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Updates to H-1B

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Re: Updates to H-1B

#691

Post by remarkEon »

snakeyjake wrote: post #342
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.

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…

>No, we don't pay as much as Meta.

Ah, well. Nevertheless...

Re: Updates to H-1B

#692

Post by aprilthird2021 »

janalsncm wrote: post #584
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, H1B visas do have such provisions. At least in CA most jobs must provide a salary range. Even if every H1B is the lowest of the range in those postings, that alone means there are many many jobs which fit your criteria.

The ranges are way too low then. I checked H1B salaries and I found the following in San Jose (median rent approx $2200 for 1BR): FLEXON TECHNOLOGIES INC Database analyst: $60k DATA TRACE INFORMATION SERVICES LLC Software engineer: $65k PRIMARIUS TECHNOLOGIES US LLC DATA ANALYST $72k ZOOM VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS INC AI SCIENTIST $74k HBI SOLUTIONS INC DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR $75k BEACONFIRE STAFFING SOLUTIONS INC COMPUTE…

Almost all H1Bs have already been in the US for years on their student visas, so of course they know COL and where they are moving to.

Those you are posting look like they could be violations. But if you just visit your link, you quickly see that most jobs are in line with median salaries in the bay area.

For example:

https://www.indeed.com/career/software-engineer/salaries/San...

And then:

https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=zoom+video+communications+...

Those are pretty close to the median in aggregate.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#694

Post by aprilthird2021 »

janalsncm wrote: post #567
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every dev interview process I've been a part of has not included consideration of the applicant's citizenship status. The interview process has many flaws, but it is not contrived to tailor itself towards H1Bs at the expense of citizens. At least, not at the companies I've worked at, which are household names. At TCL or Wipro? Sure, those are blatant offenders of the H1B visa.

You said it yourself, those offenders supply talent to other companies. Many roles simply won’t be available to citizens because they’re filled by H1B abusers.

Yeah, I think the abusive companies like TCS and Wipro should be shut down. But the other companies generally pay pretty fair and use this visa system pretty normally, and they do see a shortage of qualified talent. I saw it myself as an interviewer. TCS and Wipro have a completely different quality standard (if you can call it that) and everyone knows it, plus they are cheating

Re: Updates to H-1B

#695

Post by aprilthird2021 »

coliveira wrote: post #585
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every dev interview process I've been a part of has not included consideration of the applicant's citizenship status. The interview process has many flaws, but it is not contrived to tailor itself towards H1Bs at the expense of citizens. At least, not at the companies I've worked at, which are household names. At TCL or Wipro? Sure, those are blatant offenders of the H1B visa.

Companies don't need to favor one group against another, they just need to make the process artificially hard, so they'll have the excuse that there are not enough workers ready to fill those positions.

The process is not artificially hard, imo. It's just testing you on things a college CS curriculum goes over. Sadly many many colleges in the US have a very substandard bar for teaching this subject.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#696

Post by ta_1138 »

strongpigeon wrote: post #205
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.

Good news: the USCIS makes this data available! [0] Google, Microsoft and Meta definitely look for (and hire!) US applicants. One can reasonably have a gripe with the consulting companies on there (Infosys, Tata, Cognizant, etc.) but they don't represent 90-95% of H-1B issued. [0] https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employe...

A non-trivial part of the issue with consulting companies is the long wait for many to turn an H-1B into a green card. If you are going to need many years of continuous employment without ever getting hit by a layoff (which risks a gap in employment), the immigrant might be better of with the consulting company, as they might end up the bench, or just count as employed but not getting any hours.

If the road from H-1B to permanent residency was shorter and more reliable, the advantages of the consulting companies would shrink.

The same as if we didn't end up having to rely on lotteries. Hiring a candidate and hoping for an H-1B is quite annoying if you don't have them on staff in another country, or they are working for you in the US from an F-1. Those consulting companies that have large offices in India can happily submit large amounts of applications of people they already have in India, and be OK with 2/3rds of them not winning said lottery. A smaller company just can't play that numbers' game

Re: Updates to H-1B

#697

Post by ta_1138 »

heartbreak wrote: post #686
Spooky23 wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers aren’t fungible, and are hard to hire. Try getting a bunch of people to sling some boring Java or mainframe code. They don’t exist. The trap with the older worker is a guy wants $250k, but will perform at the level of a $75/hr body shop guy. Skills don’t align - that’s always the risk of engineering.

> The trap with the older worker is a guy wants $250k, but will perform at the level of a $75/hr body shop guy. Casual ageism as if it won’t be you one day

It's not a matter of age itself, but variance and experience. You can find the issue already at 5 years: Some people have grown and have used those years wisely, while others still are going to get experience raises, while they don't bring the improved performance.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#698

Post by loeg »

snakeyjake wrote: post #342
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.

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…

A lot of people don't want to have to get a security clearance for a mediocre pay job.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#699

Post by valicord »

janalsncm wrote: post #565

The number one issue software engineers should care about is using foreign talent to undercut wages. A cursory look at H1B salaries shows this is rampant. There’s a big difference between “we can’t find any talent” and “we can’t find any talent at our price point”. The former should be granted an H1B. The latter is abusing the system.

> A cursory look at H1B salaries shows this is rampant.

Where does one get a cursory look at H1B salaries? If you're referring to various websites that publish H1B petition data, then you might be interested to know that they don't show actual salaries, only the minimum amounts that the company is required to pay by law. The actual salary can and often is higher, based on the specific employee negotation/performance/etc, same as any regular non-H1B job.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#700

Post by cma »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #169
cma wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't Trump try to prevent even greencard holders from returning if they were from overseas from the wrong religious area of the world, after promising a Muslim ban? And was then only stopped by courts? Or am I misremembering that?

Yes, he did, it affected greencard holders for a brief period because it was a poorly designed idea thought up by malicious and stupid people.

Thought so. From what OP said:

> Despite what the media portrays, he’s not pro American, pro white, pro nazi, whatever.

Going after a religious/ethnic minority legally holding United States greencard status... Even if he tried to hide it in regions and not a DNA or religious test, he did it immediately after campaigning on a Muslim ban in those words. Sounds quite in line with those terms except it is actually anti-American if we take a huge part of 'pro American' to mean valuing the First Amendment.

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