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I believe you have to have a viable skill/vacancy that Americans cannot fill before they let X amount of people in.
I hate to see anti-foreign posts..it's very small minded. This is the USA, and all people should have a chance. Yes, it annoys me sometimes that foreigners work while I am unemployed but obviously I can't do their jobs. Many are doctors and highly skilled people of this nature.
If you have never dealt with INS/Immigration and the requirements, let me tell you it is not 'a piece of cake' to get visas.
I have had direct experience with INS and several friends here on visas. One was a friend who I graduated college with. In her country she was a Professor of Education/English in a major University. She came back to the USA a few years later as a grad student. She was working in a Chinese restaurant scrubbing dishes.
I'll second K374 on that as I am in IT as well.
Don't buy that "exclusive skill" propaganda.
What do you call it when a newly graduated H1-B comes to the US and gets trained by a 10-15 year employee and takes over that job when the 10-15 year employee gets laid off ?
And, no they do not get comparable US salaries..there's a tier system and they usually get paid the lowest tier.
And isn't that WHY the employers do that? Isn't that WHY they fire Americans and hire foreigners, so they can pay them less? Who are we having a pity party here for? The foreigner who takes the American's job and gets paid less, or the American who loses their job after training the foreigner to do his?
Maybe I'm just so naive that I don't "get" what so many are trying to say. The visa in question is a temporary visa valid for, what, two years? I don't understand either why someone living with room-mates and taking the bus to work should be in any way considered sub-par whether they be American citizens or temporary residents on an HB1 visa. The often carefully veiled diatribe on this thread is quite cankerous.
I ask again, as I did in an earlier post on this same subject - from whence did you naysayers come? Were not your great great great or more great grandparents immigrants?
Your great and great etc grandparents probably struggled hard to make a life in America for their children under most adverse circumstances but that is how YOU are here today. Yet you seem to forget that history, as accustomed as you have become to all the trappings of a generation or two seeking to coddle the offspring and protect them from that hardship. And so we're now in America faced with the downfall of a whole generation or two who has no concept of what to do when the going gets tough.
And so the blame goes on all those darned immigrants and their darned temporary visas which of course we-all know just aren't really temporary at all because those darned corporate entities are just hiring them because they're cheap ... ad nausea.
Best to both take a closer look at yourselves before firing off in such unsavory terms, also know what the HB1 visa really means and then give a thought about your own heritage and how you ended up being even born. Cheers!
Maybe I'm just so naive that I don't "get" what so many are trying to say. The visa in question is a temporary visa valid for, what, two years? I don't understand either why someone living with room-mates and taking the bus to work should be in any way considered sub-par whether they be American citizens or temporary residents on an HB1 visa. The often carefully veiled diatribe on this thread is quite cankerous.
HB1 visas is NOT a TEMPORARY visa, once you get it, the company & you are entitled to apply for Green Card ! Also, H1B can be renewed when expires.
Plus, HB1 people laid off from company X, get hired by company Y based on the same HB1 which can be transfer from company X to Y when company Y has a number of HB1 visas.
There are seven billion people on this planet competing for the same resources. Migration is inevitable.
H1-B visas are not the basis of our economic crisis. Canceling their visas will not fix our economic problems.
H1-B visas are one leg of the process of opening the flood gates. The other leg is outsourcing jobs. This process is pushed forward by businesses (who have much power) lobbying in Washington. Their interest is simple - lowering their payroll.
I will ask why 30 years back there weren't that many H1-B visas? Why even the republican administrations of Eisenhower and Nixon didn't flood the market with so many imported workers? Why are there 12-18 million illegal aliens in the US today? (Mexico was poor in the 50s also). Why the US didn't outsource so many jobs then?
All these are due to the drastic change in US policies (over the last 30 years) and not because the globe got bigger.
HB1 visas is NOT a TEMPORARY visa, once you get it, the company & you are entitled to apply for Green Card ! Also, H1B can be renewed when expires.
Plus, HB1 people laid off from company X, get hired by company Y based on the same HB1 which can be transfer from company X to Y when company Y has a number of HB1 visas.
About H1b Visa from wiki:
"Even though the H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa, it is one of the few visa categories recognized as dual intent, meaning an H-1B holder can have legal immigration intent (apply for and obtain the green card) while still a holder of the visa. In the past the employment-based green card process used to take only a few years, less than the duration of the H-1B visa itself. However, in recent times the legal employment-based immigration process has backlogged and retrogressed to the extent that it now takes many years for skilled professional applicants from certain countries (like India, the Philippines and China) to obtain their green cards. Since the duration of the H-1B visa hasn't changed, this has meant a lot more H-1B visa holders have to renew their visas in 1 year or 3 year increments to continue to be in legal status while their green card application is in process."
Maybe I'm just so naive that I don't "get" what so many are trying to say. The visa in question is a temporary visa valid for, what, two years? I don't understand either why someone living with room-mates and taking the bus to work should be in any way considered sub-par whether they be American citizens or temporary residents on an HB1 visa. The often carefully veiled diatribe on this thread is quite cankerous.
I ask again, as I did in an earlier post on this same subject - from whence did you naysayers come? Were not your great great great or more great grandparents immigrants?
Your great and great etc grandparents probably struggled hard to make a life in America for their children under most adverse circumstances but that is how YOU are here today. Yet you seem to forget that history, as accustomed as you have become to all the trappings of a generation or two seeking to coddle the offspring and protect them from that hardship. And so we're now in America faced with the downfall of a whole generation or two who has no concept of what to do when the going gets tough.
And so the blame goes on all those darned immigrants and their darned temporary visas which of course we-all know just aren't really temporary at all because those darned corporate entities are just hiring them because they're cheap ... ad nausea.
Best to both take a closer look at yourselves before firing off in such unsavory terms, also know what the HB1 visa really means and then give a thought about your own heritage and how you ended up being even born. Cheers!
Times change. The US of 2009 with a population of 300 millions is not the 13 colonies of 1776. The US is a sovereign country that can decide every day (according to its best interest): how many immigrants it accepts, what kind of immigrants, if at all. Tomorrow, or in 2010 it can revise these policies. The fact that we are a nation of immigrants, does not necessary mean that we should keep our gates wide open and accept every person on the globe. Today there are estimates of 12-18 million illegal aliens. Does it sound normal? I spoke with people from many countries about that and they simply don't understand. There is no functioning state in the world that doesn't have control over its borders.
Because American Sheep (us) don't write, call, or email or congressman about it. If even 1 out of every 10 of us contacted our congressman, things would change.
These people are voted into office. If they allow X number of visas, and they don't hear any complaining, they think no one minds.
Instead of venting on here, send them a letter.
contact information: www.thomas.gov (as in Thomas Jefferson)
I've been complaining for years. Government does not represent we the people, and the Obamanation will be no different than the Neocons. Corporatists will not be content until labor costs are zero.
Times change. The US of 2009 with a population of 300 millions is not the 13 colonies of 1776. The US is a sovereign country that can decide every day (according to its best interest): how many immigrants it accepts, what kind of immigrants, if at all. Tomorrow, or in 2010 it can revise these policies. The fact that we are a nation of immigrants, does not necessary mean that we should keep our gates wide open and accept every person on the globe. Today there are estimates of 12-18 million illegal aliens. Does it sound normal? I spoke with people from many countries about that and they simply don't understand. There is no functioning state in the world that doesn't have control over its borders.
65,000 highly skilled university educated H1Bs is a lot different than 12-18 million largely uneducated illegal immigrants. Please. You know that 2/3rds of all startups in silicon valley are the result of immigrants, most of which were educated in America and a large percentage are alumni of the H1B system?
Also, the H1B quota now is much lower than it was 10 years ago...around half what it used to be.
Also, lawyer fees and risk (H1Bs don't always get approved so companies will sometimes "waste" money on an employee they can't keep) will to a large degree mitigate any lower salary they may be paying employees on H1B (most of them do get paid slightly less but not as much of a difference as people in this thread believe...there are other costs associated with sponsoring an employee that may not be able to stay with a company).
BTW, if all illegal immigrants (and legal ones too) were sent home the American economy and society would completely collapse. You would not have food in the supermarkets. Construction projects would halt. Most of the people in this thread are completely 100% ignorant to how much the American economy depends on immigrants...especially illegal ones. And I laugh out loud at all the people here who think that illegal immigrants are taking all their jobs like mowing lawns, butchering chickens, picking apples, killing cows, etc. Alas, most of you are too detached from society to really understand how important these jobs are to a functioning USA.
65,000 highly skilled university educated H1Bs is a lot different than 12-18 million largely uneducated illegal immigrants. Please. You know that 2/3rds of all startups in silicon valley are the result of immigrants, most of which were educated in America and a large percentage are alumni of the H1B system?
Also, the H1B quota now is much lower than it was 10 years ago...around half what it used to be.
Also, lawyer fees and risk (H1Bs don't always get approved so companies will sometimes "waste" money on an employee they can't keep) will to a large degree mitigate any lower salary they may be paying employees on H1B (most of them do get paid slightly less but not as much of a difference as people in this thread believe...there are other costs associated with sponsoring an employee that may not be able to stay with a company).
BTW, if all illegal immigrants (and legal ones too) were sent home the American economy and society would completely collapse. You would not have food in the supermarkets. Construction projects would halt. Most of the people in this thread are completely 100% ignorant to how much the American economy depends on immigrants...especially illegal ones. And I laugh out loud at all the people here who think that illegal immigrants are taking all their jobs like mowing lawns, butchering chickens, picking apples, killing cows, etc. Alas, most of you are too detached from society to really understand how important these jobs are to a functioning USA.
Firstly, regarding Silicon Valley startup companies, what are you expecting when Americans have essentially been ethnically cleansed in place of Indians? If 99.9% of Silicon Valley consisted of Norwegians, then I'd expect at least 2/3rds of all startups to have been started by Norwegians.
Attorneys are shameless in what they're doing -- there is absolutely no need whatsoever for the H-1B American replacement program. None whatsoever. The technology revolution was started by Americans, not H-1B migrants -- the H-1B vultures only showed up after the fact, and have made zero technological innovations. Ever hear of Dr. Patel, the famous immigrant inventor? Neither has anybody else.
The bottom line is that low cost H-1b invaders are not wanted here, and should probably leave while we're still being so remarkably polite about the matter.
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