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I think it's important to note that not all H-1B jobs are the same. There are many companies that abuse the system, and this is one of main reasons to revamp it
by airstrike 1y ago
I think it's important to note that not all H-1B jobs are the same. There are many companies that abuse the system, and this is one of main reasons to revamp it.
But there are also companies that are just looking for talent that they can't easily find in the US. I had an H-1B working in Investment Banking and was paid a high salary after business school. Most of my classmates did not want to go into banking. I was ranked a top performer year after year, put in hundred-hour weeks and provided actual value to the bank, clients, and the US economy.
Economies generally want high-skilled, high-salary immigrants. The H-1B can and should be a program for that. Literally everyone benefits.
It should also enable a path to citizenship. Right now, those high-skilled workers get a lottery with ~30% odds, another try at 40% odds if they have a graduate degree, and then six years working for Uncle Sam before they're kicked out of the country.
There's no path to a green card unless your employer chooses to sponsor you, at which point you are even more at their whims than during your H-1B stint and obviously there's a massive imbalance in that relationship.
And because I believe offering solutions is more valuable than just criticizing, here's my relative non-controversial suggestion for the program:
• Country quotas
• Minimum salary of [$175-200k/year] (pick your number)
• H-1B workers should be allowed to easily switch jobs, so long as the job is still above the minimum salary. (Giving workers flexibility reduces the possibility of abuse. Currently you have 30-days to find a job or you have to leave the country.)
• Spouses of H-1B workers (H-4 visas) should get a work permit with no minimum salary (They're currently not allowed to work at all. They don't need a salary minimum because their visa is tethered to the H-1B already, and it's better (for everyone) to have them work some job rather than no job.)
• H-1B can self-petition a green card after X years working in the US (personally I'd say 3 years, but 5 may be more palatable to the general public)
• H-1B visas should be good for 5 years instead of the current 3. They should also be allowed to extend for another 5 years, so 5+5 instead of 3+3.
- shagie 1y ago> • Minimum salary of [$175-200k/year] (pick your number) How would this impact... say... Foreign Language Instructors? https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=foreign+language+instructor&city=&year=2025 https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=foreign+language+inst... or school teachers? https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=teacher&city=&year=2025 https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=&job=teacher&city=&year=20...
- airstrike 1y agoI don't think school teachers need an H-1B. Plenty of people in the US willing to do that job. If anything, we need to restrict the supply of school teacher labor so that there's an upward pressure in salary. As for Foreign Language Instructors, I would argue that should be a different visa category altogether. Probably an O-1C type visa (which doesn't exist today). Someone with a specific skill set that is unavailable in the US by definition. But IANAL.
- shagie 1y agoI would encourage to to look at the reports from https://tsa.ed.gov/#/reports https://tsa.ed.gov/#/reports - that's "Teacher Shortage Areas" If it was the case that we needed to restrict the supply... those reports would suggest a different story. The pressure on teacher salary is more often limited by state and local government rather than the availability of teachers. There is a problem there with teacher salaries and the number of them available to hire - but making it so that it would be impossible for a school in a city in rural North Carolina to hire teachers ( https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=vance+county+public+schools&job=teacher&city=&year=2025 https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=vance+county+public+school... ) that they're having difficulty with finding people to work there isn't necessarily the answer. And to the "but they're only paying $40k - of course no one is going to work there. That's slightly above the median household income for the area (and almost twice the per capita income). There does need to be a larger discussion about the funding of education. Making it so that the schools can't hire anyone who would need a visa because they're having difficulty hiring there - I don't believe that is the right answer.
- airstrike 1y agoThe H-1B visa should not be designed as a solution for teacher shortage in America. I still think the core problem is low salaries. Comparing to median household or per capita income isn't necessarily accurate because jobs don't all place the same demands on workers, so workers don't choose solely based on income.
- bugbuddy 1y agoSo your position is: make it an even juicier deal for Indian H1Bs and screw the unemployed and underemployed Americans.
- airstrike 1y agoHow is that what you read from my suggestion? Do you really think putting a salary floor will make companies pay H-1B workers _more_ and not consider US applicants? That's literally the opposite of what would happen. Did you also ignore the country quotas bullet?
- bugbuddy 1y agoChange quota to limit and put a small number on it. Uncouple that number from the foreign country’s population size and couple it to the unemployment and underemployment rate of the CS grads in the US instead. The rest of your points is just an Indian H1B person’s wishlist.
- airstrike 1y agoI think your bias is showing and clouding your judgment. You've made the same inaccurate and bigoted point several times on this thread and I'm not sure it's added much to the conversation. I shouldn't need to say this, but I'm not Indian.
- lokar 1y agoThe point is to set the min pay to be top of market for the field. If there really are plenty of Americans available they should get hired first
- bugbuddy 1y agoGood luck with that approach. Indian tech managers in the US are some of the most biased people in the world. They will find all the missing-semi-colon reasons to not hire an American and hire an Indian H1B instead. Money is no object because it’s the company and shareholders’ money.