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Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

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Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#51

Post by sarchertech »

rs186 wrote: post #34
swarnie wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't the 100k fee ensure only the best (most worthwhile in a capitalist system) come and you don't end up with mass used to undercut local wages?

Nah, the employer will happily get rid of the US headcount and rehire the same guy in their home country or UK/Canada etc while paying a third of the salary. Zero employer is going to pay $100k.

At big tech companies they are already paying $200k or more than they'd pay the same worker in their home country for existing H-1Bs. An extra $100k might tip the scale for some but not for all.

The most likely outcome is that body shops can no longer afford H-1Bs, but big tech still can.

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#52

Post by [deleted] »

bwestergard wrote: post #2

"creating panic among many - particularly Indian passengers - who even chose to leave the aircraft" Are they are getting off the aircraft because they believe the "fee" will be required of their employment imminently, and that their employer will not pay it, and this will lead to their visa getting cancelled before they could return to the United States?

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#53

Post by llm_nerd »

pjdemers wrote: post #16

It will never last. There is a 0% chance even one company or person will ever pay this fee. Only an act of congress can change visa requirements, and it will never come up for a full floor vote. Ever. So it will be in legal limbo, and therefore can be ignored.

>There is a 0% chance even one company or person will ever pay this fee

All through Trump's second term, and before, people have said things precisely like this. And here we are. At some point we realize that people just make such confident pronouncements because they think it bends reality towards their hopes.

>Only an act of congress can change visa requirements

It isn't a visa requirement. It's a processing fee. As of midnight no H1B will be considered without the fee. It is very real, and it is absolutely going into effect. Now places like Microsoft are panicking in the information gap currently, but the admin has clarified that it only applies to new H1B applicants.

As to the legal limbo, not only won't there be one, the Supreme Court has rubber stamped just about everything this admin has done.

The guy has both houses of congress, the courts, the DOJ, the full apparatus of government...at this point I find it simply amazing that people still dismiss the reality that he basically does whatever he wants.

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#54

Post by jonathanstrange »

rayiner wrote: post #30
cjohnson318 wrote: post #5

So much for being a safe and lucrative place for all the best minds of the world.

70% of H1Bs are from India: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/20/h-1b-visa-fee-timel... . That’s five times more than China. Are we really to believe that the supermajority of “the best minds of the world” come from a single country? Or is the marketing of H1B quite different from the product Americans are actually receiving.

India has the largest population on Earth and Indians have more incentives to leave their country than Chinese.

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#55

Post by vkou »

sarchertech wrote: post #28

It's wild to watch the zeitgeist among many programmers swap in real time from being against H-1B visas to pro H-1B visas the second Trump goes after them. It is possible for a stopped clock to be right twice a day. Left and right doesn't have to disagree on literally every single thing. If you're on an H-1B and you get fired or laid off, you have 60 days to find a new job or be deported. That creates an underclass o…

What's really wild is anyone seeing that the solution to the multitude of real and self-inflicted problems in this country is...

A shakedown of and a head tax on immigrants.

I wonder what's next. Maybe stealing their 401Ks and their SS contributions?

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#56

Post by rs186 »

alooPotato wrote: post #47
rs186 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, the employer will happily get rid of the US headcount and rehire the same guy in their home country or UK/Canada etc while paying a third of the salary. Zero employer is going to pay $100k.

Couldn't companies have already done that if it was so easy to save 2/3 of the salary?

They are, and increasingly so for the past 2-3 years. I guess you have not been paying attention.

I know as a matter of fact that my company and other companies almost exclusively create new headcounts in India/UK/Germany. US headcounts are only for replacement or as exceptions. Even some replacement headcounts are moved overseas.

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#58

Post by flurdy »

bwestergard wrote: post #2

"creating panic among many - particularly Indian passengers - who even chose to leave the aircraft" Are they are getting off the aircraft because they believe the "fee" will be required of their employment imminently, and that their employer will not pay it, and this will lead to their visa getting cancelled before they could return to the United States?

It seems for the moment they will only check for this new fee on entry at the borders. If the fee has been not paid entry will be denied from tonight.

Hence, if you stay in the country nothing will change. And they can wait until this gets played out in the courts, media, congress etc.

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#59

Post by jleyank »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #46
ralph84 wrote: post #33

Microsoft laid off tens of thousands in the last few years. Clearly there’s no “talent shortage”.

How do you know the people laid off were talented?

If they weren’t talented, I hope the aforementioned layoffs included the nimrods who hired them.

Re: Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad

#60

Post by dragonwriter »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #45
wrs wrote: post #20

Note that the fee can be waived at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security. So, just like the tariffs, one purpose of this change is to give companies the opportunity to come to the White House and ask what favors they can do in exchange for a waiver.

This. Their arbitrary nature is designed to consolidate executive branch authority that can be welded as a weapon against corporations that might consider supporting his opposition in the future. It's a classic fascist ploy, and is further proof that executive orders should be banned. In America we do not have kings who rule by decree, or at least we should not..

Banning executive orders is nonsense; you can’t have an executive branch with a head and prohibit the head from giving direction to the rest of the executive branch.

Executive orders that violate, or direct the violation of, existing law are illegal (or, at least, without legal effect) to the extent they do that, but whether or not a particular order meets that description is frequently a matter of dispute, which can end up in litigation.

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