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Gaming the H-1B system for good

blog.triplebyte.com

221–227 of 227 posts

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#221
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You described the U.S. immigration regulations as "broken immigration system" three times in that one posting. Is it substantially easier for foreign workers to immigrate into your home country?

It actually is. I'm living in India at the moment, surrounded by many Koreans and Japanese people and a few people from Europe and America. Getting a permit to work was extremely straightforward for them. I'm sure you didn't mean to sound extremely rude or ignorant, but that's what you ended up sounding like.

You are equating getting a "permit to work" with immigrating. How many of those foreigners have a right to permanent residency?

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#222
post #7
post #4

Is it the lottery in the literal sense? I.e. are applicants who match the requirements and wanted by employers are randomly selected just as the DV lottery winners are?

yes, your understanding is correct. The odd was 1 out of 3 this year I think.

it only proves again that H1B process is seriously broken. they must have sorted people by salary in the offer picking higher paid.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#223
post #212
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving people equal rights?? The horror! All people living in the same region should obviously have the same rights. They pay taxes like everybody else so of course they should get equal representation as well.

So you'd be up for non-permanent immigrants voting, running for President, taking jobs that handle classified info, etc? I'm not.

Yes of course. You can't become President unless the masses vote for you. That's democracy. As for classified info, there are background checks for that. No reason to presuppose people who grew up in a different country automatically have ulterior motives.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#224
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switzerland is the most unfriendly country for non-EU.

And the irony is that Switzerland isn't actually in the EU. However, they act like they are.

Switzerland is tied by many bilateral agreements with the EU. It's in their interest to adopt most of the EU legislation, so that they can do business smoothly with their neighbors, who are all EU members.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you can change jobs if you have an I140 approved. I've been in the US for 10 years and I honestly don't care about getting a gc. The I140 from my previous employer allows me to get 3 year extensions on my H1B. The downside is that your new employer has to restart the gc process again, which is fine since I get to work on things that I'm interested in rather than getting stuck in the same job for years on end.

But what if you want to take a year off? Or just some time off inbetween jobs to travel? AFAIK you need to stay employed with a sponsoring employer all the while. Plus it definitely makes you risk averse as far as doing your thing is concerned.

Time off is not the only consideration. In a good economy, companies might be queueing up to transfer your H1 visa. In a bad economy (post 2001/2008 recession), if you are looking for a new job, the pickings would be very slim indeed.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#226
post #75
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No country is allowed to get more than 7% of the green cards each year (roughly speaking). This GC-H1B lock-in problem is very unique to Indians (~10 year wait), and to a lesser extent, Chinese (~4 year wait). The 7% quota would be illegal were it applied to US citizenship, according to civil rights legislations of the 1960s (prior to which non-whites were discriminated against in naturalized-citizenships via quotas)…

> I think the notion that after working (and paying taxes) in the US for 6 years, a person has to wait another 10 years to reap the benefits of permanent residency simply because they were born in a particular country is morally indefensible. I came here on a student visa at 17, went on get a CS Masters and now live in SF on a H1B almost 10 years later. America is pretty much the only country I know how to navigate a…

Doesn't have to work that way. I am Indian myself but my wife is from a different country (which does not wait times). So the green card was mutually beneficial. Was employment based through my work but was able to use her country of origin.

Just food for thought though not suggesting any course of action. We married for love and found out about about this little pleasant twist later.

Re: Gaming the H-1B system for good

#227
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that you dont get to decide whether someone is being exploited at a certain salary or not. The Market Decides, that is how markets work. If you want to pay below market, usually the only way is to broaden the labor pool by importing workers. If that is your goal, then just be honest about it. Dont say "x wage is good enough." Since you do bring up salaries though, after taxes, health premiums, co-pays, 75 will…

You can't ask the government to protect your salary from foreign competition and idolize the free market in the same breath. The fair price of labor is at the intersection of supply and demand. Absent government interference, that includes supply and competition from foreign workers who, surprise, by and large do not feel exploited making more in a year than their parents back home make in a decade.

I am absolutely fine in allowing foreign competition. But that is a decision the American people need to make, weighing the pros and cons. That cant happen when the primary banner is "Shortage." The conversation cannot be shortage, shortage, shortage. It should be honest: "we want to import more workers to reduce domestic salaries"

Of course foreign workers dont feel exploited -- if they did, they would not come here!

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