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Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#271

Post by cs_throwaway »

I think a lot of people arguing about the H1B visa are talking past each other.

- There is no doubt a large volume of abuse by tech consulting companies. It's likely even worse than it looks, because the H1Bs in the U.S. are to support even larger teams offshore. I don't understand why we can't just blacklist these companies.

- Some of medium-skill hires, e.g., did a 2 year MS degree from random university in the U.S., are also a bit sus, in my opinion.

- I'll bet several of Zuck's recent $10M Superintelligence Team hires were at least briefly on an H1B before getting their EB-1A Green Cards.

- Same for a lot of faculty in computer science -- you can get an EB-1B Green Card quickly, but you have to spend some time on an H1B. You cannot convert directly from a student visa. The O-1 exists, but is not on most people's radars in academia. I think likely because the legal fees are prohibitively expensive. (I have heard $40K+)

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#272

Post by politician »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #165
lotsofpulp wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you mean the electoral college overriding popular vote nonsense, and disproportionate Senate power, which was there since the beginning, I don't know what you mean. The voters apparently wanted more of this per the Nov 2024 elections, when we still had a credible election process.

"Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" has been sedition that has been let to spread and rot at our foundations for decades now, growing only stronger. There is absolute bedlam and insanity pushed to American voters, completely made up fictionalized reality, blasted out by Fox News and worse. People live in the most absurd hyperreal simulation, built entirely around hating governme…

Aren't the left the ones making the claim posed by your opening sentence these days? Could you clarify whether it's seditious only when one side is making that claim or is the seditiousness of the claim group-independent?

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#273

Post by 8note »

darth_avocado wrote: post #258
0xy wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When their identically leveled peers earn $300k.

There is not a single company where US citizens that are identically leveled peers are paid $300k where H1bs are paid $120k. Places where citizens get paid $300k, H1Bs are making the same money because it’s illegal to to discriminate based on nationality or visa status when it comes to pay.

while its true that at hiring time, companies have to pay the same, any visa is friction to changing job, so the h1 salaries will lag behind citizen and greencard holders' pay

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#274

Post by ellen364 »

JetSetWilly wrote: post #223
rich_sasha wrote: post #169

UK around Brexit time thought kind of similar: let's keep the "riffraff" immigrants out by applying higher criteria. The narrative also changed this way: we don't want immigrants in general, but you , with your highly paid PhD-requiring job, you can go in, on a 2 year rolling basis. Then everyone's a winner, except for unwanted, unskilled labour. But a lot of skilled labour left anyway. Partly because the general atm…

[flagged]

"Approximately 1 million a year net" is completely true. In 2023 the UK's net migration was 906,000. But for context I'll add that it was a historic high and in 2024 net migration fell to 431,000.

The Migration Observatory at Oxford publishes excellent summaries about migration trends, e.g. https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/lo...

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#275

Post by timr »

softwaredoug wrote: post #245
rich_sasha wrote: post #169

UK around Brexit time thought kind of similar: let's keep the "riffraff" immigrants out by applying higher criteria. The narrative also changed this way: we don't want immigrants in general, but you , with your highly paid PhD-requiring job, you can go in, on a 2 year rolling basis. Then everyone's a winner, except for unwanted, unskilled labour. But a lot of skilled labour left anyway. Partly because the general atm…

Polling in the US has swung in favor of immigration: > a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country. It’s hard to separate what’s supported by the public and what are random hobby horses of the far right once they get in power. Because the US has historically been relatively more positive to immigration I am skeptical that we would see the same reaction as in the UK or other countr…

> Polling in the US has swung in favor of immigration

Don't forget to quote the parts that contradict your statement:

> After climbing to 55% in 2024, the percentage of Americans who say immigration should be reduced has dropped by nearly half to 30%. Sentiment is thus back to the level measured in 2021, before the desire for less immigration started to mount. Meanwhile, 38% now want immigration kept at its current level, and 26% say it should be increased.

Overall, this poll paints a picture of moderation from a period of anti-immigrant sentiment, not of a population that has "swung in favor of immigration", as you assert.

(It also has nothing to do with H1B visas specifically. As far as I can tell, it's almost entirely about illegal immigration.)

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#276

Post by onetokeoverthe »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #131
lotsofpulp wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you mean the electoral college overriding popular vote nonsense, and disproportionate Senate power, which was there since the beginning, I don't know what you mean. The voters apparently wanted more of this per the Nov 2024 elections, when we still had a credible election process.

There was evidence of voting machine fraud, though.

[dead]

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#277

Post by darth_avocado »

ponector wrote: post #233
ffsm8 wrote: post #191

I'm not American, but with how many software engineers having gotten laid off over the last 4 years, reducing foreign workers competing for the same positions should be a given from the perspective of governing a nation. I'm surprised how divisive such a decision seems to be considering our current reality of a contracting industry (employment wise)

Why do you think they would not close the position in USA if immigrants are not an option anymore? If Indian developer cannot obtain a visa in Microsoft they will simply recruit the same person to the office in India.

This is anecdote, but majority of the folks that Microsoft has on H1B from India are people who were hired in India in the first place and were allowed to move over because it was “worth it”. Microsoft specifically will be fine with Indian H1Bs even if they don’t want to pay $100k.

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#278

Post by softwaredoug »

Relevant to immigration bans, this clause is what seems to give the president very broad authority on immigration (see also Muslim ban).

> Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.

Congress shouldn’t be writing this sort of broad language into its laws. Congress has delegated a ton of power to the executive and now Trump is going to pressure test it. The current Supreme Court will decide this clause is wide enough to drive an iceberg through.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1182?utm_source=ch...

Re: Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately

#280

Post by Gud »

mrmansano wrote: post #140

Anecdotally, although I'm sure it's happening to more people. I'm Brazilian, I work in the US on H1-B. I'm on vacations in Brazil with my wife and kids, one in school age. I also came to renew my visa stamp, as I had my extension approved not long ago. My visa is valid from September 21st, so, same day as this proclamation takes effect. And I can't go back before that because my visa is not valid. My flight was sched…

I'm sorry you have to go through this.
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