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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

#91

Post by rayiner »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #54
rayiner wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

India has 130 million college graduates, and 70% of H1bs. Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia together have over 50 million graduates, but only around 2% of H1bs combined.

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

#92

Post by brainwad »

visa-vasanth wrote: post #67
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?

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.

When I got my first LCA 14 years ago, the min salary my employer had to pay was 77k (and I actually got 90k). How on earth do Indian outsourcing companies get 401ks for employees earning only 40-60k?

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

#93

Post by alooPotato »

prasadjoglekar wrote: post #64
alooPotato wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly, so this $100K fee shouldn't change anything that isn't already happening. If they could ship the jobs elsewhere that you're worried about, they would have already?

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

#94

Post by alooPotato »

rs186 wrote: post #56
alooPotato wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly, so this $100K fee shouldn't change anything that isn't already happening. If they could ship the jobs elsewhere that you're worried about, they would have already?

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

#95

Post by 0x1ceb00da »

rs186 wrote: post #73
sarchertech wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Extra $100k might "tip the scale"? If you are the employer, are you going to shell out 50% more for no good reason? Amazon has over 10k H1B workers. Think about how much money it means.

It's exactly like the tariff war with china. India refused to put sanctions on russia (who helped india in its wars with pakistan, who received help from USA), so now trump is saying we don't want your people in here. The outcome is probably going to be similar to the tariff war as well. They'll start out with totally absurd bullshit and then come down to something more reasonable. Maybe $10-20k per worker per year. From the point of view of the state, humans are just another resource, like crude oil. If you don't have something, you import it. And what's happening right now is haggling at the global scale. It's just a bunch of gorillas thumping their chests. Nobody cares about the citizens.

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

#96

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

XenophileJKO wrote: post #65
JKCalhoun wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The pressure to juice short-term dividends is as ceaseless as gravity or oxidation. It has to be overcome before lessons-learned can transform into wisdom-based outcomes.

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

#97

Post by slg »

yibg wrote: post #61
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The rate the Trump administration is losing plausible deniability has been accelerating over recent months/weeks/days. The MAGA diehards flying Trump flags aren't going to change their ways because they are true believers in "putting the corrupt radical left | greedy corporations | immigrants in their place". But what about all the techno-libertarians that populate HN? Can you genuinely say this type of loophole that allows naked corruption is good? Do you agree with the FCC threatening to take away broadcast licenses for jokes? When does the water get too hot for all us frogs?

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

#98

Post by SoftTalker »

rs186 wrote: post #79
XenophileJKO wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The world in 1990 is no longer the world now. As someone who works with colleagues from India (like, physically in India), I don't see any reason the company keeps me over some other random guy in India, to be honest.

A big change from then to now for remote collaboration is better connectivity in general, and technology such as Zoom and Teams. But how do you handle the time zone difference? That has always been the issue I've seen with any kind of real-time collaboration with contracrors or employees in India. If it's work that doesn't involve that, then what is the big difference now? Github? Slack?

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

#99

Post by sarchertech »

rs186 wrote: post #73
sarchertech wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Extra $100k might "tip the scale"? If you are the employer, are you going to shell out 50% more for no good reason? Amazon has over 10k H1B workers. Think about how much money it means.

>Amazon has over 10k H1B workers. Think about how much money it means.

Something like 0.3% of their yearly profit.

They're already paying probably somewhere near $200k a year more. Clearly it's not for no good reason. Clearly there is some advantage to employing them here if they are already willing to pay $200k more than they have to.

An extra $100k doesn't erase whatever that value is. The question is, is employing them here worth $200k to Amazon, but not $300k? Likely the case for some employees, but almost certainly not all.

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

#100

Post by yibg »

llm_nerd wrote: post #74
yibg wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/us-official-clarifies-100... The specific quote can be found in a number of media sources- "Those who are visiting or leaving the country, or visiting India, they don't need to rush back before Sunday or pay the $100,000 fee. $100,000 is only for new and not current existing holders" EDIT: Weirdly the parent edited in the "unnamed official" bit after I made my comment, then replied…

Also unnamed official. Where is the official white house announcement?
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