US Suspends 'Expedited' H-1B Visas (sfgate.com) 295
"Starting April 3, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will temporarily suspend premium processing for all H-1B petitions," read Friday's announcement, which says the suspension "may last up to 6 months." Slashdot reader elrous0 sees it as part of the "ongoing efforts to curb abuses in the controversial H-1B program." The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
While it could be difficult to divorce the move Friday from the Trump administration's broader immigration crackdown, some experts believed the agency's decision to be apolitical. "It has everything to do with an understaffed, overworked, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services," said Jason Finkelman, an Austin, Texas, immigration attorney, adding that the wait time for an H-1B visa in California is currently about eight months. However, Vivek Wadhwa, an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus in NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, said the suspension seems like a message from the government that you "can't buy your way into America."
Whatever the motivation, Engadget believes this will impact large tech companies. "Financial Times quotes a lawyer saying that 'close to 100 percent' of applications from companies like Microsoft utilize the option."
Whatever the motivation, Engadget believes this will impact large tech companies. "Financial Times quotes a lawyer saying that 'close to 100 percent' of applications from companies like Microsoft utilize the option."
Well, that's one thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's see if this changes the division of income in affected companies to better follow market conditions.
I wouldn't expect too much of a republican administration, in that regard. (nor the other party. let's not make this a pissing match.)
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They will probably just move the jobs overseas.
Re:Well, that's one thing (Score:5, Insightful)
We're talking about H1B's here. Imported labour. If their jobs could be offshored, they already would've been: the offshoring job-market favours capital even more than that for indentured brown people.
Some leftie you are, failing even at basic Marxist economics.
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There is value is having people at the main campus in the US. If there is no way they can do that, it becomes feasible to move the campus instead. It at least part of it.
Re:Well, that's one thing (Score:5, Interesting)
I work for a rather large (and here nameless) entertainment company. They tried off-shoring our technical support to Romania. Our various sub-companies make a very good profit, year after year - as much of the entertainment industry, we generally weather bad economies better than most because people fall back to less expensive forms of entertainment like TV and movies rather than concerts or vacations. Why did the bean counters feel like it wasn't enough? I don't know.... but looking at numbers on paper is far different than what happens in reality.
Yes, our tech support was expensive - but responsive, fast, taking care of issues correctly the first time and right away, largely because someone could actually come to our desk and fix things. The Romania deal was a disaster. It's not that Romanians are stupid - far from it; it's that it's a lot more difficult to troubleshoot an issue from 5000 miles away than it is when you're sitting in front of the computer having problems. Then this bean counter probably got accolades and a big bonus, all the while actually COSTING the company more money in lost productivity. We have since switched back. Unfortunately, the company has already taken a number of other cost cutting measures that look good on paper, but have already started to backfire. They will not learn, they are only interested in the short term gain. Companies need more forward thinking leaders, but when CEO's get golden parachutes while driving companies into bankruptcy, it doesn't happen.
So... long story short, it is indeed valuable actually having people here. And no H1B visas needed - none of the fired tech support people were H1B, and they didn't need to be.
Re:Well, that's one thing (Score:4, Insightful)
Short term gains increase stock value, investors sell, no one involved cares what happens after that.
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Institutional investors and lower level employees are left holding the bag, so pensioners and working stiffs care what happens after that ... so basically no one important.
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It's called 'corporate looting' or 'bankrupty for profit'. The (nobel laureate - or at least it equivalent in economics) husband of the current Federal Reserve (US central bank) chief co-authored a paper about it.(PDF) [nyu.edu]
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I was a tam at a company really large software company (you've used their products - even if you only use OSX or Linux) - they offshored all the support work, and then justified it by forging the customer satisfaction surveys. They'd only send survey's to customers on calls they'd knock out of the park. So the front lines/tier 1 would get something like 4000+ phone calls a day, and we were getting like a hundred surveys a month.
Anyhow the guy who's brilliant idea this was - still works there and gets accola
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Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:2)
How do you compete against people that have a dramatically lower cost of living than you?
I don't buy the Premise... (Score:2)
...that Third World countries which are still trying to get basic sanitation to its populace is the wellspring of talent that can't be found in the U.S.
Re:Well, that's one thing (Score:5, Interesting)
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The US has some of the strongest imaginary property, contract, copyright and patent laws. Workers also tend to be a lot less volatile when you bring them from abroad and give them minimum legal protections. The corporations want the legalized human trading and the local protections while paying minimal taxes. You can't bring your workers from the US into places like India or China and neither can you bring in the ideas without risking losing them.
Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, while we're at it, lets not forget these business community sweeteners:
1. Employment at will. This concept is totally alien in most of the developed world.
2. No paid sick time (OK California and a few other states have made progress).
3. No limits on the maximum duration of the workweek. The EU's working time directive is a good start.
4. No paid vacation or family leave. The US is quite alone here as well.
5. Non-compete contracts where there is no severance pay guaranteed if you are laid off.
6. Binding arbitration which denies your right to trial without a jury.
Unless other countries adopt these business-friendly labor laws, a lot of jobs will remain here. Frankly, that has a snowball's chance in hell of happening.
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1. Employment at will. This concept is totally alien in most of the developed world.
Most at-will states have other laws protecting workers against unjust lay-offs. Try firing someone working for a large corporation in California without building a dossier and have the worker go through a Performance Improvement Plan.
At will is not "you can be fired any day".
2. No paid sick time (OK California and a few other states have made progress).
Every large corporation that I've worked for has paid sick time for all their exempt employees (and let's be honest 95% of all H1-Bs are exempt).
3. No limits on the maximum duration of the workweek. The EU's working time directive is a good start.
Luckily we do not live in the EUSSR. If I want to work 80 hours a week, that's my problem
Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:5, Informative)
3. No limits on the maximum duration of the workweek. The EU's working time directive is a good start.
Luckily we do not live in the EUSSR. If I want to work 80 hours a week, that's my problem. If I don't, I can work somewhere else (H1-Bs can do that too).
OK. I'm in the EU (for the moment), so I'll respond to this. You as an individual can opt of the 48 hour week. That is your choice. However you can't be forced to opt out (expect in those occupations where it would be dangerous to do so).
https://www.gov.uk/maximum-weekly-working-hours/weekly-maximum-working-hours-and-opting-out [www.gov.uk]
So what's with the "EUSSR" label?
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You as an individual can opt of the 48 hour week (expect in those occupations where it would be dangerous to do so)
Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Every large corporation that I've worked for has paid sick time for all their exempt employees
Great when you work for a large corporation. Not so great if you're a fresh out of school kid looking for some stable income and ending up not working for multi-national who "cares" about employees.
Luckily we do not live in the EUSSR. If I want to work 80 hours a week, that's my problem.
If you want to work that will be your problem. Humans love being self destructive. Nothing says self-destruction more than volunteered unpaid overtime at the expense of your family. Oh you think employees are financially affected by this rule? Maybe you should read it before commenting.
Again, every large corporation that I've worked for has their own policies for that. It may not be mandatory by law, but it is definitely offered.
Yeah great if you're at a large corporation. You get 2 weeks, 3 if you're lucky. We'll continue to mock you from every other country. I've never seen a large employer offer you (even with some negotiation) what most other countries get as a mandatory minimum. But hey 80 hour weeks with no vacation, you sound like you're really living your life.
No, you deny that yourself when you accept the contract. You don't have to. You entered the agreement to use binding arbitration.
Is this another one of those "employees have the power to negotiate these contracts" thing that Americans are the only country who hasn't realised it rarely works out well for the employees?
But hey, all those wonderful conditions we have are voluntary. If you want to screw yourself in the name of your employer, you're more than welcome to do that in the EU too. At least healthcare will cover the result.
Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:4, Informative)
I'm an expat American who's lived and worked in the "EUSSR" for 10+ years.
Where I live, my employer gets a choice between:
1. 5 weeks (25 days) paid vacation/annum + time-and-a-half (or in some cases double-time) for any & all hours over 37.5/week.
2. 6 weeks (30 days) paid vacation/annum + no overtime pay but no hours over 48/week, ever.
My employer let me choose, and I took Option #2.
I will never accept a job from an American firm again unless they give me one of the options listed above, in writing.
So far, every time I've been offered a position by an American company (and there have been many), what happens is something like this: (a) I tell them that this is what I expect; (b) They respond that I'm full of shit, that's not possible, etc; (c) I show them my current contract; (d) Offer is hastily withdrawn.
Enjoy your life in the Gulag, dumbass.
Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:4, Informative)
I'm an expat American who's lived and worked in the "EUSSR" for 10+ years.
That's funny, I'm the opposite. I worked in the EUSSR for 15 years, and moved to the U.S. in 2010. My perspective is very different than yours, and here is why:
First of all, taxes. All that free time and subsidized healthcare must be paid one way or the other. My income tax in my home-country was 52%, sales tax (VAT) is 21%. So out of the gate, the government took 73% of every euro I made. Wanna buy a car? Sure. MSRP is 10,000. Add 21% tax to get to 12,100. Now add 9,181 special car-tax and you get to pay 21,281 for your 10,000 car. Calculate it yourself: http://www.autoweek.nl/bpmcalc... [autoweek.nl]
Second, like in the U.S., once you are regular full-time, most positions won't pay overtime anyway.
Third, and this is the most important, in my home country, it is extremely difficult to get a regular full-time position, because it is extremely difficult for employers to fire you. If you have a full-time position that's not temporarily, they will have to go to court to get you fired. So they will avoid doing that as long as they can by giving you a temporary contract. First 6 months, then a year. Then perhaps another year. Maybe after that you'll get a full time position if you're special enough. If you work in a call center and are easily replaceable, they'll hire someone else so they can restart the clock. California is an at-will state and I've never had a temp contract, ever. This is what happens when the government starts interfering with private contracts. My brother and sister are well in their thirties and only recently got a regular full time position. Did I mention that you won't get a mortgage on a temporary contract?
And I did not even mention all the abuse I've seen of the welfare state. People who are perfectly capable of working, but choose not to because the government will provide for them, on my dime. Remember, the government uses my taxpayer money, extracted from my paycheck under the threat of a gun to my head, to pay other people not to work. Fuck that shit, and fuck the EU, for that reason alone already.
And I did not even start about civil liberties. Civil liberties in Europe, right. No freedom of speech, every ISP must retain all logs of you for 6 months, even a park ranger can check your internet history. That's why: EUSSR.
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20M on SSDI, 60M on food stamps, 20M felons who don't participate in anything, matches the scope of any problem in any EU country
And you know what's the big difference? SSDI and food stamps are enough to sustain you, but you would have a better life if you were working. In most of the EUSSR, or at least my home country, you are better of not working and taking tax-payer money.
you dense mother fucker
Yeah, that's the compelling argument that made me rethink my position. Just as the idiots downmodding my well-argumented position that they simply disagree with.
Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:2)
> Luckily we do not live in the EUSSR. If I want to work 80 hours a week, that's my problem. If I don't, I can work somewhere else (H1-Bs can do that too).
Are you suggesting that an 80 hour week is optional because you are free to get another job?
How is that any different from those who suggest that sexual harassment at work shouldn't be illegal because the woman is free to get another job to escape it?
I'm Not Buying it. (Score:4, Interesting)
Third World countries that still can't provide basic sanitation to their populace are highly unlikely to be producing technical talent that can't be found in the U.S.
Re: Well, that's one thing (Score:3, Funny)
I wrote days ago we will be thanking trump as he does more and more to give citizens thier jobs back. We are just getting started people. Soon citizens will be able to work these well paid jobs again.
Sure you don't care since you are employed. But many others are beaten out because of simply lower immigrant worker wages. That's it.
Do you really think these are geniuses coming over???? No. And do you really think mostvtech jobs require geniuses???? Absolutely no no way.
I am loving this. It us still not a le
Thank you Trump! (Score:3, Insightful)
He's on a great start to be our best President ever.
Re: Thank you Trump! (Score:4, Insightful)
You do know ... ... you can't mark someone a troll AND comment, right?
Unless you're in a box with some radioactive material, a cat, and vial of poison.
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And my fingerprints are your favourite, too?
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She has a pussy, and it's normal for us to grab it.
He's a businessman. He's used to keeping promisea (Score:2)
We have had decades of bullshit and hand wringing saying how hard it would be to change ANY law. This guy gets in on a populist platform and makes a lot of promises that most expected him to renege on (in typical politician fashion). He is delivering.
And the political establishment is surprised. But they shouldn't be.
Politicians welch on promises and their voters are used to it. (What are they going to do - elect another politician who promises something they like less?)
Businessmen work hard to make deals
I think I know their answer (Score:5, Insightful)
This is good news for the US economy as a whole, at least on the surface. Lets avoid the arguments about being paid less or being treated as indentured servants for now. A good portion of the H1B worker's money goes back to their home country. Even if they made the same wages, they don't spend the money the same so American's lose money in the economy and jobs at the lower end.
The answer from many of these big companies will to simply lay off more Americans and move more jobs overseas. Those regulations need to see some light for this to truly work out.
Re:I think I know their answer (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of the jobs that can be easily offshored have already been done by these companies. There's a reason they want the H1Bs instead and that's because they understand the limitations of offshoring and the communication and control gaps. Offshoring looks good on paper but in practice for non-trivial tasks there's a friction to the process that shows up after actually doing it. Of the various companies I've worked at that have done offshoring they all ended up moving some or all of the jobs back because the quality of the work was inferior, getting the problems corrected took time due to the time zone lag and there was also a lack of control due to that same time zone lag. In the end most of the projects ended up costing almost as much and took 3-4x longer to do which ended up with large opportunity costs for the companies.
Re:I think I know their answer (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a reason they want the H1Bs instead and that's because they understand the limitations of offshoring and the communication and control gaps
In part, but another side of this is that they want to drive down wages, not just for the imported workers, but for the locals as well. The more sensible way to handle this would be to require companies to pay a minimum wage, and not a universal minimum wage, but one that follows the job description or something like that. Something like that is already in place in many countries - in UK, overseas companies can get visas to transfer staff from their overseas departments, but their pay in UK must be of the right size for the job title.That way the companies can get their genuine needs for expertise met, while not being able to undercut wages for local staff.
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The more sensible way to handle this would be to require companies to pay a minimum wage, and not a universal minimum wage, but one that follows the job description or something like that.
But they're ALREADY bringing them in on one job description then assigning them to do other work. There are a couple of reasons for doing this, but one of them is to avoid the appearance of replacing the workers on the REAL job with lower-priced imported labor, without leaving a paper trail showing that's what happened.
On
Re:Reactionaries (Score:5, Informative)
The EU yesterday issued a statement that US visitors may lose rights to travel without Visas to the EU. A statement which should be seen by all Americans as a blackmail attempt...
Let's not twist the truth of the matter, shall we. Which is:
The passing of the non-binding resolution comes after the US failed to agree visa-free travel for citizens of five EU countries [independent.co.uk]
...
It comes after the US failed to agree visa-free travel for citizens of five EU countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania – as part of a reciprocity agreement. US citizens can normally travel to all countries in the bloc without a visa.
...
The Commission discovered three years ago that the US was not meeting its obligations under the reciprocity agreement but has not yet taken any legal action. The latest vote, prepared by the civil liberties committee and approved by a plenary session of parliament, gives the Commission two months to act before MEPs can consider action in the European Court of Justice.
So, the real story here is that, if the US wants visa-free travel to the (entire) EU for its citizens, it must extend the same privilege to (all) EU nationals, but the US has been failing to do so. The EU calling out the US on this point hardly constitutes "blackmail".
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It is a lot like blackmail to try to force the US to give visa waivers to poor countries like Romania, Bulgaria, and The Ukraine with so many English students who would love to permanently 'visit' the US for higher wages now that the UK is no longer an option. Although to be fair I don't really see it as a problem because immigration can still basically default deny entry to anyone from a poor country just like they always do. It's basically impossible to enter the country as a tourist from many poor countr
Re:Reactionaries (Score:4, Insightful)
It is nothing like "blackmail" when someone expects you to keep your end of an agreement you've signed, especially when the other party has been keeping theirs.
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And what does the Ukraine have to do with this discussion, seeing that it's not an EU member?
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Why? So Chad Thundercock can make a few more conquests and a few more girls can ignore Slashdotters? No, no, definitely let the boyfriends and husbands in. Then when Chad moves in, sell popcorn at the fight.
Re:Reactionaries (Score:4, Informative)
"The reactionaries were further applauding Mexico dumping 150 million tons of sewage claiming that the US deserved it for wanting control of it's own borders."
Haven't heard that one. Valid link?
This [latimes.com] is an article on the sewage spill. The article is called "'Tsunami of sewage spills' in Tijuana fouls U.S. beaches, may have been intentional".
A massive sewage spill in Tijuana that polluted beaches in San Diego County last month may have been no accident, according to state and local officials.
In a preliminary estimate, officials said about 143 million gallons of raw sewage spewed into the Tijuana River during a period of more than two weeks that ended Thursday. While cross-border sewage spills of a few million gallons are routine for the region, this is one of the largest such events in the last two decades, according to water quality experts in San Diego.
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Well said. Also, a lot of these jobs SHOULDN'T require 4-year degrees (which are now ridiculously expensive). Companies should pool together and fund 6-month code academies to fill these positions rather than trying to get cheap labor from outside the US.
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That's a temporary effect. The whole point of the H1-B program, at least from the employee's and government's point of view, is to grant citizenship to a skilled and productive foreigner. Once the worker gets U.S. citizenship, their next step will immediately to be apply for citizenship for their immediate family and have them immigrate to the U.S. At which point they stop sending money back to their home country, and start spendi
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So when citizenship is granted then the company can move on to a more profitable employee from overseas and then we have 2 issues - more un/under-employed citizens AND more outsourcing. yayy...
I'm kidding hopefully - hard to tell these days.
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At which point they stop sending money back to their home country, and start spending it here in the U.S.
Well...not exactly. I mean why should they stop sending money home just because they have some new piece of paper that says they are American citizens? Although it depends on the culture to some extent and how poor their families back home are, probably they will still send money home. I suppose you could try to stop them from doing that by making such money transfers illegal, but immigrants from poor countries are usually going to send at least some money home to their poor relatives if they can. That's ju
Bad news for US economy. (Score:2)
This is good news for the US economy as a whole, at least on the surface.....
No it's not. You can claim it may be good news for US tech workers, that's unlikely to have any real effect, but for the economy this is undoubtedly bad.
Studies have showed that while the H1B program:
1) have been beneficial to the US economy as a whole (because cost of software development, and lack of developers strangles growth).
2) have possibly lowered wages for well paid tech jobs (this is not conclusive, but there are hints in this direction),
That said, there probably has been some abuse, th
Economy as a whole...but who benefits? (Score:2)
1) have been beneficial to the US economy as a whole (because cost of software development, and lack of developers strangles growth).
I think the economists are probably right when they say trade, immigration, etc. benefit the economy as a whole.
The problem is that it's kind of a hollow argument because rising income inequality means that the growth in the economy as a whole isn't getting distributed to rank and file workers. Usually cost reductions and efficiency improvements end up as corporate profit which gets unequally distributed to senior executives and/or shareholders, not wage earners.
It's great that we're baking a bigger pie ev
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When they are talking about the economy 'as a whole' they may be referring to the world economy and indeed free trade is good for that. However if what you are worried about is your own piece of the pie as a highly privileged elite who benefits greatly from artificial borders and the resulting income inequality then that is not necessarily a good thing for you personally.
Maybe someone who will be happy to work for $1/hour can do your job as well as you can. Would that be good for the world economy? How coul
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However if what you are worried about is your own piece of the pie as a highly privileged elite who benefits greatly from artificial borders and the resulting income inequality then that is not necessarily a good thing for you personally.
Yes, as a fact I am worried about my piece of the pie and I don't want it taken away. The global morality is immaterial to me, I am unwilling to sacrifice 90% of my standard of living to raise that of others by 2%.
Nevertheless I'd be interested to see what would really happen in a world entirely without borders where everyone was allowed to physically live and work anywhere they wanted. It would be an interesting experiment. I'm not sure such a world would really be that different though because most poor people don't have the money for airline tickets or other international moving expenses and don't have good enough educations to really compete with people educated in first world countries. Although presumably some of the HR drones may not be able to distinguish between well educated and badly educated applicants. And it's not like the whole world would suddenly get better at speaking English.
I think it looks lot like Western Europe's influx of migrants, actually, and that's an example where you actually have borders, where poor people can't afford airline tickets and don't have the language or job skills to compete for any but the most menial of jobs.
As a thought experiment, if you ac
Re: I think I know their answer (Score:3)
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FTFY
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India sells it's degrees for a very reasonable price. Requiring advanced degrees does nothing to actually stop low-skill workers from coming into the country.
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A PhD from *any* university is available for a price. Unless someone checks and I think most companies don't bother especially for foreign universities it's just a piece of paper and that can be forged. In India the real version of that piece of paper may be worth something especially from say IIT, but in many third world countries even a real university degree can mean very little.
In the country where I am currently living a so called 'IT' degree includes very little exposure to what is taught in US and ot
An Excellent Start But More is Required (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully, the Trump administration will build upon this first step by properly increasing the minimum wages of an H1B worker to something more commensurate with that of a world class expert in science, technology, engineering or math. The wage should reflect the fact that the necessary worker is so rare and valuable that no US citizen living anywhere in the United States can satisfy the requirements. In my opinion, a person of such outstanding capability cannot be worth less than $250,000 per year in salary to the employer. If Google or Facebook or Apple need these people so desperately, it should be no problem for such wealthy corporations to pay what amounts to a pittance for skills and expertise which cannot, or so they claim, be found in any American citizens.
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There needs to be different minimum for varying fields. For STEM jobs $250,000 sounds about right but should a prized literary professor be making $250,000? If this distinctions aren't made, H1B should be renamed as STEM only visa.
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There are other types of visas for academia, actors etc - true talent which Microsoft and Google is always yammering on about does not come in on H1B. Bringing in a 'prized professor' on H1B is not something you do, H1B in academia is for assistant professors, research assistants etc for $20k/y.
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That's not at all what it means. Obviously, some US citizen can satisfy the requirements, just not any that are willing to quit their jobs and/or move to wherever this position is, or are just not that interested in that particular position.
That's really not that rare. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many open positions out there sitting open
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I have interviewed so many Americans and not one, not an effing single one made the bar. They cannot even answer simple questions like reversing link list, don't know different between swap and virtual memory etc etc....we reject those Indian and Chinese candidates because they are still not good enough.
That's the purpose of this idea called "on the job training."
If your search for talent across the world is so barren of fruit, then bring in promising people, and train them.
This is actually not difficult, just blame Trump (Score:5, Insightful)
While it could be difficult to divorce the move Friday from the Trump administration's broader immigration crackdown
It is actually not difficult at all. The default position since Trump got elected has been to blame him. This despite the fact that it makes people who are otherwise legitimate, respectable public figures seem like raving lunatics. They seem like lunatics because this is their mindless reaction to anything they think they can associate with Trump, including things (like the Yemen raid) which were planned and prepared during the Obama administration.
For example. I just saw an article how SXSW is now facing a public backlash over an immigration-related clause in this contracts for performers. People are just skewering them, calling for boycotts, etc. They are lamenting how SXSW is part of the immigration problem and awful their support for Trump's immigration policies is. The clause has been there for four years.
Here is some more from the Wikipedia article on Deportation and removal from the United States [wikipedia.org]:
In the 105 years between 1892 and 1997, the United States deported 2.1 million people.[2]
Between 1997 and 2001, during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, about 870,000 people were deported from the United States.[3]
Between 2001 and 2008, during the Presidency of George W. Bush, about 2 million people were deported from the United States.
Between 2009 and 2016, during the Presidency of Barack Obama, about 3.2 million people were deported from the United States.[4]
As you read that, remember that during one of his State of the Union Addresses Clinton specifically called for greater enforcement of immigration laws, and got a bipartisan standing ovation at that comment.
Also, just a couple of years ago immigrant rights groups were calling Obama "deporter-in-chief". I wonder why that was. I seem to recall Bush being branded a racist immigrant hater and immigrants came out in droves to vote for Obama. Twice. The single biggest deception in modern politics was Obama pulling a fast one on the entire immigrant population of the US. Twice.
Absolutely none of that matters now. Since Trump got elected, we can just project everything on to him, even if it makes the people doing so look like raving lunatics.
Seriously, he has been in office a whopping 6 weeks. Keep this up and in a few months nobody will be listening (c.f., The Boy Who Cried Wolf [wikipedia.org]). Think about that: nobody will be listening.
Re:This is actually not difficult, just blame Trum (Score:5, Insightful)
For example. I just saw an article how SXSW is now facing a public backlash over an immigration-related clause in this contracts for performers. People are just skewering them, calling for boycotts, etc. They are lamenting how SXSW is part of the immigration problem and awful their support for Trump's immigration policies is. The clause has been there for four years.
They're wrong to blame Trump for that clause, but they're not wrong to be more worried about it than usual at a time when Trump is directing the INS to run around and lie to police departments if necessary to get compliance for their raiding parties.
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Till Raegan gave an amnesty people coming illegally felt they were coming temporarily, would earn and go back. With Raegan's amnesty illegal immigration became an actual viable path to citizenship and illegal immigration exploded. At the same time NAFTA meant that Mexico's corn industry got killed by cheap subsidized corn from the midwest. No wonder illegal immigration from Mexico has gone up and the corresponding deportation numbers.
If Trump tears up NAFTA Mexican farm workers will have jobs in Mex
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Your post is based on an assumption that is untrue.
Net illegal immigration is essentially zero. Lots of Mexicans have been going back and, guess what, Obama extradited a lot also.
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Didn't they change the definition of deportations during the Obama administration, so as to count random aliens that were caught crossing the border in addition to the usual ones that were detained before being sent back?
Not saying one way or another - or that doing so - is right or wrong, or that one had more merit than the other. Just pointing out that comparing Bush stats and Obama stats is apples to oranges. (Apples to apples has Bush Jr throwing out a tiny bit more aliens if memory serves.) $.02.
Re:This is actually not difficult, just blame Trum (Score:5, Insightful)
The default position since Trump got elected has been to blame him.
And the default position since Trump got elected has to been to hail him for the rise of the stock market, rising corporate profits, and better than expected GDP. So which is it? If he's going to get the kudos even though he's only been in office a few weeks he should also get the blame, right?
things (like the Yemen raid) which were planned and prepared during the Obama administration.
Planning is one thing, executing is another and it was Trump who gave the go ahead for the raid despite not going through the normal procedure to get an overview of what was to take place. From all reports Trump pulled this out of the hat and said, "Do it" without any thought or consideration. Even after they knew the raid had been compromised he went ahead with it. You can't blame Obama for this one. Trump said do it. He's the president and as the saying goes, "The buck stops here."
Since Trump got elected, we can just project everything on to him, even if it makes the people doing so look like raving lunatics.
The only one looking like a raving lunatic is Trump with his, "Fake news!" every time his words and deeds are reported, his ramblings about vote fraud despite him claiming in lawsuits to stop vote recounts there was no evidence of vote fraud so there was no need for a recount, his, "The press is the enemy of the American people" comments and of course his latest tirade-without-evidence, Obama wiretapped him during the campaign.
If Hillary had said any of the above you would be on here pointing out she was a lunatic, yet because Trump said it we're supposed to give him a pass?
Admit reality, just once (Score:5, Insightful)
has to been to hail him for the rise of the stock market
Come on. The rise started literally the day after Trump was elected. Surely even you can admit Trump is responsible - not because of what Trump has done mind you, but what he is predicted to do.
Regardless, Trump is responsible.
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Clearly the rising wages, the accelerating GDP and business optimism in 2017 will be the result of the Donald.
I know this just as much as I know that in 2018 the budget shortfalls, the eco disasters, the alienated allies and the failing economy will be the fault of Obama
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If it does burst, then yes - Trump would be responsible for that also. But if it DOESS'T burst (because it's not a bubble) - well then would you also admit Trump is responsible? Not likely, even though it is so.
Your problem is that you can't recognize growth that comes forth after the business environment has been retarded unnaturally for a decade. A lot of cash is being freed up this year which will go into real, stable business growth.
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Thanks.
Mod +1, Insightful
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The default position since Trump got elected has been to blame him.
And the default position since Trump got elected has to been to hail him for the rise of the stock market, rising corporate profits, and better than expected GDP.
Stock markets are bets on the future, not reflections on the past. Educate yourself and stop whining like a baby.
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Since Trump got elected, we can just project everything on to him, even if it makes the people doing so look like raving lunatics.
Seriously, he has been in office a whopping 6 weeks. Keep this up and in a few months nobody will be listening ...
*Thanks* Obama!
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This despite the fact that it makes people who are otherwise legitimate, respectable public figures seem like raving lunatics. They seem like lunatics because this is their mindless reaction to anything they think they can associate with Trump, including things (like the Yemen raid) which were planned and prepared during the Obama administration.
It's more complicated than that:
1) The President gets final approval on the execution, he's supposed to be the one asking hard questions and making sure the operation is a good idea, not just in planning but when it's time to execute. By all accounts Trump didn't do this, his position was apparently to greenlight whatever the military wanted to do.
2) The President can be held accountable by voters in a way that generals cannot, that's why civilian oversight of the military is so important, so the public can
Vivek Wadhwa (Score:5, Informative)
Mr. Wadhaw apparently doesn't understand that premium processing does not buy you a visa, or increase your chances of getting one.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-ency... [nolo.com]
Not the first time (Score:5, Informative)
My dream is that Slashdot become a place where people do a little research before commenting irrationally.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Next you'll want people to do things like RTFA. :)
Nah, prefer they research a bit independently, because often the article sucks :)
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Don't be silly, he said that he wanted people to do research before commenting irrationally. Didn't say anything about not commenting irrationally.
To curb abuses... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
What we REALLY need... (Score:3)
Is to read "U.S. to Temporarily Suspend H-1B Visa Program" followed by a snippet on investigation into rampant misuse and an intensive investigation.
About D*MN TIME! (Score:2)
Need more up to date statistics (Score:3)
But when the majority of H1-Bs [sfchronicle.com] requests in 2015 coming from Infosys, Tata, Wipro, Accenture, IBM & Deloitte I fail to see how any company like Google and Microsoft are benefiting from H1-Bs which still seems strange since they're leadership is the one lobbying loudest in congress for them. Especially since they've all been yelling for Coding Schools and STEM education at the same time.
Import the cheapest labor possible, it's 80%+ from India, and they're disposable. The American Dream.
Fake news on H1B - the "spin" begins (Score:5, Insightful)
Though I did not vote for Trump, I have to say he is certainly right about all the fake news (on this topic at least)..
The "spin" regarding H1B in news articles spewing out since this was announced this morning is amazing...
Everyone (on this site at least), knows that H1B is all about getting rid of Americans in IT jobs in the USA to replace them with cheaper Indians onshore for roles that companies were not able to offshore to India for whatever reason..
On major sites as of this morning..:
On Google News / CNN: ...the article has the above, plus a whole bunch of unrelated sob stories about people who cannot find doctors (an H1B edge case).
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/0... [cnn.com]
"Large firms say they need the visas to bring in engineers and other high-skilled workers they can't find in the U.S. "
again, the fake "skills shortage"..while in reality our IT grads are working in $30K annual salary jobs, Best-Buy and Starbucks because they cannot find good IT work. I know plenty of smart folks in situations like this..
On Reuters: ..slightly better, but the article again fails to mention the actual issue anywhere in the piece..that virtually all the of the H1B visas issued are used by outsourcing or IT companies to replace Americans in IT roles in the USA with cheaper onshore Indians flown in from India.
http://www.reuters.com/article... [reuters.com]
"The H-1B non-immigrant visa allows U.S. companies to employ graduate-level workers in several specialized fields, including information technology, medicine, engineering and mathematics."
I have to hand it to him, Trump may be rather nuts overall, but he is actually doing what he said he would do, and he is the first person in office to actually address this issue (or even mention it).., which is more than you can say for either the R's or D's that have been president up to now. (I don't really consider Trump to be an 'R', either, for what its worth..he is following his own agenda mostly unrelated to the R party from what I can see..)
Kudos to him, maybe I was wrong about him after all..
I voted against him, twice. However (Score:3)
I have to hand it to him, Trump may be rather nuts overall, but he is actually doing what he said he would do, and he is the first person in office to actually address this issue (or even mention it).., which is more than you can say for either the R's or D's that have been president up to now. (I don't really consider Trump to be an 'R', either, for what its worth..he is following his own agenda mostly unrelated to the R party from what I can see.
I also voted against Trump. I also got my wife to come vote for her first time, against Trump. Mostly because a) he said obnoxious things and b) had no political experience. Though on point (a) I know he's made a career of saying things to get media attention - like Hpward Stern, he says stuff to get press converage, and largely believes "there's no such thing as bad publicity". Compare most politicians including Hillary who say whatever they think will get *good* press. Anyway, the dude is obnoxious, th
Sucking the oxygen out - media ran the pumps. (Score:2)
Unfortunately, perhaps, the primary votes from people who wanted a Republican were split between several similar candidates, while Trump very successfully positioned himself as different, as the alternative to "all those guys" (and he *is* different).
IMHO the media thought that Trump would be the easiest for Hillary to defeat and did their best to sabotage the campaigns of the regular - and irregular - politicians in the Republican primary.
They did this mainly by focusing on Trump and giving little coverag
100 years from now (Score:2)
Eliminate the lottery (Score:4, Insightful)
Replace it with a salary auction for the limited number of H-1Bs available. A company would 'buy' H-1Bs by bidding a minimum yearly salary for each visa, which it would then be required to pay the visa holder for the duration of the visa. The company with the highest bid wins the visa. Cap the number of visas available such that the minimum winning bids average 10% more than the salary paid to an American worker for the same job. That would allow Google and Microsoft to buy as many of the offshore geniuses as they want (or can afford), while putting a fork in the IT outsourcing firms who game the current lottery system.
Buying your way in (Score:5, Insightful)
" a message from the government that you "can't buy your way into America.""
You can buy your way into the USA just fine. It will cost you $500k, or $1M if you don't want to deal wth a poor rural area, and some paperwork setting up a company. [uscis.gov]
Re:On our way... (Score:4, Insightful)
It saddens me that people modded parent down. Do you really hate America so much that you WANT it to fail?
I think a lot of people need to get over their self-hatred, white guilt, emo post-modern bullshit and stop being ashamed to be a citizen of the country that pioneered the modern democracy and has made huge advancements in medicine, technology, academia, etc. that have greatly benefited the entire world.
Have we been, or will we ever be, perfect? Fuck no! But just because your country has flaws doesn't mean you can't be proud of all the great stuff we have have done (and will do). So stand up for the National Anthem. Maybe even pick up a flag and try waving it for once. And not in some hipster ironic way. Try celebrating your country in a way that says "My country created the Bill of Rights when most countries were still monarchies!"
And that goes even more for Europe. Your countries created Western Civilization and the modern legal/human rights system and you act like that heritage is something to only be ashamed of?? WTF is wrong with you? You've focused for so long on everything you've done wrong that you've forgotten about the many more things you've done RIGHT.
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We want democracy and an African dicta actor like Trump who is going to block all immigrants is not going to help democracy. By your argument if we elected a lemur who just wanted
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No, the real policy fear is that we'll see the resurgence in Christian terrorism in designing school curricula.
Betsy deVos is the new face of Christian terrorism and directed against the people least able to defend themselves: Children.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It depends upon what success actually means. If the U.S. "succeeds" by screwing over refugees and other immigrants, can that really be called success? If American "succeeds" by trampling basic rights and freedoms, what price success?
Almost everyone on this site sees the difference between short term "success" by MBA droids, and long term success. For the U.S. to succeed, it should never be measured by short term results, those may be very dearly bought if the long term consequences are a disaster.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
> Which Muslim-run nation TOLERATES Judaism and Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism and Atheism?
All of them. Why do you think there so many Jews and Christian fleeing from these countries after centuries of stability? The current climate in most of these countries has gotten really xenophobic, just like it has here. But traditionally, "brothers of the book" have always been welcomed.
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The resources Europe gained abroad during the colonial eras were almost all luxuries, not the necessities for building a technological civilization. Gold, spices, cane sugar, tobacco etc etc ... not the stuff you need to build universities and steam engines. Whites are what they are because they had the privilege of luck. We won the genetic lottery, we won the geographic lottery, we lucked out with the plague creating a shortage of labour and creating the middle class etc etc.
Modern civilization is a fluke,
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What do I need some burger legal search for? Burgers aren't even relevant for shaping modern civilization.
Europe pulled itself up by the bootstraps, foreign nations made their food and drink taste a little better and gave them smokes.
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Europe pulled itself up by the bootstraps, foreign nations made their food and drink taste a little better and gave them smokes and gold and diamonds.
TFTFY.
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Exactly my point, luxuries.
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Apparently you missed the part where having lots of gold and diamonds tends to impart lots of power to the possessor.
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You are an idiot. It's generally accepted that humans evolved in Africa and spread from there. That means the oldest human civilizations should be in Africa. Africans should have their own empires and kingdoms. They should have their own culture and science and technology. But every time non-Africans have come, in whatever period of recorded history, Africans were relatively barbaric and unsophisticated, compared to the invaders/visitors. Why is that?
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The process for getting it - the questions, the requirements, was absolutely and completely insane.
Yes, I still don't understand why so many US immigration forms carries questions like: "Do you intend to commit acts of terror? [ ] YES; [ ] NO".
I mean do they really think a terrorist is going to answer yes... The only thing they'll catch with a form like that is trolls.