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Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

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Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H1-B visas eventually expire. I think it’s technically a guest worker visa, so the expectation is that the visa holder will go back to their home country after working in the US a few years.

H1-B is an immigrant intent (actually dual intent) visa. I know a lot of Canadians that started working in the US on a TN visa, which doesn't let you ever become a permanent resident. They had to do all the paperwork (and win the lottery) to convert to H1-B status so they could begin the process of getting permanent residency.

To be clear, H1B is not an immigrant intent visa. It’s a non-immigrant visa. “Dual intent” is like Schrödinger's intent. It allows someone who is on a non-immigrant visa to avoid the presumption of immigrant intent that would otherwise apply—rendering them deportable—when they apply for a green card.

The statutory protection for H1Bs is thin. In 1990, Congress excluded H1B from the requirement applicable to other non-immigrants that they retain a foreign residence, and from the rebuttal presumption that someone who applies for a green card has immigrant intent. That’s it. The common operation of H1B as being an immigrant-intent visa is mostly a matter of administrative grace.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#22

At least one company I worked at purposefully crafted these job descriptions so that no one would be qualified. They'd find the most obscure parts of our tech stack, require hands on experience with each library, knowledge of our niche, and so on. You basically had to be already working for us to have the required experience.

I witnessed employers doing that to get people greencards too. Claim the exact combination of their stack plus experience in the domain is a requirement. Only way to meet that is to have been working the job.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#23

At least one company I worked at purposefully crafted these job descriptions so that no one would be qualified. They'd find the most obscure parts of our tech stack, require hands on experience with each library, knowledge of our niche, and so on. You basically had to be already working for us to have the required experience.

It's hard for me to believe that anyone working in a tech industry hasn't seen this kind of thing happening or heard managers/owners talking about gaming the system. When people say they've never heard of it or don't think it happens, I wonder if they're incredibly naive or being evasive.

In many places it's talked about only by immigration lawyers and people who must be involved.

If you're not very active in recruiting (especially at a sizeable company), it's not hard to be outside of the circles where those conversations are happening.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#24

At least one company I worked at purposefully crafted these job descriptions so that no one would be qualified. They'd find the most obscure parts of our tech stack, require hands on experience with each library, knowledge of our niche, and so on. You basically had to be already working for us to have the required experience.

It's the same with most job adverts in the UK, written to satisfy the 3 week listing requirement before the job can be offered to a foreign national.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#25

At least one company I worked at purposefully crafted these job descriptions so that no one would be qualified. They'd find the most obscure parts of our tech stack, require hands on experience with each library, knowledge of our niche, and so on. You basically had to be already working for us to have the required experience.

The law itself is pretty idiotic. Why would an employer give up a well accustomed well proven candidate for the sake of some random guy, waste money to recruitment and cross fingers that the employee would actually join and perform ?

It is like giving up a lottery ticket you have won for another lottery ticket.

Also, the law mandates certain compliance steps which the employers do. There is no expectation that they should actually hire someone else unless the compliance steps are violated. So everything is working exactly as intended.

This PERM process and law has harmed countless american citizens and employers both. Citizens end up applying for jobs they are not going to get and HR wastes time on resources over candidates they are not going to hire.

A better solution would be to hand a greencard to any immigrant who has worked for 5 years and has earned a certain high salary as proven by the W2.

This whole circus can be gotten rid off if you ask me.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#26

At least one company I worked at purposefully crafted these job descriptions so that no one would be qualified. They'd find the most obscure parts of our tech stack, require hands on experience with each library, knowledge of our niche, and so on. You basically had to be already working for us to have the required experience.

As someone who used to work in contract recruiting, hiring requirements that made absolutely no sense and were fishing for H1-B eligibility were common. I'm still adamant about the idea that an H1 should be paid at least 120% of the average salary for the position at the hiring company. If it's THAT hard to hire an American, then clearly you should need to pay more for such rare expertise.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#27

So the narrative of this site is that they think recruiters are doing a poor job of spamming me with positions that nobody wants? I mean, hiring is down -- but I still get those spam messages. (And spoiler alert: I still don't want those positions)

No, the ELI5 is that the companies are posting jobs in a way that makes it very inconvenient to find online or apply for them, to ensure it goes to the H1B visa holder and not to an American national. (actually it's less about filling the job itself and more about the PERM greencard process, but that's not super relevant to the explanation.) By law, these companies must prove the job cannot be filled by an American i…

I actually saw one of these newspaper advertisements in New Orleans for a New Orleans based company (that had been recently acquired by a big multinational), and attempted to apply. I’m sure they must’ve been incredibly shocked to have a local applicant to reject.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#28

At least one company I worked at purposefully crafted these job descriptions so that no one would be qualified. They'd find the most obscure parts of our tech stack, require hands on experience with each library, knowledge of our niche, and so on. You basically had to be already working for us to have the required experience.

The law itself is pretty idiotic. Why would an employer give up a well accustomed well proven candidate for the sake of some random guy, waste money to recruitment and cross fingers that the employee would actually join and perform ? It is like giving up a lottery ticket you have won for another lottery ticket. Also, the law mandates certain compliance steps which the employers do. There is no expectation that they s…

>A better solution would be to hand a greencard to any immigrant who has worked for 5 years and has earned a certain high salary as proven by the W2.

Huge non-sequitur. Why is this better? Better for whom?

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#29

At least one company I worked at purposefully crafted these job descriptions so that no one would be qualified. They'd find the most obscure parts of our tech stack, require hands on experience with each library, knowledge of our niche, and so on. You basically had to be already working for us to have the required experience.

The companies do that because they already had an applicant from abroad for this role they accepted. And now they must wait out the period for job posting to be live before inviting the applicant.

Re: Job Listing Site Highlighting H-1B Positions So Americans Can Apply

#30
post #17

https://www.jobs.now/ Relevant comment by lgleason at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44880832

The H1B system is just so terrible for everyone involved. No job posting requirement for H1B but you have to post the job when someone applies for a green card a decade later?

Agreed that H1B should have better job posting requirements, but this pre-green card check seems like a great mechanism to ensure we're not long-term giving jobs to non-US Nationals
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