New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore • Hacker News Board

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#361

Post by AE9283F6D36A » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 2:16 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #25

The H1B debate has a lot of factions, but one thing is clear: AI is going to be replacing some to a lot of entry level knowledge jobs. Even if it doesn't get any better than what we have now, it'll create a pipeline problem where senior engineers are more valuable than ever and we'll have to figure out how to make room for junior engineers so that eventually they can become senior engineers. Given that, it seems prud…

I suspect the real answer to that is that we'll need 10x less engineers than right now long term.

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#362

Post by bigmadshoe » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 2:25 AM UTC

infecto wrote: post #354

bigmadshoe wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several websites aggregating rent data that put SF rent at around 2x that of Vancouver, which is itself the most expensive city in Canada. I agree that many people would be worse off financially moving to Canada due to the lower salaries. But the claim that cost of living is the same is categorically false.

Yet you keep missing the point. “Was”. I am not saying prices today or equal. I am simply saying when I did the math pre Covid the cost of living was very similar all things considered. Like I already said the link you provided looks like a bunch of bad data so truly hard to tell. Categorically false are strong words without any data!

There is a lot of data available online that you can find very easily. Zillow for example, regarding rent:

SF average rent: $4,795USD [1]

Vancouver average rent: $2840USD [2]

[1] https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/san-fran...

[2] https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/vancouve...

I would say categorically false is accurate and an anecdote from 7 years ago isn't adding anything productive to the conversation.

EDIT: Sorry, I just saw that you said "all things considered". I think we agree that when you factor in salary, it is financially worse to live in Canada. I just noticed a lot of completely inaccurate statements about the rent being the same which I was trying to correct. Apologies if you got caught in the crossfire.

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#363

Post by jltsiren » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 2:52 AM UTC

fillskills wrote: post #321

toomuchtodo wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Looks like there is need for 2 separate visa categories: - One to bring top 0.1% talent from across the globe to the US - Another to bring in temporary talent as needed O-1 is for exceptional talent ("extraordinary ability"). Bring exceptional talent, eliminate the H-1B visa. It's that simple.

O1 is also starting to get "gamed".

Every visa type intended to bring in top talent will be gamed, if easier paths to immigration are not available. That's an unavoidable consequence of the idea that administrative decisions must be made by government officials with sufficient status and responsibility.

When you actually want to identify talent, it works the same way everywhere. You find other experts in the field you can trust and ask them to use their subjective judgment. Governments don't want to do that unless it's absolutely critical, as it goes against the prevailing theory of how government bureaucracy is supposed to work. Even if the government is willing to give outside experts the power to make the decisions, the experts probably don't want to accept the liability that comes with it. Which leaves the final decisions to government officials who rarely have the expertise to evaluate the claims on their own.

Re: New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore

#364

Post by eudamoniac » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 3:34 AM UTC

rgbrgb wrote: post #230

petcat wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economics don’t make any more sense for Canada or the EU than they do for the US. The the new $100k H1B fee was imposed because companies have a huge financial incentive to import semi-skilled workers from lower-wage markets rather than hire domestically. Canada and the EU face the same problem. In tech, it's about the kinds of work inexperienced/cheap developers are often doing: assembly line, JIRA-ticket-taker…

> semi-skilled workers fwiw the h1-b workers I encountered in bigtech were totally on-par with their US citizen equivalents in both coding and english communication. many teams were about 50/50 in my office (SF, non-HQ). my current talent/placement company works mostly with AI startups who are usually too early to support visa requirements [0]. being able to support the lead-time and planning for international applic…

They are not supposed to be "on par" with average employees, the visa is supposed to be for exceptional talent that cannot be hired in America. There is no shortage of domestic average devs, so these average h1b devs ought to be leaving.