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U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

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Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#131

Post by raverbashing »

unishark wrote: post #102
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 years in the U.S.? I thought the path to citizenship or green card was 5 years, or 7 years at most? This is really not a very fair system.

H1B was always supposed to be a temporary worker program. People have been using it as an easier-to-get form of quasi-residency with the intention to move on to green cards. Everyone in the industry and govt have been winking and nodding at each other for so long that now there's a big pool of people who are basically residents without a right to stay other than nearly-automatic extensions. Govt gives businesses what…

> H1B was always supposed to be a temporary worker program.

At the same time there isn't any practical way of immigrating to the US other than being very rich, very specialized (and Outstanding) or a family member of a US citizen.

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#132

Post by nine_zeros »

My concern is that American selfish politics will just drive a lot of new work to other countries which are actively courting immigrants/skilled workers.

We are already reeling with concerns about China becoming the largest economy. Now we throw out some of the more skilled producers who also have the capital to drive consumption, thus creating jobs. This will only reduce our GDP and allow other countries to go ahead much faster.

What do we expect will happen here? Bartenders will start being on-call in AWS immediately? Unemployment systems, public utilities will run automatically?

Are we seriously imagining the best of people will come to the US to work in medicine or academia with so much vitriol and uncertainty directed towards them? Does anyone even think twice about how inhuman our laws are to people and families who are not criminals?

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#133

Post by briffle »

curiousllama wrote: post #16

This is a backdoor immigration cut, nothing more. COVID is irrelevant. Remember that it's not just new entrants that need H1B processing: it's immigrants currently in the country that need to transfer their visa type (e.g., former students moving from OPT to H1B). What, are they supposed to leave or risk being denied a visa forevermore? Not to mention, they've already paused green card processing and shut down most o…

They shut down many other parts of the government as well, this isn't all targeted at Foreigners. My passport application was sent to them on March 10th, and they have no idea when it will actually be processed. I hope its before Oct, when I have my trip, then again, if things aren't better, I will probably cancel anyways.

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#134

Post by ramraj07 »

JackPoach wrote: post #120
ramraj07 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am one of those Indian PhDs. Many of my friends are. I suppose it's easy for you and your friend (let's not get into an argument about who's stupider) to sip some coffee and say let's blow it up and wait for a few years when you have no personal effect. Meanwhile I'm back in India, and completely lost in my mind on where and how I should proceed with my career. I'm of the view that a country can choose whatever the…

You are assuming that I am a US citizen, but I am not. I was once an immigrant too, lived in California for 6 years and ironically wasn't able to get an immigrant visa, because while on J1 visa I was sponsored by US State Department. I had to apply for an immigrant visa in Canada and was just one point short. So I returned to my home country. I was bummed too, my life was totally turned upside down. That was 20 years…

I'm definitely glad it worked out for you, I hope you do agree you wasted a lot of time as well though.

I spent a decade doing things in the US and am stuck knowing more about how the system works in the US than how it does in India. All my twenties have been wasted a bit because of this. And India is not the greatest of places to deal with either, though at this point it's up in the air which ones worse! Perhaps that's the state of the entire world as well.

For what it's worth though, in spite of the inequality, healthcare, partisan politics and things, I will much rather still work in the US - it's a more exciting place to be than anywhere else I have ever been

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#136

Post by axaxs »

ramraj07 wrote: post #107
JackPoach wrote: post #40

I think this is quite good in a strange way. Nobody was happy about H1-B. Tech companies were complaining that quotas were too low. Skilled workers complained that this is a ploy to keep costs down, especially in academia. I've once heard an American PhD say 'I am not afraid of competing with very smart Chinese or Indian scientists. But they are making me compete with 10 mediocre Chinese or Indian PhDs and nobody can…

I am one of those Indian PhDs. Many of my friends are. I suppose it's easy for you and your friend (let's not get into an argument about who's stupider) to sip some coffee and say let's blow it up and wait for a few years when you have no personal effect. Meanwhile I'm back in India, and completely lost in my mind on where and how I should proceed with my career. I'm of the view that a country can choose whatever the…

It's not really fair, nor professional, to insult someone for having a different viewpoint than you.

Your situation is like many others, and obviously not ideal. The system that you were using was/is blatantly rife with abuse, please don't think everyone who hates H1B is stupid/evil. If there's anyone worth lashing out at, it's all of the 'consultancy' services that have given the program a big black eye.

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#137

Post by hckr_news »

jefurii wrote: post #112
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 years in the U.S.? I thought the path to citizenship or green card was 5 years, or 7 years at most? This is really not a very fair system.

I have an Indian dev friend who's here on an H1B in exactly the situation that KorematsuFred describes. H1B is just a more sophisticated "Gentlemen's Agreement" (a racist way of using Asian peoples' labor while denying them the benefits of citizenship).

You’ve hit the nail on the head.

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#138

Post by JackPoach »

ramraj07 wrote: post #134
JackPoach wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are assuming that I am a US citizen, but I am not. I was once an immigrant too, lived in California for 6 years and ironically wasn't able to get an immigrant visa, because while on J1 visa I was sponsored by US State Department. I had to apply for an immigrant visa in Canada and was just one point short. So I returned to my home country. I was bummed too, my life was totally turned upside down. That was 20 years…

I'm definitely glad it worked out for you, I hope you do agree you wasted a lot of time as well though. I spent a decade doing things in the US and am stuck knowing more about how the system works in the US than how it does in India. All my twenties have been wasted a bit because of this. And India is not the greatest of places to deal with either, though at this point it's up in the air which ones worse! Perhaps tha…

I do, but I am always careful to distinguish my personal situation with the bigger picture. And you kind of have to train yourself to do this. Also, I don't feel that I wasted a single day while living in US. Or, actually wasted a single day I lived in Turkmenistan (lived there for three years as well). Those were totally different experiences, but immensely valuable to me. Either way, I hope your life, personal and professional, turns out to be good whereever you end up living.

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#139

Post by curiousllama »

briffle wrote: post #133
curiousllama wrote: post #16

This is a backdoor immigration cut, nothing more. COVID is irrelevant. Remember that it's not just new entrants that need H1B processing: it's immigrants currently in the country that need to transfer their visa type (e.g., former students moving from OPT to H1B). What, are they supposed to leave or risk being denied a visa forevermore? Not to mention, they've already paused green card processing and shut down most o…

They shut down many other parts of the government as well, this isn't all targeted at Foreigners. My passport application was sent to them on March 10th, and they have no idea when it will actually be processed. I hope its before Oct, when I have my trip, then again, if things aren't better, I will probably cancel anyways.

That's a fair point. The gov't is struggling with internal capacity, just like businesses.

I think my sensitivity stems from the recent tweet: "WE WILL SHUT DOWN ALL IMMIGRATION" ...

Re: U.S. Senators Advocate H-1B Freeze for 60 Days or Longer

#140

Post by digizeph »

JackPoach wrote: post #40

I think this is quite good in a strange way. Nobody was happy about H1-B. Tech companies were complaining that quotas were too low. Skilled workers complained that this is a ploy to keep costs down, especially in academia. I've once heard an American PhD say 'I am not afraid of competing with very smart Chinese or Indian scientists. But they are making me compete with 10 mediocre Chinese or Indian PhDs and nobody can…

I agree that this whole thing could end up being good for people stuck in the current system. Personally, US immigration path has become so much less reasonable comparing to Canada's. Hostility is the word I'd describe the system in US.

On another topic, the American PhD's quote doesn't make sense without context. Why "mediocre" scientists are the issue for scientific "competition"? The proportion of top people is always low, scientist or not. It's the system's fault that the whole scientific process becomes a "competition" in my opinion.

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