561–570 of 644 posts
I don't understand what everyone is up in arms about. H1B visas increases the supply of programmers. You don't exactly need a CS degree to be a programmer, so there are a lot of programmers. If people are complaining that H1B visas depress wages, then the correct solution is unionization/collective bargaining. I'm sorry, but programmers are a dime a dozen nowadays. Talent ALWAYS commands a higher pay - H1B or not. Ev…
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It is public actually. Check out visadoor.com.
That data is extremely skimpy. Where is the comparative data? All I saw was one figure, "prevailing wage". What is the sample size? Is the sample based on workers operating in the same region (for example a company with multiple locations could very well cite a domestic salary relative to all locations (bringing the average down) or cite numbers from the cheapest region. etc. etc. etc. There are a many ways to lie wi…
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First you said: it is not that they are looking for "cheap labour" Then you said: The company is based in Seattle and they are facing increasing competition from Microsoft and Amazon mostly who are sucking up all of the talent in the area, whilst other smaller startups and companies struggle to hire people because the bigger companies are offering more money. Your second statement contradicts your first statement. Wh…
At face value, I can see why you think that. Supply and demand, as supply dwindles and demand increases, the price increases as well, right? Simple economics. I understand it and I get it, but I don't think the instance of developers that it is fair that bigger companies with larger profits and reach should be able to take all of the talent in the area by offering above average salaries to get them to sign. Smaller c…
I don't think you can have "inflated market salary." Instead what you have is the true market salary (for an experienced engineer that's good, that's a minimum of $200k at this point), and then you have the amount that most companies are willing to pay (which typically caps at $125-150k).
In the US, until the 1970s, average income (in constant dollars) rose at a pretty compelling rate. After the 1970s, a number of factors have combined such that we've not seen the same rise in real income -- despite the fact that productivity, as in, the amount of value we're adding to companies' bottom lines, has been rising.
This is why the gap between the rich and the rest has been growing so quickly. The added productivity is enriching the few at the expense of the many, except for a very few exceptions; one of those is exceptional software developers, who can take advantage (at the moment) of their rarity to actually negotiate salaries commensurate with their productivity.
I'm one of those who was able to secure a $250k+ offer from a big company, which is awesome, and I'm really lucky to be in this position. But the reality is that I know a lot of developers who are really good and who should be making over $200k/year, at a minimum, but who make $125k or less.
Importing H1-B workers in large quantities keeps those salaries lower than they should be. Instead companies need to raise compensation to keep up with demand. Maybe it means they can only afford half as many developers, but they're likely better off with fewer good developers anyway. :)
Look HNers, let's be honest with each other. There's a lot of H1B's on here. You have friends overseas who you want to see succeed in the Bay Area. In my experience at many tech companies in the Bay Area, H1B Visas exist for one reason, and one reason only - to get skilled engineering/STEM labor -- and to exploit connections (primarily Indian/Pakistani) among these workers to continue to get cheap labor. It absolutel…
While we are on the topic, anyone care to illuminate me on the practicalities of H1Bs as a worker? 1. What do you do if your petition for H1B is rejected. I have 2 shots to apply with my time in OPT, but what if both fail? Is the only option to go back to your home country and start over? That seems freaking absurd! 2. Can you increase your chances of being selected for H1B? For example, I've heard that working at bi…
2. Working for a big company will not help in getting a H1B slot in anyway.
3. Typically, these things are done by a resident starting the company and hiring the cofounder.
Look HNers, let's be honest with each other. There's a lot of H1B's on here. You have friends overseas who you want to see succeed in the Bay Area. In my experience at many tech companies in the Bay Area, H1B Visas exist for one reason, and one reason only - to get skilled engineering/STEM labor -- and to exploit connections (primarily Indian/Pakistani) among these workers to continue to get cheap labor. It absolutel…
It is absolutely xenophobic; you are insinuating that somebody "we" get "hurt" when "they" come.
It's the most insidious brand of xenophobia there is.
Look HNers, let's be honest with each other. There's a lot of H1B's on here. You have friends overseas who you want to see succeed in the Bay Area. In my experience at many tech companies in the Bay Area, H1B Visas exist for one reason, and one reason only - to get skilled engineering/STEM labor -- and to exploit connections (primarily Indian/Pakistani) among these workers to continue to get cheap labor. It absolutel…
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I'm a software engineer and green card holder from Brazil and there is nothing I want more than to see many of my friends who work in Brazil have the opportunity to come here to work in a great industry. That being said, both you and the anon person you replied to are right about the situation. The position you came to fill is a relatively rare skill here in the US and it helps the US to bring in talent from abroad,…
It is already illegal to pay H1B visa holders less than "the actual or prevailing wage for your occupation, whichever is higher." http://www.uscis.gov/eir/visa-guide/h-1b-specialty-occupatio... Thus, when I hear people complain of companies who hire H1Bs only because they want to pay them less, I always want to ask, "why haven't you reported them?" Either they don't actually know that the companies are exclusively pa…
For example, there are loopholes in both salary-calculation and also in terms of crafting hideously specific (and not entirely honest) requirements and then claiming nobody local can fill them.
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>You're basically saying that American tech companies should only hire Americans. That the facebook, Google, Mozilla, ... shouldn't hire smart people from other countries. No, the system just needs to be reformed. And I've seen the right reform proposal often enough to be circulating it myself: * The government can give out N visas in an auction. Firms bid via legally-binding salary offers. The N highest salaries bid…
How do you reconcile 'legally binding salary offers' to adhering the visa to the worker? How long is the company obliged to pay the visa bid rate? What if the company becomes financially incapable of paying the visa bid rate? (yes, demonstrating financial solvency of the employer is part of the visa sponsorship process, but circumstances change). If the worker moves to another company, is that company required to pay…
Look HNers, let's be honest with each other. There's a lot of H1B's on here. You have friends overseas who you want to see succeed in the Bay Area. In my experience at many tech companies in the Bay Area, H1B Visas exist for one reason, and one reason only - to get skilled engineering/STEM labor -- and to exploit connections (primarily Indian/Pakistani) among these workers to continue to get cheap labor. It absolutel…
Without commenting on your opinions, let me touch upon one point you make: > I've worked at multiple companies (managed their websites) -- where we would temporarily post a job description to appear that it was a fair playing field for local workers -- when in reality that position was definitely, absolutely going to be filled by a cheaper, exploitable H1B visa position. Alyandon below also says: > I worked as a cont…
Foreign students graduate out of US schools and join companies here and work legally by enrolling in the OPT program that can last upto 28 months. During this time, the only way the company can hire them full-time is through the H1B program. The whole charade with creating these oddly specific ads and posting them where no one can see them is because there is no other way to continue employing the same people.
The same thing is repeated as part of PERM because the company is supposed to post an ad to hire someone for a job to make sure no one local is available, but that person has already been hired!
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"We" don't need anything in this. Immigrants don't assimilate the moment they get here. They never have. The old saying is, "The parents don't speak English, the children are bilingual, the grandchildren speak English". There have always been ethnic neighborhoods, as long as there's been immigration. Having said that, H1Bs are indentured servitude.
Unlike a TN visa for Canadians or an Australian E-3 visa, the H-1B is an immigrant visa that is one of the few paths to a green card. So they're actually the opposite of indentured servitude where there's a path to permanent residency and citizenship. Unlike many other visas that people use to work in the US.
The E-3 isn't explicitly a dual intent visa but my understanding is that you can't be denied an E-3 specifically for having applied for a green card. If you're on an E-3 and are seeking a green card talk to an immigration lawyer.