Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#161

Post by kazinator » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:41 PM UTC

mastazi wrote: post #35

arcticbull wrote: post #10

It's pretty amazing to me how anti-immigrant America is, for a country built on immigration, but I suppose it's always been that way. Benjamin Franklin hated the Germans in the 1750s [1]. For perspective, Canada, a country 1/10th the size of the US, brings in 30,000 refugees each year. The US brings in 18,000. This means Canada brings in 25X the number of refugees per capita than the US does. Canada, a country 1/10th…

FWIW I am an immigrant myself (in Australia) and I am in favour of strict regulation. Skilled migration schemes should bring in skilled people, I've seen many people migrating on a skilled visa only to end up making a living as taxi drivers.

Some people ending up as taxi drivers actually have skills; their skilled visa isn't based on lies. They are just not able to continue in their field in the new country for whatever reason. Their accreditation is not recognized, or they don't interview well or whatever. Meanwhile, there are bills to pay and food to put on the table.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#162

Post by smhost » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

newfriend wrote: post #159

smhost wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Super woke! Wait til you hear about the history of literally every country on Earth.

"every other country is just as bad, therefore this bad thing is good, actually"

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#163

Post by fernandotakai » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

muzaffarpur wrote: post #128

Cherian_Abraham wrote: post #117

“ Because those required wage increases take effect this week, existing H-1B holders looking to renew their visas might not qualify unless their employers raise their salaries accordingly.” This is really bad. Families are going to get told to leave. I’m surprised that there is no discussion on this thread about the impact to people who haven’t done anything wrong.

That's not the kind of families HN cares about. Only the right kind /s.

[flagged]

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#164

Post by tlear » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

dmode wrote: post #138

908B64B197 wrote: post #25

This is a great move. The current H1B program made no sense at all. If I wanted to hire: A smart graduate from EPFL, Polytechnique or ETH Zurich who interned at CERN and has contributed to the Linux kernel for a software engineering job at a unicorn startup or A grad from a second tier "technical college" in India with a visa refusal rate of ~90% for a job doing manual UI testing and QA for a body shop my only path f…

The changes has nothing to do with the problem you are trying to address

In the new wage rules one will not be cost effective at all. It changes everything

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#165

Post by x87678r » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

> Under the changes, an applicant must have a college degree in the specific field in which he or she is looking to work. A software developer, for example, wouldn’t be awarded an H-1B visa if that person has a degree in electrical engineering.

As an EE, that is rough.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#166

Post by curiousllama » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

Cherian_Abraham wrote: post #117

“ Because those required wage increases take effect this week, existing H-1B holders looking to renew their visas might not qualify unless their employers raise their salaries accordingly.” This is really bad. Families are going to get told to leave. I’m surprised that there is no discussion on this thread about the impact to people who haven’t done anything wrong.

Oof, here's the catch. This is bad.

A non-retroactive raise of the wage scale isn't bad per se - it cuts down a lot of the incentive to flood the system, and prioritizes employees who will add the most value.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that this surprise kick-out is a feature, not a bug.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#167

Post by 6338363363 » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:44 PM UTC

throwqrm wrote: post #148

dudul wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you avoid seeing 500M indians/Chinese landing in America on the very next day? I think there is a middle ground between the disaster that are immigration laws today, and full open borders.

[idea retracted; proposed a tax-based solution but maybe too distracting]

People have a choice of where they want to go for work. If you tax them so hard that anywhere else is better then you may as well have simply not bothered pretending like you wanted it to be easier for them to come at all.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#168

Post by djrogers » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:44 PM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #83

jandrewrogers wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your data for the US is far off every source I can find. Per the UN, ~20% of all immigrants globally reside in the US. On an annual basis: The US brings in 100-200k refugees. Total immigration is 1.0-1.1M. The US grants citizenship to 700-800k immigrants.

The data I provided for you is per capita. The US has set a target cap of 18,000 refugees next year [1] vs Canada's now world-leading (per capita) 28-33,000 [2] You are correct that I was off re: 140,000 (that's the quota for employment based green cards), the number is ~1M total and I have edited my post to reflect. This is based on the total number of green cards available, as they are the only "immigrant" visa. Ev…

I'm not sure you're using the term 'per capita' in the way it's intended or normally understood. If Canada allowed 28-33000 refugees per capita, that would effectively mean every person in the world could move to Canada.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#169

Post by Will_Do » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

> Under the new rule, the required wage level for entry-level workers would rise to the 45th percentile of their profession’s distribution, from the current requirement of the 17th percentile. The requirement for the highest-skilled workers would rise to the 95th percentile, from the 67th percentile.

This is pretty abstract and probably the most important detail. How much would a software engineer have to make to qualify? I'd figure it'd have to be at ~200k if it's 95th percentile. A number high enough and it truly would be for only highly skilled, hard to find software talent, rather than just labor cost cutting. Does anyone have concrete numbers?

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#170

Post by marta_morena_29 » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #74

I agree 100% with you. My view is even more extreme, I think we should allow anyone who passes a criminal background check to be able to get a work visa, with no quotas. But barring that pipe dream, this seems like a good interim step.

And that's why you are luckily not in charge ;).