post by rayiner »

superjose wrote: post #11

Wow. This will affect universities and negatively impact the US in the coming years. How many of the talent from frontier labs is immigrant?

That's an insufficiently granular question. How much of the talent in frontier labs has an H1B rather than an O visa? Out of the people who have an H1B, how many employers would be willing to eat the $100k fee because those employees are so valuable?

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#39

Post by tekla »

Sol- wrote: post #29

It's funny how quickly tech employees turn MAGA when it comes to qualified immigration. Bad zero-sum intuitions about work abound across all strata of society, it seems.

It is pretty interesting to watch. "I'm pro immigration EXCEPT specifically the kind that directly affects me"

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#40

Post by ben_w »

rfgplk wrote: post #12
nekusar wrote: post #6

I'd be happier if H1B's (read: employment slavery) was completely redone and not tied to a single sponsor company, or gotten rid of completely. I know so many IT folks who are unemployed. And compounding that is unmitigated slop machines for both generating resumes and filtering them. Its fraud all the way down every where I look.

Yep. Taking advantage of desperate people from developing countries who think a $90k salary is something extravagant.

Everywhere else but the USA (and possibly Luxembourg), $90k will buy you a fantastic quality of life.

If you really want to make $90k seem as bad to the rest of us as it feels to you, you need to get the exchange rates changed, have USD devalued compared to other currencies until they're at purchasing power parity.

Of course, doing this would mean forcing yourselves to accept that China's got the biggest economy and the USA is only a little ahead of the EU, instead of thinking China and the EU are about the same as each other and significantly behind the USA.

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