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It's heavily tipped to foreign workers? For a US worker to find a job, they need to find a willing employer. For a foreign worker, they need to: 0) Find a wi

It's heavily tipped to foreign workers? For a US worker to find a job, they need to find a willing employer. For a foreign worker, they need to: 0) Find a willing employer. 1) Get lucky. For 2017, there were 236,000 applications for 65,000 H1Bs (about a 25% success rate). 2) Prove that an American worker isn't available to do the job. 3) Wait > 8 months to start the job (applications happen in April 2016 for 2017 employment). Yeah, things are totally tipped in favor of foreign workers. I'm constantly wondering if I should give up my US citizenship to gain these advantages.

0xcafecafe 10y ago
Not to mention the exhorbitant wait times to get permanent residency for Indians(and Chinese). As things stand, with an approved petition for 2011 or later it will be well over a decade before they can get a green card.
cableshaft 10y ago
Keep in mind, a large amount of those applications are pushed by outsourcing companies, that are gaming the system. "Federal officials allow only one application for each foreign worker, but companies can submit an unlimited number of applications for their employees, so global outsourcing giants can, and do, submit many requests." And one third of all approved H1Bs are for those outsourcing firms. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/us/outsourcing-companies-dominate-h1b-visas.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/us/outsourcin... The spammed requests by these firms make it more difficult for foreign workers to get through this process, too, unless they work for these outsourcing firms.
- serge2k 10y ago
  that makes no difference to the workers. It's worse if anything because those companies won't even sponsor them for a green card. I'm a foreign worker, and while I am very happy to live in the US being here on a visa sucks.
fernandotakai 10y ago
when americans talk about privilege, they never realize how big of a privilege it is to be american and to live in the us. i love my country and my city, but my life would be a lot easier if i lived in the us.
freehunter 10y ago
If it wasn't tipped toward foreign workers, you'd hear stories of H1B workers who sadly lost their job to an American. You'd hear stories about companies who hired all American employees, then apologized when they realize it didn't work out and they went back to H1B workers. You'd hear politicians calling for more foreign workers because there are too many jobs for Americans. The 25% success rate? That's the system working as intended. But your story of American workers just needing to find a willing employer, your story of proving that an American worker isn't available to do the job, it's just not true. Or at least it's not as true as you want to make it seem. The minimum for an H1B employee is $60,000 right now. I made more than that at my first tech job right out of college, living in a small city in the Midwest. To get an H1B employee, all you have to do is put up a job posting for $60,000 and wait. The people who will fill that position will be expecting $80,000 and will turn it down. To get an H1B employee, all you need to do is pay far less than market rate (but at or above H1B minimum). Boom, you have highly skilled Americans out of a job and companies getting employees for less than market rate. I've seen it happen at every place I've ever worked. Part of Trump's idea is to raise the minimum for H1B workers to $100k. The idea of an H1B is that it allows you to hire employees who have such a specialized skillset that you can't find someone in America to do the work. What it's become is finding an entry-level Java coder for less than what an American college-educated entry-level employee would make. If the work you need done is so advanced or so specialized that there is no one in America who can do it, you should be willing to pay whatever it costs to get it done. It should be extremely difficult to hire a foreign worker. Not impossible, but really, really hard. Yes, it may be a privilege to be an American, but there are a lot of unemployed, skilled, college-educated Americans. The problem isn't not finding enough Americans to fill the positions, it's not wanting to pay what they need to get paid. And that's the wrong sort of behavior to encourage. H1B visas should drive pay up, not down.
- mavelikara 10y ago
  > If it wasn't tipped toward foreign workers, you'd hear stories of H1B workers who sadly lost their job to an American. You don't, because when an H-1B worker loses her job, she has to leave the country or find another job real quick. Either way, she most likely do not have time to get her story across to you.

0xcafecafe 10y ago

Not to mention the exhorbitant wait times to get permanent residency for Indians(and Chinese). As things stand, with an approved petition for 2011 or later it will be well over a decade before they can get a green card.

cableshaft 10y ago

Keep in mind, a large amount of those applications are pushed by outsourcing companies, that are gaming the system. "Federal officials allow only one application for each foreign worker, but companies can submit an unlimited number of applications for their employees, so global outsourcing giants can, and do, submit many requests." And one third of all approved H1Bs are for those outsourcing firms. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/us/outsourcing-companies-dominate-h1b-visas.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/us/outsourcin... The spammed requests by these firms make it more difficult for foreign workers to get through this process, too, unless they work for these outsourcing firms.

serge2k 10y ago
that makes no difference to the workers. It's worse if anything because those companies won't even sponsor them for a green card. I'm a foreign worker, and while I am very happy to live in the US being here on a visa sucks.

fernandotakai 10y ago

when americans talk about privilege, they never realize how big of a privilege it is to be american and to live in the us. i love my country and my city, but my life would be a lot easier if i lived in the us.

freehunter 10y ago

If it wasn't tipped toward foreign workers, you'd hear stories of H1B workers who sadly lost their job to an American. You'd hear stories about companies who hired all American employees, then apologized when they realize it didn't work out and they went back to H1B workers. You'd hear politicians calling for more foreign workers because there are too many jobs for Americans. The 25% success rate? That's the system working as intended. But your story of American workers just needing to find a willing employer, your story of proving that an American worker isn't available to do the job, it's just not true. Or at least it's not as true as you want to make it seem. The minimum for an H1B employee is $60,000 right now. I made more than that at my first tech job right out of college, living in a small city in the Midwest. To get an H1B employee, all you have to do is put up a job posting for $60,000 and wait. The people who will fill that position will be expecting $80,000 and will turn it down. To get an H1B employee, all you need to do is pay far less than market rate (but at or above H1B minimum). Boom, you have highly skilled Americans out of a job and companies getting employees for less than market rate. I've seen it happen at every place I've ever worked. Part of Trump's idea is to raise the minimum for H1B workers to $100k. The idea of an H1B is that it allows you to hire employees who have such a specialized skillset that you can't find someone in America to do the work. What it's become is finding an entry-level Java coder for less than what an American college-educated entry-level employee would make. If the work you need done is so advanced or so specialized that there is no one in America who can do it, you should be willing to pay whatever it costs to get it done. It should be extremely difficult to hire a foreign worker. Not impossible, but really, really hard. Yes, it may be a privilege to be an American, but there are a lot of unemployed, skilled, college-educated Americans. The problem isn't not finding enough Americans to fill the positions, it's not wanting to pay what they need to get paid. And that's the wrong sort of behavior to encourage. H1B visas should drive pay up, not down.

mavelikara 10y ago
> If it wasn't tipped toward foreign workers, you'd hear stories of H1B workers who sadly lost their job to an American. You don't, because when an H-1B worker loses her job, she has to leave the country or find another job real quick. Either way, she most likely do not have time to get her story across to you.