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New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#341

Post by apazzolini »

ansible wrote: post #152
koolba wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Startups and small businesses will get 20% of the visas. It'll be interesting to see how this is gamed Probably the old fashioned way: Tata Startup Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Consulting Services.

Someone will be using a "startup company name" generator for these wholly owned subsidiaries and be filling out the paperwork for 50 of them all at the same time. No doubt to get a discount on the legal fees.

Sounds like automating creating startups and filling out paperwork for H1-Bs is a good idea for a startup.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#342

Post by khuey »

KirinDave wrote: post #337
khuey wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's generally not founders who get screwed by AMT related consequences. Founders should have 83-b'd shares, not vesting options.

You can oy exercise 83b if you have cash on hand in advance. Hence my comment: only wealthy founders tend to get a good deal. And for Engineers and Designers it's even harder. It is very wrong to treat employees as investors when they're invariably taking major income hits to be there.

Founders should be receiving shares (not options) before any financing. Fair market value is zero, so an 83b is free.

The people who get screwed are early employees, who join and get options when shares are not worth a lot but non-zero. Then your choices are front the cash to early exercise (if the company even allows that) and 83b what are probably going to be worthless shares or wait until later and find that the shares are worth a lot now but still illiquid (and risky!) and the AMT hit of exercising is enormous.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#343

Post by tracker1 »

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #25

Here is the summary straight from the horses mouth: https://lofgren.house.gov/uploadedfiles/high_skilled_bill_sx... A few points: - This does not raise the salary requirement to $130k/yr. This only applies to employers that do not want to do the extra paper work for "attestations regarding recruitment and non-displacement of U.S. workers" - It takes a "market based" allocation strategy which allows "cash bonuses and…

Thanks for pointing these things out... I've been saying for a few years now, that H1Bs should have a salary floor of 8-12x minimum wage, or the top 10-15% income bracket... given that it's supposed to be for specialized technical skills that aren't able to be found domestically.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#344

Post by solatic »

scarface74 wrote: post #16
pkd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is that the whole of US isn't Silicon Valley or Seattle. Startups in upcoming hubs like Portland and Boulder will suffer(sic) because the salary requirements are too high for them to satisfy given the living costs. It basically means that the only companies who are gonna be able to hire through H1Bs are the big cos or unicorns.

Companies may have to do something unimaginable and invest in their employees who may not have the exact skill set they need and offer them training or give them time to ramp up....

Only works if you have enforceable non-compete contracts to prevent your workers from leaving after you trained them, since most employers will pay a premium to get workers who are already trained and the original employer will pretty much never give salary bumps that high year-over-year since it would quickly bankrupt them.

Non-compete clauses are unenforceable in California exactly because it's desirable in a macroeconomic sense for employees to spread their skills throughout all the businesses in the economic cluster by osmosis. Bringing back non-competes to deal with a lack of talent (especially when that talent exists, it's just abroad) is regressive.

Companies are just going to focus on remote-only work cultures until Trump forbids outsourcing work overseas altogether.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#345

Post by winter_blue »

Bartweiss wrote: post #304
winter_blue wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've commented on this before, at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13433540 I'm copying the comment below: --- I'm on an H-1B, and the thing that infuriates me about the dialogue on this is that they are effectively trying to ban skilled immigration, and exclude people like me from coming. If you don't qualify for the family-based or refugee route, employment-based immigration is the only viable pathway. The amo…

I'm honestly a bit confused to see this point raised here. I certainly have seen vitriol aimed at H-1B workers, including on HN. Raising minimum salary would be a way to restrict the program, but the comment you're replying to specifically calls that change "lipstick on a pig". I guess 'lipstick' might be an endorsement, but it's fair to say that this bill is about making Americans happier with a still-broken system.…

> Firstly, yes, there are a lot of consulting firms

That's true, there are a lot of consulting firms like Tata/Infosys/Wipro that use up a large chunk of the available H-1B visas. They only pay their workers like $80,000 on average, and almost never sponsor a green card. The other thing is that a big chunk (like >50%) of the people at these firms are on visas. I'd like to see a solution that limits that sort of use, and instead provides visas to more legitimate companies, without making it impossible for immigrant students to stay in the country.

One possible solution might be to require higher wages if more than 20% of the employees are on visas. At most of the companies I worked, at least 80% of my coworkers were Americans. But at the same time, I've heard that a high percentage of developers Facebook and Google are on visas. Simply requiring that companies higher wages if more than like 20% of their workforce are on visas, would end the use by consulting firms that are heavily staffed by H-1B workers. It also would not completely shut the door on immigrant students looking for a job after they graduate.

> Tying someone's immigration status to the actions of a single employer makes even basic negotiations like "this work environment is terrible"

This is a misconception. I can change jobs to any employer that is willing to do an H-1B visa transfer. Of course, it reduces the set of companies I can work for, but in tech, most companies will transfer your visa. Another fact is that, before January 17, 2017, you couldn't have gaps in employment, and had to find a new job while working. But this has been fixed, and now H-1B visa holders can quit freely, and have 60 days to find a new H-1B employer. I've pointed it out here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13452381

In addition, I have been in the exact situation you described -- i.e. "this work environment is terrible". This was before the 60-day rule came into effect, and I actually quit my job anyways. I lost my legal status in the country as a result, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. I just had to do find a new job, fly out of the country, and re-enter, to regain my legal status (and start my new job). I've explained what I did in detail, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13361827

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#346

Post by yangchi »

tn13 wrote: post #261

How can an Indian or Chinese immigrate to USA under the current system? Legally there is simply no way besides marriage. These people who are actually very skilled have a very good history of assimilating in the mainstream and being successful in USA are discriminated against. As a student you have to lie that you will return to India, as a H1B you have to lie that you intend to return back. As H4 you have to sit qui…

the 130K cut only applies to H1 dependent employers: those company that has at least 15% H1 employees.

So this pretty much means, if you are not in tech, most likely you won't be affected, as your employer most likely won't have 15% H1 employees.

If you are in tech, and is in one of thoes legit tech companies, most likely you are also covered, as you will make 130K. Your employers may need to be a bit smart when it comes to meeting the cut, e.g., it may need to reduce some of your RSUs/EFTTs and put them into your salary. But you should make it.

The new proposal doesn't say much about H4s. But I didn't really read much details of the new proposal. As of today, H4s can have EAD if their H1 spouses apply green card and get i-140 approved.

At the root, we have this new proposal today exactly because Indian companies try to abuse the current H1 system. I know stories of both Chinese and Indians got effed up by the H1 system, real stories from real friends in my life, including my wife. I blame Indian outsourcing companies as much as I blame the system, to be honest.

As a student, on F1 visa, if your intention is to stay, honestly you shouldn't get the F1 visa in the first place. If you have to lie about this intention to DHS, that's your own problem. H1, on the other hand, is a dual-intention visa. So you don't need to lie about stay or return. That's why H1s are allowed to apply green card.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#347

Post by deeth_starr »

gautambay wrote: post #325
ones_and_zeros wrote: post #25

Here is the summary straight from the horses mouth: https://lofgren.house.gov/uploadedfiles/high_skilled_bill_sx... A few points: - This does not raise the salary requirement to $130k/yr. This only applies to employers that do not want to do the extra paper work for "attestations regarding recruitment and non-displacement of U.S. workers" - It takes a "market based" allocation strategy which allows "cash bonuses and…

Thanks for this! I've been on multiple H1B visas, at both large companies and startups. I've also sponsored H1B visas as an employer. I would support this bill. The headline is a classic example of sensational journalism by the Times of India. The $130k salary requirement applies only to "dependent employers", defined as employers with over 15% of their workforce on H1Bs. This is clearly aimed at reducing H1B misuse…

And Samsung US. They pay H1B's absolute crap. This would be a good thing for them.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#348

Post by comments_db »

Bodyshops like Infosys, TCS and Wipro should be banned or heavily regulated from exploiting the H1B visa. I don't support them. They don't help anyone but the shareholders of the companies. Americans, Indians, Chinese, Govt. and Startups are equally screwed.

'Best and the Brightest' arguments can't be on the same line as $60,000 annual compensation premise. I'm not against people earning a better living. But it's not so complicated to see that something is broken here.

Me - East Indian on H1B visa with both degrees from reputed US schools (full ride). Multiple patents and publications. Left leaning. 6+ corp experience and 3+ startup exp.

Re: New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

#349

Post by mavelikara »

While TCS, Infosys etc figure prominently in the H-1B debate, I think this new bill does not affect them as much as it is made out to be. The real downside is for staffing firms (popularly known as "desi consulting shops"), mostly run by Indian-Americans.

TCS employs 370K+ employees worldwide and had revenue of $16B+ in 2016. They might have gotten 3K H-1Bs each year. If they know how to run projects staffing 370K employees with 3K H-1Bs per year, they will figure out a way to run it with 500. Also, with that kind of revenue, they will pay the $130K if it comes to that.

H-1Bs, I suspect, have a power law distribution. TCS, Infosys etc top the list of H-1B visas per year, but there is a long tail of companies which get allotted few visas every year. Some of these in the long tail are high tech firms in real need of skill and are the ones paying appropriately for it (AmaFaceGoodSoft etc). But I think the larger cohort are the staffing shops which bend the rules often and pay low.

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