It makes no sense to keep all the unemployed H1Bs since they usually are laid off as a last resort due to the impact it will have on their lives. Since they often get favoritism in layoffs, why favor them even more?
I know many American Citizens for example a Chinese-born and naturalized guy who said in 2009 he was laid off first in a team of 18 Chinese H1Bs because the rest of the team "would have to go home!" He was not just good he was an authority on OSPF - I hired him for my startup in 2003. In 2011 he went back to Cisco in the same division at an architect (even higher) rank ...
The impact being to sell your house, car and other belongings, often for pennies and uproot your children who have only known US as their home. It's insanely cruel to want to immediately deport H1B holders who have been paying taxes for 10-15 years. And all this because Wall Street thought the profits were not high enough.
> Since they often get favoritism in layoffs, why favor them even more?
How is it a favor to give someone more time to search for jobs? That's just being considerate.
> he was laid off first in a team of 18 Chinese H1Bs because the rest of the team
ok let’s try in small chunks see if you will understand.
“AC21 § 106(a): Labor cert or I-140 filed a year or more ago
Under AC21 § 106, an H-1B nonimmigrant can receive H-1B status beyond the six-year maximum, in one-year increments, if 365 days or more have passed since either an application for Alien Labor Certification (Form ETA 750A-B or ETA 9089) or a petition for immigrant worker (Form I-140) has been filed on the alien's behalf.
The priority date in an employment-based case is the date that a labor certification application was first filed, or, for those categories exempt from the labor certification requirement, the date on which an employment-based preference petition (I-140) was filed with USCIS. Since that same date is also the referent to eligibility for this benefit, knowing the alien's priority date is a convenient way of tracking eligibility for H-1B extensions beyond 6 years.
H-1B status under this provision may be granted in one-year increments until the labor certification or I-140 is denied. If the labor certification or I-140 is approved, the individual can continue obtaining 1-year extensions thereafter, until an adjustment of status or immigrant visa application is either denied or approved.”
Do you understand the meaning of these paragraphs? Or do you need further help?
It’s not bad to be wrong. It’s bad to not know when to stop.
See the sibling comment for your answer.
P.S. I find it depressing that people like yourself who successfully got through this immigration madness keep their boots on the necks of the unlucky ones. You were not special, you were lucky.
Nobody is choosing to stay on H1B for years at end. What a ridiculous proposition. What would be the point of that ? The people who are on H1B status after a number of years are the ones who are stuck in various stages of the green card process (i140, i485, etc.) because of backlogs. There are many rules that govern the finer points of these issues, and going into them over here is futile. It is not clear what you are trying to argue. If you wish to state that people on temp visas signed up knowing about the uncertainty, that is a common enough opinion, and you can state that and that would be the end of it. Why are you picking technical points to argue where you don't possess the expertise ?
You cannot file the I-485 unless the date is current. This is not and has not been the case for India and China for many categories for many years. And even if you manage to get the I-485 based EAD, it is provisional in nature which has its own risks and overheads.
The visa is temporary by definition, and so you win and get the "technically correct" badge. 10 points to Gryffindor. May I interest you in the writings of Ayn Rand ?
Do you personally know any H-1Bs? Because this is a rather heartless take and shows ignorance of the hardships these people and their friends and family go through.
Respectfully, but you have no clue what you are talking about. Go talk to someone who is on h1b before making assumptions.
The vast majority are Chinese and Indian family people, many of them with US citizen children, stuck for decades in the green card application queue of a broken immigration system.
> they usually are laid off as a last resort due to the impact it will have on their lives
If we reduce the impact (180 days is plenty time for the kids to finish the school semester, for the house or car sale to close, etc), there will no longer be an incentive to consider immigration status when laying people off.
I’ve been renting a house in (what amounts to) an Intel/Nike company town where quite literally 70-80% of my entire neighborhood is Chinese or Indian.
Having been already aware of the abused visa program and the green card restrictions, it still didn’t prepare me for the multiple times I’ve seen neighbors’ children bawling their eyes out from getting displaced in the middle of the school year.
It’s asinine that so much attention and faux empathy is showered on the nearly 3 million people annually who decide to break the law before even getting into the country while nobody important seems to care about the problems facing the people who came here legally to quietly chase their own dreams and pay their taxes.
It's stupid there is one at all. I prefer the system Hong Kong uses for work visas. They're issued for 2-3 years and are valid till that time. If you quit, get laid off, whatever before that time your visa to stay is still valid until the original set time. You just won't be able to extend it again until you have a new job/sponsor.
Makes planning much easier by setting expectations for a certain date in the future.
I think the US is really the outlier here in having a crappy and exploitative work visa system. People should really think twice before moving to the US for such jobs, and not do things like buy houses as long as their existence there is so tenuous.
It's rare you lose it right then and there. Usually you'd have your employer extend it 2-3 months before it's due to expire. Also the immigration services usually give you several weeks extension when you explain your case/need to sort out things or will let you stay on a visitor visa (30-90 days depending on country of origin).
But the main difference for me is that you have a set date with an expectation of either leaving or extending your stay.
This is what is confusing to me as well. If it's a recommendation, it will go to USCIS and they will need to make a final decision on these recommendations right?
So will only the recommendations that are approved be announced in three months? Or will all the recommendations be approved and then announced? This part is not clear.
I spent about $125k pursuing my bachelors and masters degree in CS because my parents (who had nothing to do with my life whatsoever) made too much money, and I didn't quality for any aids or grants. It took me a decade to pay this off.
Considering guest workers usually spend almost nothing for their degrees, it seems that Americans begin their careers with a significant financial disadvantage in comparison.
Why can't people on these programs, or the employers of these people, be required to contribute to an education fund to help ensure domestic workers can compete?
>Considering guest workers usually spend almost nothing for their degrees
A majority of them do. The biggest faction of foreign workers you see in the US in tech get a Master's degree in the US. So much so that these programs would not exist if it weren't for foreign students. The MS programs are cash cows where foreign students subsidize the education for everyone else.
>Why can't people on these programs, or the employers of these people, be required to contribute to an education fund to help ensure domestic workers can compete?
So the background on this is that the grace period is a discretionary matter decided by USCIS and not a part of the legislation itself. A couple of months ago when the layoffs got past a critical threshold, people started asking for an extension in the grace period. At the time, USCIS' response was that changing the rule itself will take more than 60 days, so it's moot. Which is a bit silly since layoffs continue to happen. This recommendation to extend it though is just a recommendation, and there is no official word from USCIS on whether they are considering any change.
Paying taxes and eventually getting employed again, thus continuing to pay taxes. You would be surprised how hard someone works knowing they get a chance to stay in this country compared to someone who was born here.
That sounds exploitative, and I'm surprised seeing this kind of sentiment on Hacker News, which, from my perspective, typically is in favor of worker rights
Of course it's exploitative, but I do see a longer grace period helping alleviate the pressure that such visa holders would face.
I'm surprised that FAANG companies haven't really offered subsidized housing as long as the employees retain their jobs or meet certain performance metrics. That's another great way to ultimately exploit certain workers while seeming like a huge perk.
The "pro worker" stance here being people being unemployed losing thousand having to uproot their lives potentially with families being pulled out of schools etc?
Not much. H-1Bs are for filling in gaps in the job market. If the people can't get a job because they got laid off then we don't need these people anymore.
H1-B is intended for companies that are unable to fill a specific role within that company. It is NOT a free green card. It is NOT a free pass to citizenship.
Once that role is gone, so is their visa. This is what they agreed to. Their visa’s should be revoked. If they choose to get another visa through another company after this they have the ability to do so.
Sorry but H1-B aka corporate slavery is abominable in the first place. That it is the way it is doesn't mean it is fair or ethical. Most other countries have moved to a more humane way of dealing with foreign workers, at least qualified immigrants where you don't immediately lose your entire life that you've built because of a layoff.
If the answer is, well we're the US and this is the law here, well...
https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2023/03/was-there-a-tech-hir...
It makes no sense to keep all the unemployed H1Bs since they usually are laid off as a last resort due to the impact it will have on their lives. Since they often get favoritism in layoffs, why favor them even more?
I know many American Citizens for example a Chinese-born and naturalized guy who said in 2009 he was laid off first in a team of 18 Chinese H1Bs because the rest of the team "would have to go home!" He was not just good he was an authority on OSPF - I hired him for my startup in 2003. In 2011 he went back to Cisco in the same division at an architect (even higher) rank ...