3 ms·

Why this is important: Because if a tech company wants to hire a foreigner, the visa process (regardless of skill^1) is basically worse than a coin toss. Which

Why this is important: Because if a tech company wants to hire a foreigner, the visa process (regardless of skill^1) is basically worse than a coin toss. Which means companies have a much more limited pool of applicants. And let's be real, this country doesn't have nearly enough STEM professionals to meet demand. 1)Exceptions: Master's degree (another lottery), extraordinary ability (pretty tough).

jedmeyers 11y ago
My guess is that so called 'Indian consultancies' are filing 2-3 times more H1B applications than they would reasonably need in order to receive as much actual visas as they can.
- fernandotakai 11y ago
  is there any cap on how many visas one single company can apply to?
  - jedmeyers 11y ago
    No. And here, as an example, is the breakdown of visas issued per company for 2013: Rank H1B Visa Sponsor Number of LCA Average Salary 1 Infosys 16,397 $75,154 2 Wipro 7,178 $76,920 3 Tata Consultancy Services 6,732 $64,350 4 IBM 6,502 $83,883 5 Deloitte Consulting 4,727 $98,264 6 Microsoft 4,075 $109,546 7 Larsen & Toubro Infotech 3,793 $59,408 8 Accenture 2,653 $72,704 9 Ernst & Young 2,353 $86,380 10 Satyam Computer Services 2,310 $70,495 http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx *updated table formatting
    - x0x0 11y ago
      Rank H1B Visa Sponsor Number of LCA * Average Salary 1 Infosys 16,397 $75,154 2 Wipro 7,178 $76,920 3 Tata Consultancy Services 6,732 $64,350 4 IBM 6,502 $83,883 5 Deloitte Consulting 4,727 $98,264 6 Microsoft 4,075 $109,546 7 Larsen & Toubro Infotech 3,793 $59,408 8 Accenture 2,653 $72,704 9 Ernst & Young 2,353 $86,380 10 Satyam Computer Services 2,310 $70,495
    - trhway 11y ago
      it seems that 9 out of 10 are obvious "body shops" (i.e. except the MS). And speaking about "lazy government" - how one gets an LCA certified under 60K or even 70K in hi-tech? When we talk about positive case for H1B we talk about MS-like situation while it actually happens to be less than 10% of the total, with the rest of 90% looking like a "cheap labor" situation that H1B opponents talk about.
    - fernandotakai 11y ago
      that's just... dumb? i mean, if a small startup asked for a visa, it should have bigger priority than Infosys asking for a ton of them. also, why aren't visas prioritised by salary? h1b needs a reform asap :(
qdpb 11y ago
> let's be real, this country doesn't have nearly enough STEM professionals to meet demand ... at current salaries.
- luisdaniel12 11y ago
  not sure what you mean. Elaborate?
  - x0x0 11y ago
    First, you simply asserted -- without any evidence whatsoever -- that the US lacks sufficient stem professionals. Two points: 1 - plenty of stem surveys (lumping all of stem together, as you did) show plenty of available candidates as calculated by the percentage of domestic stem graduates working in stem post graduation. see, eg, http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/09/15/stem-graduates-cant-find-jobs http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/09/15/stem-gradu... 2 - if you wish to limit the discussion to sf/valley type jobs, a honest claim is there aren't sufficient already trained engineers who wish to live in sf/valley at the prices employers wish to offer who already have the desired skills. There are lots of ways to address it: pay enough so that living here isn't a financial disaster (compare housing prices in sf/nyc (much cheaper than sf!), seattle, chicago, boston, etc), solve transport problems making san jose and sf essentially separate cities, figure out remote employees, hire women (and even retain them!), train engineers, etc. 2b - even a smidge of economics will tell you it's very hard for an actual shortage to exist; there's a clear lack of evidence of wage increases (over cost of living increases) that would accompany an actual tightening of the labor market
    - prostoalex 11y ago
      > pay enough so that living here isn't a financial disaster Higher salaries and higher employment levels seem to correlate with higher, not lower, housing prices. > solve transport problems making san jose and sf essentially separate cities How would you even address that? It's run by public agencies controlled by three counties (San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara). You need to get financial commitments from all three counties, railroad unions, state agencies like CalTRANS, etc. They're bringing BART to San Jose, so maybe things are already slowly progressing in that regard.

jedmeyers 11y ago

My guess is that so called 'Indian consultancies' are filing 2-3 times more H1B applications than they would reasonably need in order to receive as much actual visas as they can.

fernandotakai 11y ago
is there any cap on how many visas one single company can apply to?
- jedmeyers 11y ago
  No. And here, as an example, is the breakdown of visas issued per company for 2013: Rank H1B Visa Sponsor Number of LCA Average Salary 1 Infosys 16,397 $75,154 2 Wipro 7,178 $76,920 3 Tata Consultancy Services 6,732 $64,350 4 IBM 6,502 $83,883 5 Deloitte Consulting 4,727 $98,264 6 Microsoft 4,075 $109,546 7 Larsen & Toubro Infotech 3,793 $59,408 8 Accenture 2,653 $72,704 9 Ernst & Young 2,353 $86,380 10 Satyam Computer Services 2,310 $70,495 http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx *updated table formatting
  - x0x0 11y ago
    Rank H1B Visa Sponsor Number of LCA * Average Salary 1 Infosys 16,397 $75,154 2 Wipro 7,178 $76,920 3 Tata Consultancy Services 6,732 $64,350 4 IBM 6,502 $83,883 5 Deloitte Consulting 4,727 $98,264 6 Microsoft 4,075 $109,546 7 Larsen & Toubro Infotech 3,793 $59,408 8 Accenture 2,653 $72,704 9 Ernst & Young 2,353 $86,380 10 Satyam Computer Services 2,310 $70,495
  - trhway 11y ago
    it seems that 9 out of 10 are obvious "body shops" (i.e. except the MS). And speaking about "lazy government" - how one gets an LCA certified under 60K or even 70K in hi-tech? When we talk about positive case for H1B we talk about MS-like situation while it actually happens to be less than 10% of the total, with the rest of 90% looking like a "cheap labor" situation that H1B opponents talk about.
  - fernandotakai 11y ago
    that's just... dumb? i mean, if a small startup asked for a visa, it should have bigger priority than Infosys asking for a ton of them. also, why aren't visas prioritised by salary? h1b needs a reform asap :(

qdpb 11y ago

> let's be real, this country doesn't have nearly enough STEM professionals to meet demand ... at current salaries.

luisdaniel12 11y ago
not sure what you mean. Elaborate?
- x0x0 11y ago
  First, you simply asserted -- without any evidence whatsoever -- that the US lacks sufficient stem professionals. Two points: 1 - plenty of stem surveys (lumping all of stem together, as you did) show plenty of available candidates as calculated by the percentage of domestic stem graduates working in stem post graduation. see, eg, http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/09/15/stem-graduates-cant-find-jobs http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/09/15/stem-gradu... 2 - if you wish to limit the discussion to sf/valley type jobs, a honest claim is there aren't sufficient already trained engineers who wish to live in sf/valley at the prices employers wish to offer who already have the desired skills. There are lots of ways to address it: pay enough so that living here isn't a financial disaster (compare housing prices in sf/nyc (much cheaper than sf!), seattle, chicago, boston, etc), solve transport problems making san jose and sf essentially separate cities, figure out remote employees, hire women (and even retain them!), train engineers, etc. 2b - even a smidge of economics will tell you it's very hard for an actual shortage to exist; there's a clear lack of evidence of wage increases (over cost of living increases) that would accompany an actual tightening of the labor market
  - prostoalex 11y ago
    > pay enough so that living here isn't a financial disaster Higher salaries and higher employment levels seem to correlate with higher, not lower, housing prices. > solve transport problems making san jose and sf essentially separate cities How would you even address that? It's run by public agencies controlled by three counties (San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara). You need to get financial commitments from all three counties, railroad unions, state agencies like CalTRANS, etc. They're bringing BART to San Jose, so maybe things are already slowly progressing in that regard.