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U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

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Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#111

Post by niyazpk »

briandear wrote: post #106
joshe wrote: post #94

I've worked with a few H1-B holders in Silicon Valley and they're awesome. A great improvement would be to allow H1B holders to change jobs easily (maybe after a year). It's too easy for them to get stuck in not great situations. It would be great for everyone if they could move to better fitting jobs, especially for startups who have trouble running H1-B programs. If you are, like me, a software engineer, you should…

When H1s are used to displace American workers at a lower cost, I am not sure “cheering all immigrants” is warranted. Some, but definitely not all. The Disney firings happened. And it has happened in many other places that aren’t as famous. When Disney has H1s displacing Americans who were already doing the job, that isn’t a “shortage,” which is the single purpose for which H1B was created. I am not disputing the val…

I am wondering how not having H1B could have helped the Disney employees though. If Disney wants to cut costs and hire cheaper labor (presumably why they hired H1Bs? I don't know), they could as well move the jobs offshore. Now the US is losing out on much more than just the jobs. What am I missing here?

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#112

Post by abhayb »

raz32dust wrote: post #61
abhayb wrote: post #57

This will make getting work visas even harder for folks with only U.S. undergrad degrees. Expect growth in 4+1 and 3+1 integrated Masters programs to compensate. Prioritizing people with U.S. degrees is a pretty reasonable move. And given the existing structure, prioritizing U.S. Masters degrees is also reasonable. But a B.S. in CS is qualitatively equivalent to an M.S. The lack of nuance is not surprising but still…

"Prioritizing people with U.S. degrees is a pretty reasonable move. And given the existing structure, prioritizing U.S. Masters degrees is also reasonable." - Why do you think so?

Roughly three parts to this. First off, these folks are already "here" . Busy learning to America. Paying tuition to their schools and taxes from their internships/OPTs. Contributing and being contributed to so that there's already a relationship between them, the country, and the country's citizens.

This is also what a lot of other countries do so it's consistent with "the way things are done".

Finally, it seems politically expedient. There are already provisions for prioritizing Masters degrees. This change is a modification of those provisions. That (crucially) doesn't have to go anywhere near the legislature.

These particular masses are not huddled. Nor are they all leading lights (though some will grow into greatness in time) . So there are also plenty of reasonable arguments against this approach.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#113

Post by ajxs »

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #70
luckydata wrote: post #13

Honestly this is a good thing. Right now the H1B is a bullshit immigration program for cheap engineers from India and China designed to depress wages in silicon valley. A change is sorely needed, this is not big enough but it's definitely a step.

The idea that those on H1B visas are bringing wages down for software engineers is a popular one. Is it supported by data? If it isn’t, this is just thinly veiled xenophobia. Personally, I think the more diverse groups have an opportunity to come to America legally, the better.

However anecdotal this claim may be, it seems fairly intuitive given the basic economic model of supply and demand. Can you explain how greatly increasing the supply of developers by importing them from overseas will not affect the demand, and therefore negatively affect the cost of labour?

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#114

Post by joshe »

darkestloud wrote: post #102
thesausageking wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H1-B holders can change jobs. The employer you're going to has to sponsor you and then you can just do an H1-B transfer.

The process is a nightmare. I've changed 3 jobs under H1B.

Both great points, I'll edit to say "change jobs easily".

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#115

Post by doingmyting »

darkestloud wrote: post #102
thesausageking wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H1-B holders can change jobs. The employer you're going to has to sponsor you and then you can just do an H1-B transfer.

The process is a nightmare. I've changed 3 jobs under H1B.

Not to mention if you are applying for a green card you get bumped to the back of the line with every job change unless your i-485 approved

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#116

Post by mc32 »

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #98
joshe wrote: post #94

I've worked with a few H1-B holders in Silicon Valley and they're awesome. A great improvement would be to allow H1B holders to change jobs easily (maybe after a year). It's too easy for them to get stuck in not great situations. It would be great for everyone if they could move to better fitting jobs, especially for startups who have trouble running H1-B programs. If you are, like me, a software engineer, you should…

A great improvement would be to give them citizenship if they want it. The economic impact of immigrants is not under debate, however your examples are poor choices as I don't think any of those people came to the US on an H1B visa. If anything it's an argument against H1B.

I’d say we reciprocate what their gov would do for our workers. Their gov makes easy for Americans, we make it easy for them. They make it hard on Americans trying to work in their country, we make it hard on them.

Fair is fair.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#117

Post by [deleted] »

joshe wrote: post #107
ones_and_zeros wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A great improvement would be to give them citizenship if they want it. The economic impact of immigrants is not under debate, however your examples are poor choices as I don't think any of those people came to the US on an H1B visa. If anything it's an argument against H1B.

Yep, totally where I was going with that. One H1-B guy I worked with did in fact become a founder of a small successful firm, but that was after he got a green card. I think we've lost out on a few billion dollar startups and awesome inventions by locking people to the H1-B job they got hired for.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#119

Post by mc32 »

skybrian wrote: post #105
mc32 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Farm work, restaurant work, construction work, warehouse work cannot be "shipped off to China", yet we have our own population which has been undercut by unregulated cheap labor. We do need a number of foreign workers, but we need to regulate it so as to not flood our labor market and undercut our workers and have it where two grown adults working full time jobs can't afford to live a lower middle class lifestyle (as…

Farm work could be shipped off by importing food instead of growing it in the U.S. (Farmers going out of business if the cost of labor goes up too much.)

We have seasons and we also have scale. Might lose some green leafy things, but not the real stuff like wheat, sorghum, corn, soy, rice, etc.

Some of these leafy green things are gonna get automated anyway.

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