Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Updates to H-1B

uscis.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 1001 posts

Re: Updates to H-1B

#511

Post by JumpCrisscross »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #161

A supposed shortage of qualified US applicants for tech jobs, especially software developers, doesn't jibe with the huge numbers of US developers currently looking for work, including highly experienced older workers suffering from age discrimination. I'd be surprised if more than 5-10% of H-1B positions are ones where the hiring company has even looked for US applicants.

Sorry, on what planet are we onshoring H-1B work? What company can manage the H-1B process but can’t remote to Ukraine or Colombia? Or capitalise their dev expense, inefficiently, granted, with AI?

In a post-remote world these jobs aren’t competing with on-shore labor. This is a populist pitch in the mould of iron work to Pennsylvania.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#512

Post by brookst »

tgma wrote: post #479
snakeyjake wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My employer cannot hire H-1Bs. You must be a US citizen to work for my company. No "US Persons" (visa holders) or foreigners allowed. You have to be eligible for a Secret security clearance. You don't have to get one if you don't want to as there is usually plenty of uncleared work to go around, but you have to be eligible in case that goes away and we need to put you in for a clearance. We cannot find qualified appl…

> We cannot find qualified applicants > No, we don’t pay as much as Meta. So, essentially, you are seeking special treatment from US citizens. I’m not saying this is always unreasonable, but you’re in the territory of a centrally planned economic decision, and in the US philosophy that is supposed to be done minimally. Maybe the right thing is for your company to shut down or change their line of business, freeing up…

Yes, because obviously we as a country should prioritize creepy VR avatars over understanding climate change.

By this reasoning no charities should exist (they pay less than commercial orgs) and even people who are willing to work for less in order to feel good about their contribution should not be allowed to.

It’s a very cynical, even nihilistic view.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#513

Post by veggieroll »

brewdad wrote: post #460
macNchz wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you drug test? Sounds like a place that might. A fairly significant proportion (though definitely not all) of the best developers I've ever worked with would simply pass over places that seem like they would.

You aren't getting a clearance if you can't pass a drug test.

I don't do drugs; I barely even drink alcohol. But, I think drug testing is a violation of privacy and none of a company's business. This isn't 1950, nobody cares if you're doing drugs on your personal time as long as you're sober for work.

Yes, you need to drug test for clearance. But I'm saying that's a job I'm not applying to unless I have no other choice. It goes straight to the bottom of the pile for me.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#514

Post by slaw »

Aperocky wrote: post #406
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...other than... you know... the entire point of the H1B visa program... is to get talent the US DOESN'T already have ...

Well, if there aren't such programs people like Elon or Satya and Pichai might have never started out. You look at them as being successful and exceptional today (regardless of some of the more questionable antics and decisions), when they just started, it's hard to argue that you can't find similar, exceptional talent in the US. But if you shut off that valve, they would not be here 25 years later.

Elon, Satya and Pichai didn't arrive on H1B visa.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#515

Post by GoToRO »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #511
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #161

A supposed shortage of qualified US applicants for tech jobs, especially software developers, doesn't jibe with the huge numbers of US developers currently looking for work, including highly experienced older workers suffering from age discrimination. I'd be surprised if more than 5-10% of H-1B positions are ones where the hiring company has even looked for US applicants.

Sorry, on what planet are we onshoring H-1B work? What company can manage the H-1B process but can’t remote to Ukraine or Colombia? Or capitalise their dev expense, inefficiently, granted, with AI? In a post-remote world these jobs aren’t competing with on-shore labor. This is a populist pitch in the mould of iron work to Pennsylvania.

The companies that do RTO. Logically, you are right but this is not how those CEOs operate.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#516

Post by _yb2s »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #53
halyconWays wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He ran on a platform of easier legal immigration.

I think you are excessively credulous and that’s the most polite I can be. I’m a natural born citizen that’s the wrong skin color and I’m planning on carrying my passport everywhere come Jan 21 - I’m not going to chance being thrown into the back of a BORTAC van.

I have a mixed race family, and am scrambling to get passports in time for people in my family with darker skin, and we will 100% be at least carrying good quality copies of them at all times.

They are claiming to start mass deportations next month, and profiling based on skin color is absolutely the only way that can be possible. Moreover, just like the Nazis discovered, both deporting people and indefinite detainment are impossibly expensive- leaving only one option. This political movement is already based on the idea that people different than them don't deserve to be treated like human beings, and will not be.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#517

Post by aprilthird2021 »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #161

A supposed shortage of qualified US applicants for tech jobs, especially software developers, doesn't jibe with the huge numbers of US developers currently looking for work, including highly experienced older workers suffering from age discrimination. I'd be surprised if more than 5-10% of H-1B positions are ones where the hiring company has even looked for US applicants.

It's definitely more than 5-10% if you just include FAANG who pay far higher than most average US citizen devs make in salary to both H1Bs and citizen devs.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#518

Post by happytoexplain »

n144q wrote: post #425
acedTrex wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have had a very different experience with h1b workers then I have.

That says more about your company, and perhaps yourself, than anything else. Companies like Google and Meta don't pay people on H1B 400k/yr just so that they walk around doing nothing.

Yes, people at Meta and Google are highly paid and highly skilled. Some more or less than others, in relation to the average, just like anywhere else. What is your example demonstrating?

>That says more about your company, and perhaps yourself, than anything else.

Why? You're simply sure the parent and the companies they work for are bad at hiring, or racist, or what? You've offered nothing but a spit in the face.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#519

Post by tgma »

brookst wrote: post #512
tgma wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We cannot find qualified applicants > No, we don’t pay as much as Meta. So, essentially, you are seeking special treatment from US citizens. I’m not saying this is always unreasonable, but you’re in the territory of a centrally planned economic decision, and in the US philosophy that is supposed to be done minimally. Maybe the right thing is for your company to shut down or change their line of business, freeing up…

Yes, because obviously we as a country should prioritize creepy VR avatars over understanding climate change. By this reasoning no charities should exist (they pay less than commercial orgs) and even people who are willing to work for less in order to feel good about their contribution should not be allowed to. It’s a very cynical, even nihilistic view.

> Yes, because obviously we as a country should prioritize creepy VR avatars over understanding climate change.

As a country we have decided to let the market decide what to prioritize. Who are we to judge "creepy VR avatars" are less important if people are willing to fair and square pay for them? If they are creepy, don't pay for them.

> No charities should exist.

No that is not the appropriate conclusion. People are of course free to work for less and balance their circumstances. If they want to volunteer for a charity by choice, more power to them. But no, using taxpayer money to fund "charities" is by-and-large corruption in my book.

> It’s a very cynical, even nihilistic view.

If we are doing labels, yours is a very communistic, statist, view.

--

P.S. regardless of your PoV, I like that you acknowledge my core point: that the OP is seeking special treatment in the form of cheap labor from the US. You are simply arguing for that special treatment being justified, not denying that's the core demand.

Post reply on HN