Where Do You Stand On The Subject Of H-1B Visas?

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I understand it’s frustrating for people from backlogged who are stuck in Green card queue.

Here’s an answer from Quora

The purpose of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (Hart-Cellar Act) was to do away with the quota system based on national origins and to adopt thecurrent, more fair system which allows the same number of nationals from every country to obtain immigrant visas.

While in practice, the current system may seem unfair to those born in India, China, Mexico & the Philippines because those countries are always backlogged in the Visa Bulletin, nationals of those countries are not treated any differently by the Act than nationals of any other country; they are only backlogged because there are far more people from those countries seeking immigrant visas in the US than from any other countries in the world. Thus, the current INA is much more fair than it was prior to 1965.

The H-1B quota system was developed much more recently, it is a nonimmigrant visa rather than an immigrant visa(although with dual intent), so there is a completely separate statutory scheme for regulating it. Congress’s concerns with the H-1B program is only the overall number of people using it, not with the national origin of applicants.

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IOW, there is an immigration consideration, and not a pure employment based category :slight_smile:

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dual intent part was not in the Quora answer. I added that from google search :slight_smile:

https://www.temple.edu/isss/international/DualIntent.htm

At the end of the day it is immigration, whether family based or employment. The key basis for fairness for this immigration system that the Congress has adopted is every country in the world should have equal shot at it.

When countries which are not backlogged do not use their full quota those green cards are distributed to the backlogged countries, hence they get more than their share of GCs

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China and India have more applicants for green card because there are many more people in those countries.

As a thought experiment, would it be “fairer” if China is broken into 10 mini-Chinas and thus can send 10X more people in than is currently allowed? If not, why not?

Although I won’t call H1B’s “slaves”, but I understand and can relate to the human cost involved in the super long wait time. I was a victim myself.

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The bill set numerical restrictions on visas at 170,000 per year, with a per-country-of-origin quota.

Whether it’s fairer or not is for the US citizens & Congress to figure out.

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True, but China’s greencard backlog has reduced substantially unlike India. The reasons, I guess are more good job/career opportunities in China & better quality of life.

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I have long argued H1B’s should be granted automatic green cards. These people are already living, working and contributing to America. They are the types of people our country needs and can’t get enough of. That’s the raison d’être of the visa program.

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Or y not put a per country quota on H1B too, corresponding to the employment green card quota, to make it “fair”? See how the high tech companies will scream of injustice being metted out to them.
It seems to be a big nexus consisting of employers, immigration lawyers and uscis. H1B is the golden egg laying hen, in terms of revenue. They will just look for ways to make it lay more eggs, not chop it or set it free.
They give two hoots to employee rights and concerns.

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89

I share these sentiments :slight_smile:

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1stly, Where in Bay area do you live? Should have bought a house there. :slight_smile:
2ndly are they available :slight_smile:?
3rdly, one needs to live in other states in USA(assuming one hasn’t) to make a relative comparison.

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Don’t quote me out of context. Is a specific response to sf dragon boy.

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I wonder what you think about below NYTimes article.

Congress set up the H-1B program to help American companies hire foreigners with exceptional skills, to fill open jobs and to help their businesses grow.
But the program has been failing many American employers who cannot get visas for foreigners with the special skills they need.

Instead, the outsourcing firms are increasingly dominating the program, federal records show. In recent years, they have obtained many thousands of the visas — which are limited to 85,000 a year — by learning to game the H-1B system without breaking the rules, researchers and lawyers said.

In some years, an American employer could snag one of these coveted visas almost anytime. But recently, with the economy picking up, the outsourcing companies have sent in tens of thousands of visa requests right after the application window opens on April 1. Employers who apply after a week are out of luck.

“The H-1B program is critical as a way for employers to fill skill gaps and for really talented people to come to the United States,” said Ronil Hira, a professor at Howard University who studies visa programs. “But the outsourcing companies are squeezing out legitimate users of the program,” he said. “The H-1Bs are actually pushing jobs offshore.”

Those firms have used the visas to bring their employees, mostly from India, for large contracts to take over work at American businesses. And as the share of H-1B visas obtained by outsourcing firms has grown, more Americans say they are being put out of work, or are seeing their jobs moved overseas.

I think we should fix this abusive use of H1B system first before we talk about removing country quota on green card.
If outsourcing companies from one country takes so many H1B visa while squeezing out legitimate users of the program, how can we say that “blindly removing country quota from green card would be fairer and more beneficial to Americans than today’s system?”.

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93

Didn’t get your point. Please revise & repost your comment.
TY.

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Sfdragonboy often boasts about his hot wife. Just an oblique reference to that. No further meaning intended.

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I think that’s a separate issue. Most of these people are not applying green cards.

There are 2 quotas we are talking about:

  1. H1B quota. Nobody has touched on it here, because if you don’t have it you aren’t working here, and you won’t be coming to a Bay Area real estate site. :slight_smile:

  2. Green card quota. Some countries, most notably China and India, have extremely long line because of the per-country quota. We are talking about decade long line. So I can relate to people’s frustration. Imagine you have to be stuck in line waiting for 10 years.

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Understood

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We have been talking about “H1B->green card” path.
If H1B visas are dominantly taken by one country not by fair competition but by abusive use of system, then don’t we need to fix this problem first before we talk about letting everyone with H1B has exactly equal opportunity to green card?
As article pointed out, many many legitimate users of the program (and possibly better qualified for H1B’s original intent) are squeezed out because of gigantic outsourcing companies in one country.
If such problem is addressed, then I agree that country quota should be revisited and adjusted to achieve the best benefit of US.

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98

I am having so much fun reading you people.
You can Google anything, but the letters won’t mean anything until after you have gone through the system.
I gave hints of what some other Americans replaced by foreigners have told me. I specifically mentioned some guys in Microsoft telling me how the writing on the wall was there for them to read. It’s not a urban legend anymore, Americans have been replaced by cheap labor or something like that. I once in a while hear from some high techies how they laugh at this other guy who doesn’t know anything and they wonder how he got hired in the US?

I was told that to comply with the rules, they advertise online or on any newspaper a position “but nobody calls or inquires for that position” and here I do the blink, blink eye. Then they have complied with the rules, get it?

You, with all the due respect, as a visa holder, can scream, beach (.) and moan, but you are just a number. I said it before, immigration is something that lacks of sentimentalism. They don’t care how good you are with kids, how a good worker you are, how much love you profess for this country, they just don’t care! Be quiet, or shut up, and wait patiently for your number to be called out, that’s it! That’s what they expect from you, believe me, being there, done that. :innocent:

So, we agree that the system is rigged (where did I hear that, I don’t remember?:laughing:) And the only way out is to defeat the system with legality. If you are a single H1B visa holder, marry anybody, and by that I mean any American, and get it over with.
Had I done that in the 90s before 1996, I would be a citizen so long ago. Dumb I was! :scream:

I also believe that the qualifications to deserve a green card need to be revamped. None the less the citizenship test. 100 questions are there for you to memorize, that’s cheating to me. It took me 7 times to read one by one to learn them in one week. Then it came the interview, what’s your name and they check on the application, where you work, kids? Here and there. Then they make you write a sentence…“who was the president of the US during the civil war?”…Then you will write the answer. Done, you are in! They never sit down with you and make you talk for awhile as if you were having a conversation with your lover or your wife. It is totally ridiculous the way they accept anybody as a citizen. Pathetic I would say. I was expecting to get grilled both in knowledge of the US history and talking and writing English.
I am in, that’s what matters, right?

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99

That’s fair.

The way I understand is that most of these outsourcing companies’ H1B’s aren’t applying for green cards. They don’t have any intention to stay. Just my impression.

But getting rid of bad actors is fair. I think it’s totally within the immigration authority’s power to change the rules. Congress doesn’t to be involved. Why they don’t change is beyond me.

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@manch @Jane
Who do you think these outsourcing companies supply their H1Bs to? The big companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Verizon, Wells Fargo, etc. You think these big companies don’t know who gets the bulk of the H1Bs? Do you know that to get a H1B, these so-called outsourcing companies need a client invitation letter from these big companies stating that they need the engineer in the US to work on their project. Why are the big companies ok to provide such letters and not question these so-called outsourcing companies? Also if you already don’t know, H1B is a random lottery system.
They are not complaining because ultimately these H1Bs are needed for their projects. Thats the reason Congress or immigration authorities don’t want to touch it.
I say simply put a per country limit to H1B too, it will solve the problem, but the big companies will be severely impacted. Their lobby will never let that happen.
There are two sides of the story.
And as you all already know, this cheap labor argument is stale.

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