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Comment by diebir | Hacker News Reader

Of course they ought to just increase the number of H1-B visas... They have always been a drop in the bucket on the technology market, even in the worst times (2001 and 2009). These are the future immigrants that we want in the US, highly educated, driven, mobile upwards and ready to buy a house. If you can't find a job or compete with H1-Bs in this economy you probably should consider another occupation. I work for a unicorn, and on on the inside we are 80% foreign born, most started as H1-B.

The whole narrative of low skilled and cheap foreign H1-Bs taking American jobs exists somewhere in a parallel universe. In reality, it is hard to find even simply qualified people, regardless of their origin.

So, stop whining and leave H1-B alone, or better increase the cap, like the article suggests. The real danger is your job simply going overseas and being done remotely.

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Why don't you just tell these people to stop whining?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/business/h-1b-visa-tech-c...

It sounds like you have a cushy gig at a Unicorn and you're projecting your status and opportunities onto everyone else.

Interestingly enough, the article you refer supports my point: the alternative to H1-B is jobs shipped overseas entirely. In fact it states that shipping jobs overseas is the end game.

The stories I hear about are very often the IT departments being outsourced. This will happen with or without H1-B. These jobs are being replaced because they are relatively low skill and easy to replace.

Or just fix the US' broken immigration system, move to a points-based system like Canada or Australia uses, and get rid of the kludges like the H1B which exist to circumvent the current system.

If you had an immigration system that prioritized highly skilled immigrants, you wouldn't need special visas. And you'd relieve pressure on the bottom 20% of the population that's being hammered by competition from low-skilled immigration, both legal and illegal.

I've worked for 2 fortune 500 companies that have brought in multiple low payed H1-b visas instead of hiring at the standard US rate. As an engineer I was part of the hiring process. All of the candidates at both places ended up being far less qualified than Wipro claimed and did a terrible job.

So it definitely happens, I'd say it happens a lot.

There are also great H1-b hires like the one I'm working with right now. He is incredibly skilled. He also cant work for another company unless he reapplies so he's stuck.

You should tell your friend he can switch. An immigration lawyer can easily advise better but he's not 'stuck' since continuing employment is not subject to the lottery. I had a friend switch last year and it was painless.

If his I-140 is approved, make sure he wont lose his line in the long long queue for the greencard. ( 10 years ). Switching H1B is not that easy as it sounds. It comes with its own set of complications depending on what stage you are in for the process of greencard.

heck ! ask him to apply Canada express entry and forget H1B. There are good IT in Canada too if he is skilled enough.

>If you can't find a job or compete with H1-Bs in this economy you probably should consider another occupation.

Their strong point is that they work for less. That's not a virtue.

This is the best article I've seen on immigration:

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-optimal-number...

cant buy a house with 80k usd in the bay area :| or 150K for that matter.

some rent, some sleep outside. whatever works.

the ones outside the bay area (of course, not all), i bet, aren't all that qualified.

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