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

151–160 of 200 posts

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

#151

Post by htrp »

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 )

Selection bias.

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

#152

Post by TheCoelacanth »

karmasimida wrote: post #28
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? Because industries pay differently. Unless you argue H1Bs all go to big techs. The problem with H1B program is, no matter how it is structured, it WILL be gamed.

How is that a problem? If they aren't willing to pay as much, then obviously they don't need it as much.

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

#153

Post by room500 »

fooker wrote: post #130
slaw wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally the admin should close H1B for few years until job market recovers.

Here's what will happen if they do that: A large number of universities will go under without tuition fees from international students. Professors will leave these universities to pursue industry careers, soneven if the job market recovers the universities won't. Without competent specialized people from the universities, US will lose the tech edge very very quickly. Cutting edge tech requires a large number of peopl…

I think you would see the opposite. You would incentivize going to grad school for a few years under a student visa. Universities could name their price.

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

#154

Post by bilekas »

p_l wrote: post #149
bilekas wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my experience, the special skills that many foreigners tend to have that many Americans do not is the ability to tolerate absolute and utter bullshit. I'm not kidding. This actually made me giggle a little bit and while I have seen this, what I've seen more of is that a company hiring internally has offshore employees who have a vast amount of company specific info and experience that the company simply can't hi…

Internal transfers that have such knowledge don't go on H-1B though, but L-1B

Ah okay, I haven't done the process myself so mixed it up! Good to know though !

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

#156

Post by pandaman »

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…

> 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?

Making money for the schools where they go? Foreign student, studying in the US, come here on an F visa, and to obtain such a visa one has to prove that he or she has such strong ties to the home country that they cannot possibly stay in the US after graduation and need to quickly come back and use the education at home.

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

#157

Post by rayiner »

hirvi74 wrote: post #109
tomrod wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In my experience, the special skills that many foreigners tend to have that many Americans do not is the ability to tolerate absolute and utter bullshit. I'm not kidding. I am not satisfied with my job/employer -- bad environment, bad culture, etc.. I have coworkers from all over. Of the non-US native ones that I interact with, they all absolutely love our job and/or employer. I've asked them about it, and I generall…

> Of the non-US native ones that I interact with, they all absolutely love our job and/or employer. I've asked them about it, and I generally get the sense that I could not survive in the conditions from which they originally came -- both at work and outside of work

My dad’s an H1. (Before they created H1B in 1990.) He grew up in a village in Bangladesh. One out of five kids died by the age of five. He came in as a skilled worker and was an elite within our country—but that meant his parents owned land in a third world village and he went to school (but it had no walls). Both my parents sound like Breitbart when Gen Z or work from home or work life balance comes up. (And they’re Democrats!) My dad’s bullish on China “because they know how to work hard like Americans used to.”

And so do I! I didn’t grow up in a village, but I grew up with my dad, who made clear that there’s 16 work-hours in a day. I’m an absolute company man. So is my brother, who was born here. So is his wife, who was born here but whose family fled communism in China. My kids are growing up hearing my dad talk about taking a boat to school during monsoon season.

At some point the memory will fade. Maybe my grandkids. But in the meantime, how many more H1Bs will they have brought over?

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

#158

Post by gamesbrainiac »

In the previous H-1B registration system, employers could submit multiple registrations for the same beneficiary (employee). This increased the chances of selection for that beneficiary but potentially reduced the fairness of the process. So, this makes things fairer to an extent.

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

#159

Post by rayiner »

nine_k wrote: post #69
tomrod wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The foreigners with special skills for which it's really hard to hire someone in the US, even for a lot of money. Maybe if you agree to pay $1M / mo, you'll have them leave their current jobs and flock to you, but will your business still stay profitable? Hence the idea of prevailing wage, and paying somehow above that. This of course creates an avenue to game the system, because prevailing wage for basically any wor…

> Smart, hard-working, educated people from underprivileged places get a chance of having a better life while working to improve the US economy! What's not to like?

Lots of things if people thought about it for more than 10 seconds. Why do you think the US has such uniquely bad work life balance even in white collar sectors? And those educated people are in the top 1-2% of their home countries. What’s it going to your country to import a bunch of foreign elites with chips on their shoulder?

If what you care about is maximizing profits for Fortune 500 companies, then yeah, maybe it’s a good thing.

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

#160

Post by 15457345234 »

29athrowaway wrote: post #103
dalyons wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If there is more demand for chemists, the wages will go up which in turn will incentivize more Americans to pursue being chemist as a career.

> wages will go up

The issue is that tech can pay exorbitant salaries compared to physical-world companies as the product they're producing has infinite reach and is often 'evergreen'

It's the same issue as investment banking; when you can almost literally print the money you're paying salaries with you can hire everyone at any price.

The issue is, that leads to the smartest people in the country all ending up at 'virtual' industries and you discover eventually you don't have an economy, you just have a giant video game.

Post reply on HN