H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules • Hacker News Board

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#161

Post by redditmigrant » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:30 AM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #143

andrewfong wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could index wage to some cost-of-living metric set by the Department of Labor. That would control for regional differences between company. It'd also further incentivize "outsourcing" to domestic locales with cheaper costs of living. That's arguably a good thing since places with cheaper costs of living would benefit more from the workforce bump than those with high costs.

The Bay Area could truly benefit by some reduction in the H1B workforce. The influx of foreign workers contributes greatly to the housing shortage that's hurting everyone right now. p.s.: Just in case you're wondering, I'm an immigrant and I left the bay area exactly for the reasons I'm highlighting.

Bay area's housing shortage is entirely self inflicted by its residents who refuse to allow more housing to be built. All this to maintain some arbitrary idea of character. A character that is frozen at some random point in time.

There is no good reason for most of the bay area to be strip malls apartments and 2 story apartment complexes. There are more than enough examples of cities(Barcelona, Paris) with character, history and more vertical housing.

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#162

Post by st3v3r » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:30 AM UTC

shas3 wrote: post #51

diogenescynic wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds awesome considering those body shops use up most of the H-1B quota and significantly underpay their employees compared to industry wages. For example, somewhere between 47% and 85% of H-1Bs are being significantly underpaid compared to their peers, evidence that the program is not being used to bring over workers with "specialized knowledge" as they claim--but to drive down wages. It makes sense though, when y…

I'm not sure about the bidding war. I've been in situations where companies are looking for people with specific skills (e.g. working with specific microbiology techniques) but would never be able to outbid what Facebook or someone in Bay Area would pay for generalist skills in another field. There is nowhere close to 100% elasticity in wages to make an auction system fair. Also, this would handicap companies in low-…

I don't see how. If you absolutely need that skill, then you need it, cost of living based salary be damned.

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#163

Post by edgan » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:34 AM UTC

serge2k wrote: post #76

jinglbox wrote: post #63

This is an attempt by the corrupt Darrel Issa to help H1B fraudsters continue their wage theft. This bill is an attempt to get out in front of any real reform by making it seem unnecessary. A child's trick. The fact is that everyone knows that Silicon Valley corporations like Google, Facebook, and Apple use H1B fraud to suppress (steal) wages. You don't have to be even one ounce xenophobic or racist to think it's wro…

> The fact is that everyone knows that Silicon Valley corporations like Google, Facebook, and Apple use H1B fraud to suppress (steal) wages. Just how much do you think they should be paying? > Look at the job descriptions on the H1B disclosure sites...those are all just regular jobs in Silicon Valley anyone would do for the right money... and they hire loads of Americans as well. They hire people who pass the intervi…

They have different standards for different groups. If you are a second tier employee or contractor they they know they can pay less and treat worse they hire you for positions that they don't care about as much.

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#164

Post by giis » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:35 AM UTC

X86BSD wrote: post #128

diogenescynic wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds awesome considering those body shops use up most of the H-1B quota and significantly underpay their employees compared to industry wages. For example, somewhere between 47% and 85% of H-1Bs are being significantly underpaid compared to their peers, evidence that the program is not being used to bring over workers with "specialized knowledge" as they claim--but to drive down wages. It makes sense though, when y…

My wife is Indian. From Noida. I wasn't going to comment at all on this topic since it's already been beaten to death. But when I see the name Cognizant my blood BOILS. Cognizant is the most atrocious slave labor company I have ever had the misfortunate of dealing with. My wife's first company in the US to work for was Cognizant. It is horribly run by corrupt indians, and they treated her like absolute slavery. The h…

As ex-cognizant employee, I completely agree. My 4yr with them in India is absolute worst career decision. Manager(s) did treat fellow employee as slave. If you think yourself as a person with some kind of self-respect , I bet you will never grow up on career. Their managers want shoe-lickers not talents. Since the work is mostly junk, even school student can do them after few months of training. Ive seen these outsourced companies cheating their foreign clients like creating fake billings when employees are actually on leave or working on some other project.

Indian (outsourced) IT is so bad, I'd say almost 80% people in US(working for bodyshops) is there because they are close to management not due to their talents.

I have lot of friends, who stuck in their life thanks to IT. They do all the hard work in india but their counter-part in onsite gets the reward and visibility, I feel very sorry for them.

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#165

Post by yellow_viper » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:42 AM UTC

diogenescynic wrote: post #43

suryacom wrote: post #27

On one talks about the actual issue with the H1B. I'm a H1B holder from India, living and working in USA for past 10 years. The actual incentive for companies is that, an H1B holder from India has less rights, they cannot change job or even travel freely outside USA (for decades). That gives the employers full control of the employee. Any guess why companies only recruit from India and China? Because, the country bas…

>Immigration Attorneys are making a fortune of this broken system Those same law firms hire lobbyists to make sure the system remains complicated and inefficient. Also, all the law firms that service tech companies have almost 100% of the work done by recent college grads for very low pay. Ever wondered why your L-1/H-1/I-140 support letter has so many errors? It's because it was a generic template that some recent c…

Green cards too. My family moved out of America a few months after my dads work had secured us greecards at a total of $350,000 (iirc - for the family of 7). These were voided as we didn't stay in the country long enough to validate them - what a waste.

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#166

Post by dntrkv » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:42 AM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #143

andrewfong wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could index wage to some cost-of-living metric set by the Department of Labor. That would control for regional differences between company. It'd also further incentivize "outsourcing" to domestic locales with cheaper costs of living. That's arguably a good thing since places with cheaper costs of living would benefit more from the workforce bump than those with high costs.

The Bay Area could truly benefit by some reduction in the H1B workforce. The influx of foreign workers contributes greatly to the housing shortage that's hurting everyone right now. p.s.: Just in case you're wondering, I'm an immigrant and I left the bay area exactly for the reasons I'm highlighting.

Do you have any stats to back that claim up?

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#167

Post by Hondor » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:44 AM UTC

gopalv wrote: post #13

There are probably some Indians who are celebrating this ... a minimum 100k wage + a cost of living adjustment every 3 years. If this is like the 2015 bill, that also includes the requirement to sign them up for stock options, similar to a US employee. However, the rule does have a corner case which allows bonuses to be part of the 100k, so the employers might continue to pay low salaries all year round, with a dangl…

> hopefully that is spent in the US, instead of hoarded for a princely return to India.

Did you notice the anti-equality implications of what you said there? It's roughly equivalent to:

"I hope that when poor people get rich, they eventually give their money back to the rightfully rich people and don't keep it for themselves or use it to support their poor family or to develop their poor economy."

Do you apply that idea generally to any poor people or just Indians?

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#168

Post by winter_blue » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:45 AM UTC

suryacom wrote: post #77

ashwinaj wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they cannot change job Correction: You can change jobs, but the green card process needs to start again but you keep your priority date. EDIT: You can change jobs to another "similar" position i.e. the job responsibilities should be similar. You can't move from an individual contributer to a manager position for example. In this case, the green card application will have to be done again. > That gives the employers…

What you mean by you are a risk taker? You have no idea what you are comparing here. Will you risk your family getting deported due to a clerical error? Once H1B lose his job, he and his family has to leave the country in 15 days. Sell his house, pull kids out from school, etc. All this arises whenever H1B tries to change the job.

You are actually wrong about the 15 days. It's actually zero (0) days, according to USCIS: "There is no automatic 10-day or other grace period for terminated employees holding H-1B status, so once the individual is no longer in a lawful nonimmigrant status, he/she usually must depart from the United States." See: https://www.uscis.gov/tools/ombudsman-liaison/practical-immi...

However, if your I-94 is still valid, being out-of-status on H-1B isn't really that big of a deal. All you need to do is fly out of the country and return, in order to fix your immigration status. The new employer can file an H-1B and request consular processing. The only problem with being out-of-status is that Adjustment Of Status (AOS) is no longer possible, so you have to fly out and fly back in, before you can start your new job. (You'll get an I-797A consular processing approval instead of the I-797B AOS approval.)

USCIS does not deny petitions for being out of status, and in general, if any lack of legal status is for a period of less than 6 months. You don't need to get a new visa stamp either, if your current stamp is still valid. But if/when you renew your visa at a consulate, just make sure to disclose that you were out of status on the DS-160, as failing to do so could get you denied for lying. But if your upfront about it and disclose it, they most likely won't even ask you a question about it.

And yes, you are illegal in the country, but if your I-94 is valid, you have "lawful presence" but you do not have "legal status" (I know it sounds contradictory) and you are still within your "period of authorized stay". But fundamentally, you are consider to be illegal despite a valid I-94 due to being out-of-status, and you can be deported, but it is very unlikely that DHS will send ICE agents to your home to arrest you and forcibly throw you out of the country.

I've quit a job while I was on the H-1B, and I stayed while being out-of-status in the United States for 4 months after that. I was feeling a bit burned out, and didn't even look for a job for 3 months. In the fourth month, I created a profile on Hired.com, got several interview offers, did a full onsite in the first week, and had an offer by the end of the week. My H1B visa stamp in my passport was still valid, but I decided to get it renewed anyways, just to be sure, so there wouldn't be any trouble at the port-of-entry.

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#169

Post by fra » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:48 AM UTC

badminton1 wrote: post #139

freddyc wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All this arises whenever H1B tries to change the job Yes, getting fired sucks if you're on an H1B but your comment doesn't apply to job changers generally. H1B visas are transferable (with a little paperwork) so an employee looking to move jobs just needs to ensure that they have their ducks lined up and that any required paper work is filed - usually that means lighting a fire under the HR team of the new employer…

They can be transferred, but you are still at risk until the other company gets the receipt from the USCIS which might take up to a couple of months.

< 15 days if you file for premium processing

Re: H-1B Visas: U.S. Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Tighten Rules

#170

Post by geodel » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 1:48 AM UTC

aianus wrote: post #100

suryacom wrote: post #27

On one talks about the actual issue with the H1B. I'm a H1B holder from India, living and working in USA for past 10 years. The actual incentive for companies is that, an H1B holder from India has less rights, they cannot change job or even travel freely outside USA (for decades). That gives the employers full control of the employee. Any guess why companies only recruit from India and China? Because, the country bas…

> Any guess why companies only recruit from India and China? There are loads of Canadians [0] on TNs and H1Bs in the US and most don't particularly care about ever getting a green card. How do you explain their presence if you believe companies only recruit foreigners from poor countries in order to exploit their desire for US residency? [0] https://techvibes.com/2012/02/24/there-are-350000-canadians-...

What is unsaid is when a Canadian worker in US gets laid off or just decide to leave (s)he is just moving in first world. Apart from less pay, living standards are pretty much same in US and Canada. But if Indian worker gets laid off it will be drastic change in living standard by going back.

Even very high Indian salary would not buy that US lifestyle. Of course many people will like to couch that fact as having friends' circle in US, kids schooling etc makes it difficult to relocate.