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

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

#51

Post by balls187 »

joe_the_user wrote: post #39
tokenadult wrote: post #26

What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world? (In other words, why is that successive sessions of Congress can basically count on lots of people desiring to live in the United States, thus setting up an environment in which immigration regulation is restrictive rather than open?) (I'm genuinely curious about this…

What evidence do you have that the US is an attractive place at all, relative to other advanced or semi-advanced nations? More applicants than places does not prove that much in a world of scarce jobs. People are dying, literally drowning in the Mediterranean, to get into Europe. As I know, people still apply to work in Qatar even as they engage in work practices that well be "nothing less than murder"in the process…

Humans will seek work wherever there is work to be had.

All that means is that there are jobs in Europe and Qatar.

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

#52

Post by refurb »

joe_the_user wrote: post #39
tokenadult wrote: post #26

What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world? (In other words, why is that successive sessions of Congress can basically count on lots of people desiring to live in the United States, thus setting up an environment in which immigration regulation is restrictive rather than open?) (I'm genuinely curious about this…

What evidence do you have that the US is an attractive place at all, relative to other advanced or semi-advanced nations? More applicants than places does not prove that much in a world of scarce jobs. People are dying, literally drowning in the Mediterranean, to get into Europe. As I know, people still apply to work in Qatar even as they engage in work practices that well be "nothing less than murder"in the process…

About 13% of the world's adults -- or about 630 million people -- say they would like to leave their country and move somewhere else permanently. For roughly 138 million people, that somewhere else would be the U.S. -- the No. 1 desired destination for potential migrants. The U.K., Canada, and France also rank among the top choices for potential migrants.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/161435/100-million-worldwide-drea...

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

#53

Post by crazypyro »

JOnAgain wrote: post #31
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…

Or just rank em by salary/comp. More skilled people => more valuable to the economy => receive higher salary => more likely to get visa (=> pay more in taxes).

Wouldn't this create the obvious problem of companies artificially increasing comp.? How do you judge that? Seems like its asking for trouble. They already do this a little bit with advanced degrees.

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

#54

Post by josephschmoe »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #38
boomzilla wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a quota for each company, say less than 500 H1B visas each year. The companies then have the incentive to pick the best candidates. Or there could be different brackets depending on company's sizes.

If the reason for such visa distribution is really the need to outsource paperwork, then introducing the quota you propose would only result in visas going to myriad of smaller outsourcing companies instead of few big ones.

Should be a percent of workers, say a maximum of 5%.

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

#55

Post by chulk90 »

joe_the_user wrote: post #39
tokenadult wrote: post #26

What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world? (In other words, why is that successive sessions of Congress can basically count on lots of people desiring to live in the United States, thus setting up an environment in which immigration regulation is restrictive rather than open?) (I'm genuinely curious about this…

What evidence do you have that the US is an attractive place at all, relative to other advanced or semi-advanced nations? More applicants than places does not prove that much in a world of scarce jobs. People are dying, literally drowning in the Mediterranean, to get into Europe. As I know, people still apply to work in Qatar even as they engage in work practices that well be "nothing less than murder"in the process…

We're discussing high-skilled immigrants. People trying to reach the southern European countries (especially Italy and Greece) or wanting to work in Qatar are a different kind of immigrants.

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

#56

Post by thingylab »

joe_the_user wrote: post #39
tokenadult wrote: post #26

What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world? (In other words, why is that successive sessions of Congress can basically count on lots of people desiring to live in the United States, thus setting up an environment in which immigration regulation is restrictive rather than open?) (I'm genuinely curious about this…

What evidence do you have that the US is an attractive place at all, relative to other advanced or semi-advanced nations? More applicants than places does not prove that much in a world of scarce jobs. People are dying, literally drowning in the Mediterranean, to get into Europe. As I know, people still apply to work in Qatar even as they engage in work practices that well be "nothing less than murder"in the process…

A pretty solid evidence is the consistently high number of people coming / trying to come to the US each year... Seriously, you wouldn't put up with all that immigration crap if it was not attractive.

> People are dying, literally drowning in the Mediterranean, to get into Europe.

Right. Don't you think that's an indication of proximity rather than attractiveness? (some) People from Africa might be poor and are dying to go some place else, but they're not stupid. They understand crossing the Mediterranean is easier than crossing the Atlantic...

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

#57

Post by gnufied »

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…

As a Indian, I would love if Visa to outsourcing firms are restricted. Take Cognizant for example, they can't compete for salary with most startups in Bangalore or Pune (and work is not great as well) and yet people want to join them, just for onsite allure.

On other hand, I would love to have a easier way to start a business in US and a Visa program that helps US economy.

DISCLAIMER: I run a services startup in Bangalore.

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

#58

Post by smtddr »

tokenadult wrote: post #26

What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world? (In other words, why is that successive sessions of Congress can basically count on lots of people desiring to live in the United States, thus setting up an environment in which immigration regulation is restrictive rather than open?) (I'm genuinely curious about this…

>>What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world?

So, I'm highly critical of USgov but USA, with all its alleged faults, is still considered the "Land of opportunity" by a lot of people. If you have tech-skills and you need a country where the internet doesn't cost you a kidney-per-month(and barely works), electricity is reliably provided during core working hours; combined with the perception that Bay Area / Silicon Valley tech scene is where the money & smart people are at.... there you have it.

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

#59

Post by jgh »

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.

Between 2008 and 2012(?) they didn't fill the quota at all. Prior to the recession the quota would be filled on the first day.

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

#60

Post by potatolicious »

thingylab wrote: post #21
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).

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Many H1-Bs work in high-value industries and make a decent amount of money (I should know, I'm an H1-B holder). I don't think many of them consider themselves slaves. The green card process for a H1-B is particularly annoying and restrictive though, as is the arbitrary time limit. Not sure what you mean by "the H1-B visa employee is legally bound to the job". Sure, your company's name…

The H-1B becomes a whole lot more restrictive the moment you apply for a green card, since your transferability just vanished.

This is less of a problem for people from non-Indian and non-Chinese backgrounds, since the wait time is reasonably short. The priority dates for Indians and Chinese though make it such that once your green card is started you're stuck for literally years.

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