2 ms·

This is the singular easiest change that would make lives for H1B employees easier. Even immigration-averse countries like European ones work this way. Give us

This is the singular easiest change that would make lives for H1B employees easier. Even immigration-averse countries like European ones work this way. Give us a general work visa that let's us work for N years instead of making us puppets of the company we are currently working for.

calvinmorrison 6y ago
Isn't a H1B visa literally for a single job that's not able to be filled? It's not a work permit for working any specialist job, companies need to justify the need specifically
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  Can we stop pretending that's true? Like there are really jobs that are sooooo unique that NO Americans have the skills and only some foreign worker unicorns can fulfill them? H1Bs are just skilled worker visas, let's stop with the charade that they're anything else.
  - bgorman 6y ago
    If you want to stop that charade, you need to admit that H1Bs are frequently abused and are used to depress the salaries of American workers.
    - kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
      There is a wide gap between the two extremes of "H1B is merely abuse" and "H1B is only for Nobel prize type savants". Do you know there is no general work visa at all in America, whereby a skilled person can come based on their merit and work in the US?
      - pandaman 6y ago
        You are correct that there is no geneneral non-immigrant work visa but there are general skilled immigrant visas (EB1A and EB2-NIW).
      - dragonwriter 6y ago
        > Do you know there is no general work visa at all in America, whereby a skilled person can come based on their merit and work in the US? There are a whole lot of (both immigrant and non-immigrant) work-related skill-based visas in the US immigration system. It's true there is no one generic such visa, but that's because the US immigration systems doesn't use a small number of broad visa types but a large number of hyperspecific ones.
    - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
      > If you want to stop that charade, you need to admit that H1Bs are frequently abused and are used to depress the salaries of American workers. 100% agree, which is why I'm saying they shouldn't be tied to a single employer, which just helps employers in general acquire a more compliant, docile work force.
    - foobiekr 6y ago
      I agree with this, but the best way to fix that is to remove some of the restrictions on the H1b workers so that they are not as easy to exploit. I also favor dutch auction allocation. That, and ban all of the body shops using them. BTW, I have worked somewhere where H1b was knowingly abused and used to reduce the average wage.
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  The point is that if that particular job disappears, the visa holder, a human being, often with family, is put in a difficult circumstance which requires adjustment.

calvinmorrison 6y ago

Isn't a H1B visa literally for a single job that's not able to be filled? It's not a work permit for working any specialist job, companies need to justify the need specifically

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
Can we stop pretending that's true? Like there are really jobs that are sooooo unique that NO Americans have the skills and only some foreign worker unicorns can fulfill them? H1Bs are just skilled worker visas, let's stop with the charade that they're anything else.
- bgorman 6y ago
  If you want to stop that charade, you need to admit that H1Bs are frequently abused and are used to depress the salaries of American workers.
  - kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
    There is a wide gap between the two extremes of "H1B is merely abuse" and "H1B is only for Nobel prize type savants". Do you know there is no general work visa at all in America, whereby a skilled person can come based on their merit and work in the US?
    - pandaman 6y ago
      You are correct that there is no geneneral non-immigrant work visa but there are general skilled immigrant visas (EB1A and EB2-NIW).
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > Do you know there is no general work visa at all in America, whereby a skilled person can come based on their merit and work in the US? There are a whole lot of (both immigrant and non-immigrant) work-related skill-based visas in the US immigration system. It's true there is no one generic such visa, but that's because the US immigration systems doesn't use a small number of broad visa types but a large number of hyperspecific ones.
  - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
    > If you want to stop that charade, you need to admit that H1Bs are frequently abused and are used to depress the salaries of American workers. 100% agree, which is why I'm saying they shouldn't be tied to a single employer, which just helps employers in general acquire a more compliant, docile work force.
  - foobiekr 6y ago
    I agree with this, but the best way to fix that is to remove some of the restrictions on the H1b workers so that they are not as easy to exploit. I also favor dutch auction allocation. That, and ban all of the body shops using them. BTW, I have worked somewhere where H1b was knowingly abused and used to reduce the average wage.
wombatmobile 6y ago
The point is that if that particular job disappears, the visa holder, a human being, often with family, is put in a difficult circumstance which requires adjustment.