U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#361

Post by masonic » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:04 AM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #25

luckydata wrote: post #13

Honestly this is a good thing. Right now the H1B is a bullshit immigration program for cheap engineers from India and China designed to depress wages in silicon valley. A change is sorely needed, this is not big enough but it's definitely a step.

They should also work on a visa system for seasonal (low-skill) workers and enforce e-verify so that people don't skirt the system willy-nilly. We need foreign low skilled workers and they want to work, but we need to regulate that workforce so they don't undercut our native low-skills workforce by being unregulated and overwhelming the workforce with cheap unregulated labor.

  They should also work on a visa system for seasonal (low-skill) workers

That's what H-2[AB] visas are for.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#362

Post by mavelikara » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:04 AM UTC

OurBoysGirls1st wrote: post #267

joshe wrote: post #94

I've worked with a few H1-B holders in Silicon Valley and they're awesome. A great improvement would be to allow H1B holders to change jobs easily (maybe after a year). It's too easy for them to get stuck in not great situations. It would be great for everyone if they could move to better fitting jobs, especially for startups who have trouble running H1-B programs. If you are, like me, a software engineer, you should…

>> They aren't competitors, they are complements and create more jobs. We've had the H1B program for 25+yrs. We accept 65+20k workers a year. That is 85 20+ workers who have entered the country on this program. Lets round down and say 2million workers. These are 2million jobs that didn't go to local graduates, but instead to overseas graduates. Of those 2 million workers, could anyone cite any significant companies s…

> Of those 2 million workers, could anyone cite any significant companies started by the H1b workers which created jobs?* I mean, not a dozen jobs here or there, but serious job creation that would offset the 2 million local workers who were displaced?

Jyoti Bansal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyoti_Bansal

Dheeraj Pandey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpandey/

And many others like them. Go to the website of any of the top VCs in the Valley. On their list of partners, you will find many Indian names. Most of these people, before becoming VCs, were founders of successful startups. A large number of these people first came to US on H-1B.

Likewise, take a look of influential papers like, say DynamoDB one. You will find many Indian names in the list of authors, and most of them also worked on H-1B. The work of these people end up creating entire new fields of employment coast-to-coast.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#363

Post by austincheney » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:05 AM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #305

darkestloud wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm.. I'm on H1b and I make a lot.

It's cold outside, global warming must be a hoax.

Or maybe the idea of wage depression due to visa status is speculative and unqualified. Is there any data on this?

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#364

Post by sathishvj » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:08 AM UTC

What happens if somebody has taken a remote master's course from a US university? Is there a note on that?

p.s. it does not apply to me anyways, but just want to know.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#365

Post by austincheney » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:09 AM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #303

raz32dust wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if we assume your assessment of the problem ("H1B is a bullshit immigration program for cheap engineers from India and China designed to depress wages in silicon valley.") is correct, how is this step taking us towards a solution?

At least the people being given preference for immigration are more likely to be truly exceptional instead of the cadre of shitty engineers coming in this country with mostly counterfeit resumes. I would call that progress, not necessarily a solution yet. Disclaimer: don't @ me, I'm an immigrant too, but since I live here I would like to be able to work when I'm 50 and not being replaced by someone desperate brought…

Since your opinion lacks qualification or data I will offer this counter-point:

Perhaps the need for immigration is great, because hiring companies lack trust in the competence of the available pool of domestic candidates.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#366

Post by throwaway2048 » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:11 AM UTC

rswail wrote: post #349

OurBoysGirls1st wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for bringing up this point. Anyone who has grown up in the US knows well how far down wages have gone. My father was an accountant. He could afford a house and raised a family of 5 on his salary at age 40, earning ~60k/yr. I'm an experienced developer. I make $200k/yr. I'm raising a family of 4 on my salary and i'm 40. I cant afford a house. Heck, I cant even afford more than a 2br apt. To me, it is completely…

It's not that wages haven't kept up with general inflation, it's that wages have not kept up with asset inflation. So your 200K/year (accounting for inflation) probably buys roughly the same amount in goods and services as your father, but it can't buy real estate, because that has been inflated in an asset bubble. These asset bubbles (stocks, real estate) are driven by the fact that owners of capital have been able…

Asset inflation is a part of inflation, unfortunately along with education and healthcare, our inflation indicators do an extremely poor job of measuring it.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#367

Post by raquo » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:13 AM UTC

Zombiethrowaway wrote: post #358

"master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution" This puts at a competitive disadvantage international universities over US ones, regardless of education performance. It sounds like protectionism, which will translate into more foreign students applying for US universities, driving education costs even higher. You will now definitely buy a degree/name, not so much an education. Sad.

"accomplished a degree in a host country and obtained a relevant job offer thereafter" is a very good proxy for a lot of desirable properties in immigrants, at least in Canada (per official statistics).

Besides, foreign education credentials and work experience can be very easy to fake depending on home country, so it's understandable that it's worth less in the eyes of immigration systems.

In Canada we have lots of foreign students, and while there are some issues (nothing is perfect), they pay much more than domestic students, essentially funding the higher education institutions. Education is some of the best things you can export, if done properly.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#368

Post by abhij89 » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:21 AM UTC

for non-subscribed users: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/reversal-in-h-1...

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#369

Post by luckydata » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:37 AM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #363

luckydata wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's cold outside, global warming must be a hoax.

Or maybe the idea of wage depression due to visa status is speculative and unqualified. Is there any data on this?

Tons, I linked a bunch of articles already, you could also Google it and find it if you were actually interested in learning something instead of making the point most ideologically aligned to your own preconceptions.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#370

Post by mjfl » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:41 AM UTC

OurBoysGirls1st wrote: post #271

defen wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To prime your intuition a bit, consider how woman and minorities more than doubled the work force from the 1960s to 1990s with no loss in jobs or lowering of wages. That is not at all obvious. How would you respond to Elizabeth Warren's "The Two-Income Trap"?

Thanks for bringing up this point. Anyone who has grown up in the US knows well how far down wages have gone. My father was an accountant. He could afford a house and raised a family of 5 on his salary at age 40, earning ~60k/yr. I'm an experienced developer. I make $200k/yr. I'm raising a family of 4 on my salary and i'm 40. I cant afford a house. Heck, I cant even afford more than a 2br apt. To me, it is completely…

There are plenty of places in the USA where $200k will get you very far, you just choose not to live there. You have to account for the fact that you're paying for that.