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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

#151

Post by davyjones »

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?

Unrestricted Jus soli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli#Unrestricted_jus_soli)

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

#152

Post by geekam »

tn13 wrote: post #147

I am in USA on H1B. A lot of American problems seem to be around the thinking that there is some kind "fixed" number of jobs, misery, poverty, disease etc. A lot of welfare systems here seems to assume that there is a fixed number of single mothers, disabled etc. without acknowledging the fact that the more incentives you give to them more people will try to get into that category. For example more dole you give to d…

There is another important point of outsourcing. If there is more competition here, in the US, then chances of outsourcing to India, China (where pay is substantially low) will also reduce. That might mean more jobs here, in the US.

Take Cognizant Technology solutions for example. I know a friend who works for the company. They are a US company (NJ based) but the majority of their life-sciences projects are outsourced to India office. They pay my friend one-thirds of what they charge the client for him in the contract. Him and about 5 other people who work here for the client, send work off-shore to India office to about 50 people. This model of outsourcing the majority work to India suits the client because the total costs about one-tenth of what they'd actually pay if everyone of those employees was hired here, in the US.

Not only is this model hurting jobs in the US, it is bad for the employees here well. For my friend, he has to work during the day, and then spend most of the night delegating tasks off-shore. He practically sleeps only over the weekend.

This might be a one-off example with this specific client only for Cognizant but I am aware that the profits from pay-scales are company-wide.

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

#153

Post by geekam »

gnufied wrote: post #57
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 Bang…

I just added a comment about Cognizant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7550824

I believe that it is a very unhealthy model that they have.

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

#155

Post by EduardoBautista »

ebiester wrote: post #48
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…

There are only a few really good places to live for an educated worker. Japan, Australia, Western and Northern Europe, Canada, and the US. I will operationalize "good" as "an intelligent worker can make an exceptional living relative to their country of origin." Each of these places only take a limited amount of immigrants each year. Some are more difficult based on the national language -- learning Danish isn't more…

If I recall correctly, almost all the nordic countries accept English to fulfill their language requirements.

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

#156

Post by untog »

tibbon wrote: post #129
thmcmahon wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia has an uncapped temporary migration program for skilled workers ( http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/457.aspx ), the situation described in this article can not happen in Australia. On a permanent level, Australia has a permanent program of around 180,000 places a year in a country with only 22 million people.

Given that, why aren't more people trying to get to Australia to work? Aside from spiders (a personal fear of mine) it seems to be a pretty awesome place.

It's far away, and as a developer I don't think you can earn as much as you would in the US. Certainly to be more HN specific, the startup scene is not much to talk about.

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

#157

Post by untog »

CCs wrote: post #131
firstOrder wrote: post #5

> Does turning away highly skilled and educated people due to an artificial cap on visas sound silly? This is a false way of framing things on many levels. First, as Norm Matloff has extensively documented, they are not all "highly skilled and educated people". Secondly, they can be given green cards and other such things, why is this specific visa necessary? Also, if there's a shortage of talent, then the Silicon Va…

> Secondly, they can be given green cards and other such things, why is this specific visa necessary? Normal path: H1B -> Green Card -> 5 yr waiting -> Citizenship You will not get GC directly, unless: (a) Apply for GC lottery (b) Marry US citizen (c) Claim refugee status (d) Your US citizen relatives ask for it and you wait 8+ years to get it

Your employer can also sponsor you for a green card. Source: I'm doing that right now.

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

#158

Post by untog »

nostromo wrote: post #81
JOnAgain wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I think they should be auctioned off. (Either the company or the individual could pay the final auction price.) The end result is the same: the most valuable workers are let in. It'd also have a small, but nice benefit: a voluntary revenue stream for the US to spend on whatever it would like (perhaps improved education and training for citizens).

I imagine that would not work well for startups, though.

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

#159

Post by ollysb »

ollysb wrote: post #72
ebiester wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are only a few really good places to live for an educated worker. Japan, Australia, Western and Northern Europe, Canada, and the US. I will operationalize "good" as "an intelligent worker can make an exceptional living relative to their country of origin." Each of these places only take a limited amount of immigrants each year. Some are more difficult based on the national language -- learning Danish isn't more…

As a developer you can live anywhere that has a decent internet connection. That's a pretty large portion of the planet these days...

"Large portion of the planet"... you've got North America, South America(some exceptions), Europe, a good chunk of Asia and Australasia. That's a pretty reasonable selection of places to live isn't it?

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

#160

Post by jedmeyers »

tibbon wrote: post #129
thmcmahon wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia has an uncapped temporary migration program for skilled workers ( http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/457.aspx ), the situation described in this article can not happen in Australia. On a permanent level, Australia has a permanent program of around 180,000 places a year in a country with only 22 million people.

Given that, why aren't more people trying to get to Australia to work? Aside from spiders (a personal fear of mine) it seems to be a pretty awesome place.

Earning less than a unionized plumber is sometimes degrading.
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