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USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

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Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#81

Post by beedogs »

makmanalp wrote: post #71

I think a lot of people are confusing the three kinds of applicants of H-1B visas. I don't want people to throw the baby out with the bathwater. * Category 1 is your average small company who found a great foreign engineer and wants to keep them for one reason or the other. These are in the minority. * Category 2 is your Google, Microsoft, etc hiring high quality engineers. * Category 3 is your IT outsourcing / consu…

It's kind of a shame that WiPro and InfoSys are ruining it for everyone; the quality of work provided by these two companies seems to be commensurate with the relatively terrible wages they seem to pay their visa-holding employees, too. (I've nothing good to say about either of them.)

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#82

Post by beedogs »

tosseraccount wrote: post #13

If there's such a shortage, then how come wages are stagnant? Norm Matloff ( http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html ) points out that "The H-1B work visa is fundamentally about cheap, de facto indentured labor." Cringely points out ( http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-... ) that "H-1B visas are about journeyman techies and nothing else." The evidence that the wealthy need more guest workers i…

Just goes to show, multinationals don't really care about the well-being of the citizens of countries they do business in.

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#83

Post by GuiA »

don_draper wrote: post #72
jdross wrote: post #7

It's insane. I have a coworker who is an unbelievably talented and respected developer both at my company and in the open source community. He has been working on a student visa after he graduated from an Ivy League school in computer science last year. That the U.S. is even considering deporting him is batshit crazy to me.

What's insane is that your company doesn't allow him to work remotely.

What if he doesn't want to work remotely though?

When you go to school in the US and then get a job, you build a network of both personal and professional relationships, you get settled in a place, etc. Why should someone who's actively contributing to the economy be forced to throw that away?

I'm in the same boat as OP's colleague. Graduated from a US grad school, now working in SF with an apartment, furniture, friends, a girlfriend, a professional network, etc. The company I helped start has created 4 jobs in the last month or two, with many more to come.

And now I'm in a lottery against some large companies who view the visa as just an opportunity to place cheap labor.

How is that fair, sane, reasonable or sensible in any way?

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#84

Post by abraham_s »

jdross wrote: post #36
ultimoo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had heard second-hand that international employees of reputable companies like Google etc. have preference for H1-B applications or for Green Cards, I forget which. But in case you happen to be working for a (large) well known company, there is a chance that the immigration team could leverage this (if they aren't already) for your co-worker.

We're waiting on the lottery for now, and have our legal team and friends thinking about what to do otherwise. We're a relatively small company (~75) company, so it's quite disruptive.

Is there much to be done, except for the OPT extension?

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#85

Post by keerthiko »

makmanalp wrote: post #71

I think a lot of people are confusing the three kinds of applicants of H-1B visas. I don't want people to throw the baby out with the bathwater. * Category 1 is your average small company who found a great foreign engineer and wants to keep them for one reason or the other. These are in the minority. * Category 2 is your Google, Microsoft, etc hiring high quality engineers. * Category 3 is your IT outsourcing / consu…

I would also like to point out that Category 1 (maybe not necessarily your "average" small company) may include extremely early stage startups that are still in pre-series-A funding.

Some (smart or stupid, but capable) risk-takers are willing to join the first 10 members of such teams for equity and/or becoming founding members for far less than "commensurate pay" for their role. That "role" itself may be something blurring the lines between many things, they may have to take up lead positions in departments they know little to nothing about. The rigid policies around authorizing people to work in this country is an unnecessarily and ridiculously high barrier.

Now this would all be understandable even for legal immigration if the United States was suffering a massive population problem (like most of the countries these immigrants may be coming from), but that is far from the case here. The worry is that the immigrants will do more harm than good.

Given that I believe I'm a person willing to pay my taxes, contribute to the economy positively (possibly hugely), support myself (and be responsible about any dependents I may take up) and not be a criminal, I feel the machinery in place just prevents innovation and entrepreneurship and holds the economy back.

Or maybe I'm just really stupid and don't understand how country's and economies work.

Source: I'm yet another H1B applicant, currently the 4th member of a tech startup and looking into starting another venture with my technical background, while being threatened to be deported every 6 months.

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#86

Post by stefap2 »

I guess I got lucky. I applied for H1B in 2009 and the annual quota remained open for 280 days that year. I know great number of engineers who were able to stay because of H1Bs. Company has to offer what is a comparable wage in that region for a particular profession.

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#87

Post by makmanalp »

keerthiko wrote: post #85
makmanalp wrote: post #71

I think a lot of people are confusing the three kinds of applicants of H-1B visas. I don't want people to throw the baby out with the bathwater. * Category 1 is your average small company who found a great foreign engineer and wants to keep them for one reason or the other. These are in the minority. * Category 2 is your Google, Microsoft, etc hiring high quality engineers. * Category 3 is your IT outsourcing / consu…

I would also like to point out that Category 1 (maybe not necessarily your "average" small company) may include extremely early stage startups that are still in pre-series-A funding. Some (smart or stupid, but capable) risk-takers are willing to join the first 10 members of such teams for equity and/or becoming founding members for far less than "commensurate pay" for their role. That "role" itself may be something b…

Great point! I've also written about this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5265181

Although my views have slightly changed since then, I think many of the points still stand.

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#88

Post by mjmahone17 »

makmanalp wrote: post #64
abc_lisper wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like your suggestion, though there is a small problem with it. It is hard to find a 100k job if you just got out of the school.

This. I'm almost at the 100k mark now (2 years later) but fresh out of college, I wasn't. I still get paid tons above the prevailing wage though. It's just that setting an arbitrary limit is kinda, well, arbitrary. It doesn't take into account any of the differences between jobs / industries. The US needs a lot of engineers in areas where salaries aren't overinflated. I think setting a percentage could be slightly be…

The problem is that companies are good at deflating the prevailing wage. Especially those companies that apply for massive amounts of H-1Bs.

I'm personally partial to the bidding process (i.e. we will pay this employee $150k if they get this H-1B). This would mean employers that couldn't pay above the H-1B strike price wouldn't qualify. Which I think is probably better than the status quo.

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#89

Post by saffer »

manishsharan wrote: post #24

fyi - Exemption for U.S. Master's Degree: Under the law the first 20,000 H1B petitions that are filed on behalf of foreign nationals that have earned an advanced degree from a U.S. institution of higher education are exempt from the USCIS H1B quota. This essentially creates a separate pool of 20,000 additional H1B visa numbers each fiscal year that are available only to those foreign nationals who have earned a Maste…

That cap was also exceeded (by how much, I'm not sure). So chances are better but not certain.

Re: USCIS Reaches 2014 H-1B Cap

#90

Post by jacques_chester »

mahyarm wrote: post #57

This is why bay area tech companies have to start accepting remote work more. It's easier to work with remote workers than to deal with the H-1B cap and waiting until next October. If you must restrict, just keep them within North & South America so you avoid major time zone issues.

Lots of companies accept remote workers, but not foreign remote workers.

One of my particular pet peeves with StackOverflow's jobs board is the endless parade of remote work with "NO NON-US CITIZENS" at the bottom of the job description.

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