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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

#301

Post by npteljes »

xtracto wrote: post #197
HippoBaro wrote: post #16

It was nighttime in Singapore when the ruling was announced. My husband and I scrambled to find a flight back. The best we could find, at any price, lands 25mins after the deadline. We are on our way there.

I feel for you. I just wonder, at this point why would someone look to go back to the US "At any price", given how bad are they being treated? From what I can see, it seems most of us non-US people are "persona non grata" in the US. I myself am and live in a so called "shithole country ". But specially because of my Technical skills, I've got plenty of opportunities over here. I would never think on living in the USA…

I'd do it so that I secure my "life" that I built there, and then plan my exit while it's still optional.

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

#302

Post by alwa »

alistairSH wrote: post #293
someperson wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abandon is the wrong word. Should the country receiving the immigrants let elderly grandparents be cared for by their own country's pension and aged-care and healthcare industry, instead of burdening the receiving countries? Absolutely unequivocally yes. The grandparents can always come visit on tourist visas and the immigrants can visit their original country too.

Generally speaking, those parents wouldn’t have the work history to qualify for SS benefits in the US. AND IIRC, they’d need some form of permanent residency to qualify for Medicare/Medicaid.

And the sponsoring immigrant would be responsible for the bill.

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

#303

Post by SoftTalker »

mindslight wrote: post #222
jacquesm wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a whole lot more. Abroad he was viewed as a third rate actor and a fourth rate president. Some accidents of timing whitewashed his tenure.

It certainly felt as if behind the Republican party of yesteryear, there were some real values and ideals that benefited the nominally American status quo power structure. Maybe I've just fallen for the whitewashing.

You haven't. Reagan was one of the most popular and beloved presidents in the last 100 years. He was elected in back-to-back landslides.

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

#304

Post by Scoundreller »

HippoBaro wrote: post #16

It was nighttime in Singapore when the ruling was announced. My husband and I scrambled to find a flight back. The best we could find, at any price, lands 25mins after the deadline. We are on our way there.

> The best we could find, at any price, lands 25mins after the deadline.

Scheduled landing or historical landing time? Flightera.net will show you landing times for 2 years of flights

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

#305

Post by timr »

Havoc wrote: post #134

This has very strong "cruelty is the point" vibes. There are a fair bit of international flights in the 10-12 hour range. Add some time to pack, get to airport, baggage check, get through security & how the flight times line up and this seems calculated in a way that is precisely not doable. Never mind people not perpetually online and only seeing this a couple hours later Meanwhile there is to my knowledge no reason…

> This has very strong "cruelty is the point" vibes.

Hanlon's razor. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Regardless of what you think about the wisdom of the policy itself, implementing it rapidly is...probably not the best decision. But it's also par for the course for this administration.

It's not clear to me that this is an intended consequence of the policy change, or just Microsoft's attorneys being conservative in the face of chaos. A plain-text reading of the EO does not support the interpretation that people with existing H1B visas would be subject to the restrictions, but rather, seems like an ambiguity in the wording that a conservative lawyer could interpret in that manner:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/rest...

> Section 1. Restriction on Entry. (a) Pursuant to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), the entry into the United States of aliens as nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), is restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000 — subject to the exceptions set forth in subsection (c) of this section.

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

#306

Post by someperson »

alwa wrote: post #281
someperson wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abandon is the wrong word. Should the country receiving the immigrants let elderly grandparents be cared for by their own country's pension and aged-care and healthcare industry, instead of burdening the receiving countries? Absolutely unequivocally yes. The grandparents can always come visit on tourist visas and the immigrants can visit their original country too.

What if, as a condition of the visa [0], the sponsoring high-performing immigrant guarantees that the relative won’t become a public charge, and becomes legally bound to reimburse the public purse if that happens? I seem to recall the notion that elderly people are normally isolated, atomized wards of the “aged-care industry” as a relatively recent innovation, no? Versus people seeking to bring elderly relatives to r…

The final years of healthcare for the elderly is unaffordabily expensive.

Nations are able to afford it with a healthy dependency ratio, but with the Baby Boom generation leaving the workforce, it will no longer be possible.

A young family who have recently migrated are saving for a house and college, to make them pay for a decade of end-to-life treatment (cancer treatment, dialysis) at United States price ranges is unaffordable even for very high income earners.

Remember the two parents have four grandparents, and two children (the receiving country would love for them to have a third).

That said, I am open to a special visa with a million dollar escrowed deposit per elderly parent to cover their healthcare. Without extreme restrictions they are bound to become a healthcare burden on the system.

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

#307

Post by roncesvalles »

rayiner wrote: post #172
jacquesm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The democracy stopped functioning a while ago, this is just the bills being presented.

You’re using the term “democracy” in an Orwellian way. The people voted for the guy who promised mass deportations. There were signs and everything. Multiple surveys have found that, if everyone had voted, he would have won by an even larger margin. https://www.npr.org/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5447450/trump-2024-elec... A non-functioning democracy would be if the people voted this way and mass deportations didn’t happen. Lik…

Democracy is broken because here's a candidate whose entire premise (that America somehow isn't great and needs to be made great again) is made-up, and a significant proportion of the population just believe it.

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

#308

Post by mothballed »

pimlottc wrote: post #296
1oooqooq wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i understand playing safe with this administration, but why? h1b requires that one company signed as responsible sponsor on form i129. they are the ones on the line for the payment.

Because when it comes to immigration, the downside to getting it wrong are life-altering.

The expected value for immigrants is rapidly shifting into it being more favorable to be an illegal, because ICE/CBP is mostly going after low hanging fruit of easy to catch people that they know about with homes and salary jobs / university and a visa. People that are off paper and 100 miles past the border are as good as gone. So basically what we get is the exact opposite of what we want.

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

#309

Post by seadan83 »

rayiner wrote: post #187
dira3 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democracy isn't supposed to be two wolves and a sheep voting on who to eat for dinner. There are supposed to be checks and balances. One reason we are in the current situation is because we have discarded these checks and balances, allowing for the president to behave more like an autocratic monarch. If the other branches of government were performing their constitutional function, and if the executive observed the n…

No, democracy is supposed to be two wolves and a sheep voting on who to eat for dinner. What you’re talking about are the anti-democratic measures the founders put in place because they didn’t trust democracy. Look, it’s hardly settled that “democracy” is a good thing. The founders didn’t think it was—they restricted the franchise to property owners, and provided for indirect election of the president and appointment…

Please explain the senate

> No, democracy is supposed to be two wolves and a sheep voting on who to eat for dinner.

The senate is exactly the sheep. That the senate is now controlled by the sheep is also wild. The senate is what gives a person in Wyoming has 4x the voting power of someone in California. The senate was designed so that the less populous states (the sheep) don't get rolled. That the senate is majority minority is wild.

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

#310

Post by alwa »

Havoc wrote: post #134

This has very strong "cruelty is the point" vibes. There are a fair bit of international flights in the 10-12 hour range. Add some time to pack, get to airport, baggage check, get through security & how the flight times line up and this seems calculated in a way that is precisely not doable. Never mind people not perpetually online and only seeing this a couple hours later Meanwhile there is to my knowledge no reason…

I’m also confused as to why this is Microsoft-only advice. It keeps sounding like the proclamation involves adjusting an administrative fee for new visas (which, I guess, must be how it bypasses normal rulemaking procedures?).

How does that result in a fee for re-entering on a valid existing visa? Is this less about formal policy and more about Microsoft hedging against the possibility of chaotic and arbitrary enforcement? Which seems not-unlikely when a large bureaucracy has a rule change dropped on it with 24 hours to implement…

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