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

USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

uscis.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 200 posts

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#111

Post by 29athrowaway »

tock wrote: post #97

US immigration is an absolute nightmare especially for Indians. In Europe its simple. Job offer above minimum salary? Apply and get a blue card yourself. Has been in the country for over 5 years and speak the language? You get citizenship. In the US its nearly impossible to get a Green Card. Forget how difficult it is to get an H1B visa in the first place because of the lottery system.

India has a brain drain problem. The most profitable career in India is to leave India and become an immigrant.

The US is not responsible for that problem and never will be. And even if the US fixed its immigration inconveniences, the problem in India would remain.

India has other problems as well. For software engineers, the number one threat of hiring from India are the corporate cultures at Infosys, TCS and similar companies. I do not want to work with the alumni of those work cultures. It's radioactive-level toxicity.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#112

Post by tock »

29athrowaway wrote: post #111
tock wrote: post #97

US immigration is an absolute nightmare especially for Indians. In Europe its simple. Job offer above minimum salary? Apply and get a blue card yourself. Has been in the country for over 5 years and speak the language? You get citizenship. In the US its nearly impossible to get a Green Card. Forget how difficult it is to get an H1B visa in the first place because of the lottery system.

India has a brain drain problem. The most profitable career in India is to leave India and become an immigrant. The US is not responsible for that problem and never will be. And even if the US fixed its immigration inconveniences, the problem in India would remain. India has other problems as well. For software engineers, the number one threat of hiring from India are the corporate cultures at Infosys, TCS and simila…

The US should absolutely make it easier for brilliant people to immigrate. A very high bar for immigration + a simpler process for such people is a net benefit. The current H1B process is broken and exploited. Some Indian kid graduating from Berkeley with a perfect GPA shouldn't have to rely on a lottery system.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#113

Post by sratner »

29athrowaway wrote: post #108
quatrefoil wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lion's share of H-1Bs go to big tech companies where people make $250k a year or more. And where total comp of $400k+ is common for senior roles, with no regard for visa status. Yes, it alters market dynamics and the whole reason it's done is that the same skills are not available domestically for that price (or at all) - but talking about "low-wage labor" and "exploitation" as the whole point of the program is pre…

That's false. The H-1B database is public and you can look at the wages yourself. https://h1bdata.info/ Those are real salaries from LCAs, not self reported salaries.

Without any claim to the accuracy of the data, there is no incentive to list a salary on the LCA that is higher than required. You can always pay more, never less, so it only limits future flexibility. I have certainly paid higher salaries to individuals than what's listed on their LCA, not to mention total packages which aren't stated on the LCA.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#115

Post by tivert »

jedberg wrote: post #4

It seems like it would be so easy to fix the H1-B program but no one wants to and I feel like I must be missing something. The purpose of the H1-B is to allow companies to hire foreigners with special skills that can't be found amongst US citizens. So why not just grant H1-Bs to the companies that are willing to pay their talent the most? Let any company apply and list a salary which they have to agree to pay for at…

> So why not just grant H1-Bs to the companies that are willing to pay their talent the most?

As others have pointed out, you're assuming highest salary == most valuable, but what your idea will lead to is a bunch of talented people working on new ways to get people to click ads or write yet-another trading algorithm.

IMHO, you'd fix the H1-B program by doing two things:

1. Eliminate the requirement that the visa-holder have a sponsor past the start date, so the they can quit immediately and take a different job if they are underpaid or the working conditions are poor. That will eliminate any potential exploitation enforced by the program.

2. Limit the sponsors to legitimate US-based companies who will employ the workers for in-house work. Working out a precise definition may be hard, but it should be possible because it's pretty clear when we see it. Basically, something to prevent foreign contracting/outsourcing companies from even using the program.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#116

Post by trimethylpurine »

dalyons wrote: post #67
HeatrayEnjoyer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A disadvantage in what way? Unless I'm missing something this just sounds like markets being markets. As a worker, why would I accept a job that pays less and requires me to live in Alabama if I can do better?

Because chemistry and IT/swe are not the same jobs. And America also needs chemists

Based on pay, I would guess chemists aren't in demand.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#117

Post by pyuser583 »

tomrod wrote: post #25
jedberg wrote: post #4

It seems like it would be so easy to fix the H1-B program but no one wants to and I feel like I must be missing something. The purpose of the H1-B is to allow companies to hire foreigners with special skills that can't be found amongst US citizens. So why not just grant H1-Bs to the companies that are willing to pay their talent the most? Let any company apply and list a salary which they have to agree to pay for at…

Some pushback on your logic chain: > foreigners with special skills that can't be found amongst US citizens This is honestly rare, unless you couple it with a wage level that is lower than the domestic market will bear. Some individuals involved in R&D, but outside of that there are few skills that are not found in the US. I believe the condition isn't not found, but rather, in low supply? > make the visa transferrab…

Experienced coders don’t magically appear because salaries go up.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#118

Post by trimethylpurine »

dixie_land wrote: post #79
0xcde4c3db wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lion's share of H-1Bs go to big tech companies where people make $250k a year or more. And where total comp of $400k+ is common for senior roles, with no regard for visa status. Since you're apparently so acquainted with the stats, please enlighten us outsiders: what percentage of H-1B employees make $250K a year or more, and what percentage of H-1B employees make $400K+?

Not being hyperbolic, ALL of H1B friends I personally know makes 250+ total comp. Many makes around that in base salary. ( most my friends are late 20 and early 30s )

Are they really doing jobs that Americans wouldn't or couldn't do for that amount? Honestly curious about your opinion, since they are your friends.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#119

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

CPLX wrote: post #5
dheera wrote: post #2

I find the entire H-1B program somewhat ridiculously designed. 0. There should be no cap for people who have received higher education degrees in the US. What's the point of educating people and equipping them with everything they need to be successful in the US, advance the US (including creating lots of jobs) and then deporting them right after? 1. There should be no cap for people who are going into STEM, AI, or o…

> There should be no cap for people who have received higher education degrees in the US. This has the effect of delegating decisions about who enters the country to an unelected and unaccountable group of admissions officers working at private institutions.

No; they're already in the country, that's really the whole point. They'd still need to meet the requirements for H-1B visa.

Say you're a STEM graduate; you first got an F-1 visa to study, then you spend four years at school in the U.S. You find a job with a great firm for your OPT, and that firm immediately starts to enter the H-1B lottery on your behalf.

Based on the amount of oversubscription, there's a significant number of people who are just not going to get selected before they time out on their OPT and have no option but to leave the U.S. after seven years living here, amounting to perhaps their entire adult lives.

The fact that such people have no preference in a random lottery with others that have no investment in the U.S. at all is utterly perplexing.

Re: USCIS announces strengthened integrity measures for H-1B program

#120

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

sgjohnson wrote: post #105

One thing I find really, really weird about the US immigration system is that immigrating illegally is trivial (apparently even more so nowadays than it was 15 years ago), and it even comes with a loophole that can make you a legal immigrant later, yet legal immigration is a very tedious and often impossible path. I have a relative that 15-ish years ago simply overstayed their tourist visa and never left. Some 5 year…

>And for many people from oversubscribed countries (like India and China), marrying a US citizen is the ONLY viable path to a green card.

That's obviously not true, by both analysis and observation.

Post reply on HN