The title is a bit misleading. This directive seems to target 3rd party H-1B contractors such as Tata and Infosys, rather than 'High Tech' companies that directly hire engineers such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Companies that hire H-1Bs directly and employ them onsite shouldn't be affected by this policy change.<p>I think the linked CNN Money article provides a better explanation of the motives behind this change <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/23/technology/h1b-visa-abuse/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/23/technology/h1b-visa-abuse/in...</a>
Moving to temp account for this comment.<p>I have been in US for 15 yrs now. Came here for my masters and still on H-1B today. I’m one layoff away from having to uproot my family and moving back. My girls have only known this as their country.<p>I earn way above market and have paid plenty in taxes over the years. Because for tax purposes you are considered a permanent resident after 1 yr. Someone brilliant came up with this.<p>I never complained about my situation because I always have a choice to leave US and it is my decision to stay. Most in my situation feel that we deserve to be bumped up over random lottery and unskilled immigrants. I don’t because I don’t feel this entitlement. Maybe the current generation is unskilled but their future generations could go on to create a lot of value. Some even become President.<p>Finally this year I’m considering moving out of US. In media it sounds like an awesome place but a glance at the indexes show a different story (education, social security, health care, even freedom). Every time I drop my kids at school I’m worried about them. It all seems not worth it anymore.
This is a good thing.<p>And I say this as an Indian H1B worker who's actually left the US because of the broken immigration system.<p>I spent 8 years working for a big tech firm, and left the country when I realized that I was essentially never going to get a green card, despite my application being approved 4 years ago. The queue is now decades-long.<p>I worked directly for a giant tech company that you all know, and was paid a very good salary, easily at par with a US Citizen. I know of so many people who gamed the system, working in cahoots with consulting companies that exist solely to scam people.<p>Now I live in Canada, working for the same company, making the same amount of money, but as a Permanent Resident here. Life is so much simpler because I don't need to worry about capricious immigration policy, and being treated with suspicion at the border every time I fly back home.<p>Your system is broken and needs to be fixed. Now, I don't think your current administration is going to fix it, but who knows.
I was a beneficiary of an H1B in 99 from Switzerland (easily confused with Sweden that Trump wants qualified candidates from). After months of waiting I moved to the US, and got a green card five years later.<p>I’m grateful. I made my life here. But I think it’s not worth it, the America we all romanticized is long gone.
If this actually does target the outsourcing firms, eg: Tata, Infosys, Cognizant, then this is good for tech. We need more experienced foreigners and not spaghetti code shops.<p>But really, the system is broken. A lottery is a horrible way to decide value or qualifications. Let in the people who truly deserve it, not the ones who flood the system with applications.<p>Point system, please.
<i>"Let's compare the number of H-1B recipients with the 1.1 million green cards that are issued every year. Why are we quibbling over 65,000 people that corporations are trying to recruit? And the government is trying to micromanage this? It makes no sense."</i><p><a href="https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/the-incredible-shrinking-h-1b-visa-what-it-means-for-tech-companies-1706.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/the-incredible-s...</a>
The proportion of H1Bs that are employed by actual tech companies, rather than technical consulting companies, is stark[1]. Having dealt with a number of the latter batch of outfits, through our customers that have outsourced their IT work to them, I would not be sad to see their business model go away. Neither would most of our customers, who tend to be regretting the experiment and trying to bring their IT back in-house, as soon as their contracts are up.<p>I think the H1B system is dumb. Educated, highly effective workers in in-demand fields are exactly the kind of immigrants you would want to fast-track in for real citizenship, rather than exploiting them in quasi-indentured servitude. The other category I found somewhat mind-blowing was the situation of a lot of my international classmates upon graduation; educate them for four years or more at a prestigious US university, and once they graduate, kick them back home and make it difficult for them to come back.<p>[1] <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/08/03/companies-h1b-visa-holders/" rel="nofollow">http://fortune.com/2017/08/03/companies-h1b-visa-holders/</a>
I think that this is useful for companies who abuse the H1B.<p>I doubt that any of the big Four (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple) will have any problem with this, but the consulting body shops will be scrambling.<p>And, this is something else problematic for startups who want to import talent. You need to have some sort of legal/immigration department to deal with this paperwork, and most startups don't have/can't afford that.
H1b from India here and I think these rules are good. I am working in the US for the last 7 years and my green card (I-140) was approved 6 years ago. At the current pace it would take another 8 years to get my green card. It's hard for me to switch jobs, can't start any company, can't get promoted to management etc. There is uncertainty in almost all aspects of my life.<p>I am on H1b, I am not cheap labor. I get paid exorbitant amount of money for my skills. I seriously thought of moving to Canada, but because of our health issues with cold weather we could not move. I love this country, my life, prospects of success once I get my green card and quality of life that my kids would have.<p>But I am tired! I am so tired!
We're shooting ourselves in the foot <i>so hard.</i> China is expanding aggressively, and will likely be the next superpower. We need all the engineers we can get our hands on, or soon, people won't <i>want</i> citizenship here.
I always find the concept of technology worker immigration to be a rather strange scenario. How the hell can the US be so dependent upon immigrants for work when there are so many Americans wanting to work for big technology companies?<p>This begs the question: <i>Are Americans workers too incompetent at technology development?</i> If so what is the cause of that problem?
This is a major gift to the non infosys/Tata type employers. It looks good on the surface but it does nothing to address the real problem h1b causes. The power imbalance remains, the wage suppression continues, the greencard backlog remains and the government gets to wipe their hands and say they fixed it.
I think the best place for an Indian to be an entrepreneur is, surprise, surprise -- India. I faced this problem a decade ago and decided that it was better give up a green card than to give up on entrepreneurship and returned to India. I really cherish my decade in the US, and in many ways that country defined my liberal political views. But returning to India was the right decision. Still I feel sad for the this generation of smart young Indian graduates who may not be able to get the experience of working in a foreign country and really understanding its culture.
What exactly does this change? Now there's some extra paperwork? Presumably this wont be a problem for the companies already willing to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for the H-1B process.
But not the H-2B visas that Trump uses for his properties. Hmm.<p><a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/20/16003254/trump-h2b-visa-program" rel="nofollow">https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/20/16003254/t...</a>
Does this change anything ?. This is not something new. This is something that is being enforced already ( source: I am on H1 and doing this already). can somebody tell me what is different this time ?
As an Indian who suffers from discriminatory policies of Indian government(reservation based on caste, gender and physical disability), if someone offered me an option to move to US(or any other developed country for that matter), but on a salary say 3x less than avg salary of US employee, I'd most likely accept it. The grass looks greener on the other side, and there is hardly anything to lose by trying.<p>If you really want to stop people from scamming the system, you need to make the system stronger.
When is the minimum salary requirement going into effect? Trump had promised $100k minimum salary. Now, paying immigrants $100k is foolish macro economic policy, when they’ve been shown to work for substantially less. The purpose of the $100k minimum is to make the US citizens more competitive, but there’s no reason the additional money needs to go to the H1B. Instead, the additional money should be a tax (say $40k for an H1B making $60k), and that money should be earmarked for scholarships for US citizens studying in the field occupied by the H1B. This increases the labor pool, which is the justification for the H1B system in the first place, and keeps these newly minted US citizen graduates competitive against the H1B flood. The policy should be supported by the left as it helps college students and by the right as it increases the labor pool, ultimately driving down wages using domestic labor and improving trade balance by dramatically reducing money sent overseas.