Microsoft memo advises H1B employees to return immediately if currently abroad • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by yibg » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:46 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #50

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.

I'm interested to see how >26% of the country thinks it's a good idea for the president to pick winners and losers, and how that doesn't seem like the planned economy of the Soviet Union that failed disastrously.

That 26% don’t see this as overreach, they see it as putting the corrupt radical left | greedy corporations | immigrants in their place.

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

#62

Post by visa-vasanth » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:47 PM UTC

numa7numa7 wrote: post #13

cjohnson318 wrote: post #5

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

I could be wrong but I thought O-1 was the genius visa and H1B was the skilled labor visa.

>> I thought O-1 was the genius visa

Yes, you have to be a genius to go through a 1yr online remote masters program which is mostly group work and essentially a fee for undercutting others on the queue:

https://www.smu.edu/online/masters/data-science

https://pe.gatech.edu/georgia-tech-online or

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

#63

Post by toast0 » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:48 PM UTC

hypeatei wrote: post #8

toast0 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO, it seems like there's a good chance of confusion and delay when reentering the US in the middle of this kind of change. It would be better to avoid that, if possible. And in the case that your visa does get canceled, it would be easier to fight that from in the US, and if necessary, to wind down your US household from inside the US as well. Everything gets a lot harder if you have to do it from outside the coun…

> it would be easier to fight that from in the US Would it? Aren't ICE agents showing up to court hearings and deporting people?

At least you could meet with your lawyers in person, during mutual daylight.

Do you even have standing to sue from abroad about a visa revoked capriciously?

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

#64

Post by prasadjoglekar » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:48 PM UTC

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 already do. IBM has ~100K employees in India out of some 250-300K. That same labor budget would pay for 1/3rd that in the US.

Edited to add: The local Indian economy doesn't sustain those many IBM employees. They are servicing the rest of the world.

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

#65

Post by XenophileJKO » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:48 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #41

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.

Yeah, I suspect more jobs are going overseas now.

Certainly some will, but if we have learned anything from the 1990-Now, it is that remote R&D doesn't always save money or even work effectively at all.

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

#66

Post by rwmj » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:49 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #21

rwmj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

x.com isn't even accessible from Firefox. It tries to trick you into turning off enhanced tracking protection claiming it is "known to cause issues" (the "issues" presumably being with them invading your privacy).

I just accessed x.com from Firefox 143.0.1, and there was no such message or claim. It just displayed the site without any warning or ceremony. I have not visited the site with this browser before.

You probably have enhanced tracking protection turned off. The message appears for me right now (FF 143.0).

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

#67

Post by visa-vasanth » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:49 PM UTC

swarnie wrote: post #15

cjohnson318 wrote: post #5

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

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?

Not really. The H1b and O visas were never used for "genius" talent, they are typically used by the WITCH companies to pay people bottom-rate wages (40k-60k for HCOL city) so companies can underpay market wages.

If you have to pay 100k, you might as well hire an American worker. The "shortages" will mysteriously disappear.

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

#68

Post by silverquiet » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:49 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #55

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?

Replace "immigrant" with "Jew" and you have some idea of the human failings on display here.

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

#69

Post by yibg » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:49 PM UTC

llm_nerd wrote: post #53

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. A…

Has the administration officially confirmed this applies to new applicants only? All the reporting I’ve seen on this are from unnamed officials.

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

#70

Post by _diyar » Sat, Sep 20, 2025, 5:49 PM UTC

silverquiet wrote: post #39

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.

Only congress can enact tariffs, but we're all paying them anyway.

I think it's not quite tree due to the Reciprocal Tariff Act. Depends on how you define reciprocal of course.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocal_Tariff_Act