
H-1B Employer Data Hub - t1o5
https://www.uscis.gov/h-1b-data-hub
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protomyth
I like that they have the raw data at [https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-
studies/h-1b-employer-da...](https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-
studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub-files)

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minimaxir
Why is the file size of the 2018 data much smaller compared to the other full
years? Are there that many fewer H-1Bs?

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holy_city
Speaking anecdotally (which maybe the dataset backs up?) - yes.

Immigration bureaucracy has slowed to a crawl, processes that used to take 6
weeks are now taking 6 months. It's unfortunate, since the news only talks
about the administration's policies on undocumented immigrants and asylum
seekers, not how the administration is dragging their feet on _all_
immigration processes.

It's just not worth it to sponsor an H-1B, especially if you're a medium/small
sized company. Costs too much time and money.

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morsmodr
I am a front-end developer on an H1 visa. There is a reason for the slowdown.
A lot of companies, Indian IT or consultancy firms in the US are abusing the
H1 visa process. They use lawyers and high sounding words to make roles such
as functional/manual tester or other non-critical non-STEM roles to sound as
technical STEM based roles. IMHO these roles can be easily done by American
locals without STEM or technical background, if they have an opportunity. A
bit of process and business training is enough. Whether they do get into such
roles or not is a different ball game altogether. But the premise of H1 is to
provide visa for people with skills that the American market doesn't have.
This process is easy to abuse because people in the administration are not
tech savvy. Until people from tech in the US decide to take part in
governance, there is not much that can be done besides slowing the process a
bit so that current people who work at USCIS have the time to gauge
applications in a fair way.

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Tyrek
I feel like there's a misreading of the premise of the H-1B program here. If
you'll refer to the USCIS website here [0], you'll note that the main
prerequisites for the H-1B visa are a) Educated or Licensed b) Paid on par to
American workers c) Not impacting the pay of American workers

Upon review, it's apparent that the 'visa for people with skills that the
American market doesn't have' argument doesn't fly - the requirements only
establish that the visa holder be _competitive_ with Americans. You might be
thinking of the 'extraordinary ability' category of visas, which are O-series
(instead of the H-series of H-1Bs).

I'm also unclear on your criticism of consultancies - there's no criteria for
the job to be STEM in nature, and I don't think it's an extraordinary view to
hold that other fields may be technical/specialized. Fundamentally, very very
few employees are irreplaceable (for good reason) by someone with sufficient
motivation/training.

In defense of H-1 visa holders (especially fresh grads), I'd argue that if you
outcompete locals (on even salary conditions) through fairly rigorous
recruitment processes, overcoming the lack of local network and
cultural/language barriers _and_ survive the lottery cull, then the position
has been earned. [1].

Finally, your argument about 'having the time to gauge applications' is
absurd. Either the process was working before, or it wasn't. If the program
was compliant prior, then extending processing times is fundamentally a
violation of due process, and effectively re-interpreting existing law.

[0] [https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-
worker...](https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-
workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-dod-cooperative-research-and-development-
project-workers-and-fashion-models) [1] Fair disclosure, this was my path

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munk-a
It's that (c) that I really take issue with, H-1B workers tend to be paid
below par and their immigration status being tied to employment greatly lowers
their ability to self-advocate. I also (cynical opinion incoming) think that
companies target cultures with less emphasis on self-worth when bringing
people in on these. I think people should absolutely be able to immigrate on a
fair and just basis but I really dislike H-1Bs due to the impact that process
has on the immigrant and those around them - I'd rather we all came looking
for employment as equals.

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jogjayr
> their immigration status being tied to employment greatly lowers their
> ability to self-advocate

H1B holders are free to change employers, but the new employer has to apply
for a new visa (not subject to the cap). I've changed my job 3 times on an
H1B, always for a better role and more pay.

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pandaman
It is true for the H1B holders with the visas under 6 years. However there is
a whole class of H1Bs who had been in status for longer. They manage to extend
their status beyond 6 years based on approved I-140 and the fact that they
cannot apply for a Green Card because of the country limit. For these people
the H1B is the only available legal status and it entirely depends on the
I-140, which belongs to the employer.

Theoretically, nothing prevents them from changing jobs just like with a <6
y.o. H1B. Also, theoretically, nothing prevents the old employer from
recalling the I-140. In such a case there are, probably, ways to still retain
legal status but they are far more complicated than filing for a new H1B.

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jogjayr
> Also, theoretically, nothing prevents the old employer from recalling the
> I-140

Also untrue. Employers can only revoke I-140s within the first 6 months after
approval. After that, they can't do anything if the employee decides to leave.

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pandaman
Oh, that's a new rule from 2017, I did not know that. Worked as I described
before that though.

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hammock
Some initial analysis-

Of the top 20 employers, the average approval rate was 76%. Most of the
employers are outsourcing subcontractors or accounting firms. But there were
five employers in the top 20 with 90%+ approval rates: Microsoft, Google,
Amazon, Facebook and Apple.

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devoply
And it's a question as to whether any of these FAANG companies actually need
to hire any H1Bs considering how much money they have. How many well paying
jobs are they exporting for no good reason other than they want to keep more
money.

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throwawayjava
I can't speak for every role, but I've worked with a lot of H1B holders in
not-entry-but-not-senior positions (think $300K+ but not $500K+).

I can't think of a single case where there would be an "obvious" replacement
for that person -- not just in the US, but anywhere in the world. In fact,
most of those H1Bs I've worked with eventually end up switching to the O1
anyways (for reference, very few SWEs -- even at FAANGs -- would quality for
the O1).

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kevin_thibedeau
For every guest worker who meets the program's purpose there's 100 more
working for the minimum salary in a position that was crafted to turn away
domestic applicants.

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patrickg_zill
I don't know for sure what the ratio is, but I think that you are mostly
correct. There are some YouTube videos that show lawyers discussing how to rig
the process.

I hesitate to rely on my anecdotal experience but my opinion is that unless
they are really high level programmers or whatnot they are butts in seats.

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maerF0x0
Also related: [https://h1bdata.info/index.php](https://h1bdata.info/index.php)

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raincom
This site just gives LCA data. For every H1-B and employment based I-140,
companies need to submit LCAs. But no data on "initial/continuing
approval/denial".

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person_of_color
Does this wage include 401K?

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yalogin
Cannot wait for all the correlations and conclusions drawn from this data. I
can see people from sides of the spectrum looking into this data to understand
and make cases.

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anonu
Maybe this can help someone:

There is a total of 85,000 new H-1B visa numbers released each US Fiscal Year,
with the FY2020 beginning as of October 1, 2019.

Out of 85,000 new H-1B visa numbers, 20,000 are set aside for individuals that
graduated with a Masters or equivalent (or higher) degree here in the U.S.,
provided the university wasn’t a for-profit entity.

There is high demand for new numbers and USCIS typically receives 190K+ cases
the first week of the season (ie: April 1, 2019). Thus, each year USCIS
conducts a lottery to decide which of the cases will be processed .

The H-1B Cap lottery first step is to decide which cases will be selected for
the regular 65,000 numbers - then the lottery for the 20,000 US Advanced
Degree H-1B cap being conducted after.

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imbusy111
Looks like Tata Consultancy went down in 2018 substantially and is coming back
up again in 2019.

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shiftpgdn
Tata/Infosys executives and their ilk all belong in prison with their company
assets seized and redistributed.

There is a place for an H1B program. The effectively indentured servitude
program as it exists today has no place in America.

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screye
I understand where you come from, but that's one harsh sentiment right there.

The companies are exploiting loopholes in a system to maximize profits. It is
probably one of the softer evil things that companies do.

If anything it is the US govts fault that their lack of regulation has let
these bad actors free. You can't ezpect profit seeking companies to not act in
their interests. But you should expect your govt. to reign them in when they
go out of line.

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the_economist
Approval rates have taken a serious hit:
[https://twitter.com/typesfaster/status/1112836630589534208](https://twitter.com/typesfaster/status/1112836630589534208)

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dccoolgai
Looks like they actually started doing their job at some point.

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agrothberg
Does www.uscis.gov host employee level data along the lines of what sites like
h1bdata.info offer?

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demodddd
I dont see the name of my company in this list published. What does that mean?

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demodddd
I dont see the name of my company in this list

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Sebguer
Either you're not actually typing your company's legal name, or you're adding
a filter that's incorrect. Try removing everything except company name- and
reduce to one word if possible. Alternatively, it's possible your company has
no H1-Bs.

