4 ms·

Genuine question, what type of fraudulent abuse are you referring to? I see this vaguely mentioned a lot without much to back it up, but I'm open to the idea th

by cactus2093 6y ago

Genuine question, what type of fraudulent abuse are you referring to? I see this vaguely mentioned a lot without much to back it up, but I'm open to the idea that it happens. From my own anecdotal experience, I'll admit I have found the rules to be a little ridiculous. Company needs to post a sign in the office advertising the role to any Americans, wait a certain amount of time, and only then can offer it to an H1-B candidate. Of course nobody was following the spirit of those rules, but I wouldn't call that fraudulent abuse. These were companies that needed hires and had a genuinely hard time finding people that would pass our interviews and then accept our offers. We really didn't discriminate at all in the hiring panels between American and H1-B candidates (I think we were probably supposed to discriminate more than we did, and supposed to explicitly prefer Americans?), and it had nothing to do with saving money on salaries. I recognize that the Bay Area tech boom is very unusual in how competitive it is (was?), but H1-Bs are technical visas and it's often tech companies that get the blame for abusing the system.

pwinnski 6y ago
The abuse I've seen most often is that companies hire H1B workers and then contract them out to other companies, and the H1B worker can't change employers, and gets to watch most of what their time is billed for go to the original contracting company which often misleads the people about what they'll find when they arrive. The worker ends up with very few choices, and the companies at which the workers are working are likely overpaying for what they're getting. The only one truly happy is the "placement" company that holds the workers' contracts.
- ajsnigrutin 6y ago
  ....or outright getting replaced by those workers: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff...
mdorazio 6y ago
Another semi-fraudulent practice I've seen too often: find an H1B worker for a position you want to fill at a sub-US labor rate, then write a very specific job posting that perfectly fits that one H1B worker and no one else, and post the job only on the company website where no one will find it. Congratulations, you've just "proven" that you can't find an American worker to do this job, so you bring the H1B worker over as basically an indentured servant. In reality, there were plenty of American workers who could have and would have taken the role if it was represented properly and actually paid a competitive market salary.
- breitling 6y ago
  This is happening so much in Canada right now It's horrible. Govt is not even remotely interested in fixing this
  - JAlexoid 6y ago
    Why would you like for the government to break it? It's literally telling someone that wants to hire a particular person to not hire that person, because you think that that person is wrong. Would you like me to advocate for the government telling who you hire as your barber? Advocating employment restrictions - is just that.
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  If there's someone who is willing to take a job at a particular rate without coercion - that's a competitive salary. Adding "benevolent coercion" to the mix, doesn't negate the coercion.

pwinnski 6y ago

The abuse I've seen most often is that companies hire H1B workers and then contract them out to other companies, and the H1B worker can't change employers, and gets to watch most of what their time is billed for go to the original contracting company which often misleads the people about what they'll find when they arrive. The worker ends up with very few choices, and the companies at which the workers are working are likely overpaying for what they're getting. The only one truly happy is the "placement" company that holds the workers' contracts.

ajsnigrutin 6y ago
....or outright getting replaced by those workers: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff...

mdorazio 6y ago

Another semi-fraudulent practice I've seen too often: find an H1B worker for a position you want to fill at a sub-US labor rate, then write a very specific job posting that perfectly fits that one H1B worker and no one else, and post the job only on the company website where no one will find it. Congratulations, you've just "proven" that you can't find an American worker to do this job, so you bring the H1B worker over as basically an indentured servant. In reality, there were plenty of American workers who could have and would have taken the role if it was represented properly and actually paid a competitive market salary.

breitling 6y ago
This is happening so much in Canada right now It's horrible. Govt is not even remotely interested in fixing this
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  Why would you like for the government to break it? It's literally telling someone that wants to hire a particular person to not hire that person, because you think that that person is wrong. Would you like me to advocate for the government telling who you hire as your barber? Advocating employment restrictions - is just that.
JAlexoid 6y ago
If there's someone who is willing to take a job at a particular rate without coercion - that's a competitive salary. Adding "benevolent coercion" to the mix, doesn't negate the coercion.