Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 207 posts

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#11

Post by derefr »

lmg643 wrote: post #3

i recently saw a table of firms awarded these visas. it seemed nuts to me that a large proportion of the visas go to firms whose primary business line is outsourcing in one form or another. i typically think of visas as fulfilling unmet hiring needs for domestic US firms - like Facebook! - but instead see they are largely squirreled away by firms whose primary function is overseas labor cost arbitrage. I would be int…

The visas are helping american firms meet their hiring needs... through the outsourcing firms. The people who want to hire don't want to be burdened with the paperwork of actually keeping track of work-visa'ed employees; the outsourcing firms are willing to take that burden on for them. Everyone wins.

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#12

Post by nairteashop »

Does anyone know why the number of visas isn't capped on a per-company basis?

Last year, apparently 40,000 of the 85,000 available visas went to outsourcing companies, and one outsourcing company, Cognizant, got 9,000 visas!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/03/176134...

At my last job, we tried to get an H1 for just one person, and failed in the lottery!

I feel there would be much less abuse of the H1 if each company could receive only say 100 visas a year max, or a % of their US workforce size max, or something.

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#15

Post by suyash »

nairteashop wrote: post #12

Does anyone know why the number of visas isn't capped on a per-company basis? Last year, apparently 40,000 of the 85,000 available visas went to outsourcing companies, and one outsourcing company, Cognizant, got 9,000 visas! http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/03/176134... At my last job, we tried to get an H1 for just one person, and failed in the lottery! I feel there would be much less abuse of the…

More accurate figures: http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#16

Post by malandrew »

lmg643 wrote: post #3

i recently saw a table of firms awarded these visas. it seemed nuts to me that a large proportion of the visas go to firms whose primary business line is outsourcing in one form or another. i typically think of visas as fulfilling unmet hiring needs for domestic US firms - like Facebook! - but instead see they are largely squirreled away by firms whose primary function is overseas labor cost arbitrage. I would be int…

The one job type where these visas should not be usable is consulting. If the employee isn't coming here to work on a very specific product or service, then they are being brought in only to reduce wages and not because the employer can't find someone who is capable of performing a very specific need. Consulting by its nature is the most unspecific need. It's a wildcard need.

The most valuable employees to the country are those that are hired to work on something that scales that can then be sold to other countries. Consultancy is a non-scaleable business model, which does nothing to helping the US' balance of payments. Improving the balance of payments should be the primary deciding factor when determining if an application is valid.

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#17

Post by huherto »

suyash wrote: post #8

I"m surprised only 124,000 applications were received. I was expecting the number to cross 200K. It gives more 85,000/124,000 probability which means slightly more than 68% of the people have chances of getting the H1B Visa.

That number is for last year. There is no information about this year.

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#18

Post by bertil »

lmg643 wrote: post #3

i recently saw a table of firms awarded these visas. it seemed nuts to me that a large proportion of the visas go to firms whose primary business line is outsourcing in one form or another. i typically think of visas as fulfilling unmet hiring needs for domestic US firms - like Facebook! - but instead see they are largely squirreled away by firms whose primary function is overseas labor cost arbitrage. I would be int…

I’m assuming those firms need to have specialists who speak foreign languages. More so, those firm leverage on executive close to the decision making while others (not really Facebook, admittedly) would need far more people to make the same impact. This means they can put a lot more effort into lobbying their positions.

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#19

Post by suyash »

suyash wrote: post #15
nairteashop wrote: post #12

Does anyone know why the number of visas isn't capped on a per-company basis? Last year, apparently 40,000 of the 85,000 available visas went to outsourcing companies, and one outsourcing company, Cognizant, got 9,000 visas! http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/03/176134... At my last job, we tried to get an H1 for just one person, and failed in the lottery! I feel there would be much less abuse of the…

More accurate figures: http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx

I don't think there is a quota limit per employer/sponsor.

Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week

#20

Post by npinguy »

fsk wrote: post #2

They really should call them "indentured servant slave visas". The H1-B visa holder has to leave the country if he gets fired (and doesn't find a new employer quickly), and if he switches jobs the green card process has to start over. Because the H1-B visa employee is legally bound to the job, he becomes more attractive than hiring a US citizen, (assuming equal salary and qualification).

Except relocation costs, lawyer fees, living expenses (frequently covered for a time period after move), and so on.

Bringing a foreign employee over is incredibly expensive. The reason companies do it isn't to get a grateful slave that will do anything to hold his job and rise ahead. They do it because a shortage of skilled workers locally, and incredible competition from other companies.

Not to mention all the hassle and uncertainty of interviewing someone, and then not knowing for months or even years if they can come over and start working.

As someone that works for a company that hires a LOT internationally, trust me, we'd much rather hire locally. But our needs are greater than can be found in one place, so we have to broaden our reach.

Post reply on HN