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Comment by aristus | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotally, I've found that there is a "visa discount". H1B workers are paid a lot less than you'd think by looking at these public numbers or the salaries paid to citizens.

When you can't quit without being deported, you tend not to negotiate too hard or complain when you don't get a raise.

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I've heard this many times but have yet to see it.

An H1-B holder is free to leave their employer at anytime and move company, providing that new company agree to file the change with USCIS. This can be done an unlimited number of times and is straightforward because it's not a "new" visa. Many companies will not employ a foreign national without a visa, but will happily take ones with existing H1-B's.

These transfers are common in the tech industry, at least in my experience on the west coast. Thankfully I'm now green carded and no longer have to worry about these things though :)

An H1-B holder is free to leave their employer at anytime and move company, providing that new company agree to file the change with USCIS

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I think you oversimplify ... that company has to pay about $1.5 - 3k just to file for that transfer ... and you bet they factor it in in salary negotiations, sometimes in unfair ways. They also have to think about the fact that they have to do it again in 3 years, then theres fact that if they decide to invest in you for longer than 6 years they have to pay even more money to get you a green card.

A lot of companies (smaller firms, almost all startups) will not touch H1b's with a ten foot pole ... so when a h1b applicant gets a gig, they tend to not cause ripples unless they absolutely have to, and that includes being slightly underpaid.

Long story short ... its not easy.

This only applies if deportation is a threat to you. I am a H-1B employee and I have absolutely no problems going back to my home country in an instant.

I don't know if that is the reason but my salary is definitely not discounted compared to my American co-workers.

But a lot of people from really screwed up places don't have that privilege ... there are many that would rather take a 3-$5k salary haircut than go back to their home country for any reason, because there is nothing but hard living there.

You're right. Negotiating from strength requires being willing and able to walk away.

Exactly - the issue is that "walking away" has a very literal interpretation in the context of losing visa sponsorship. You'll be "walking away" to the airport, and leaving behind an established life, your friends, colleagues and potentially even family members.

I don't think H1-B visa holders are as desperate as you think. My company got me one, but I never moved, for a bunch of reasons. Salary was 90K a few years ago, and I only had a couple of years experience. Bigger blocker though was lack of vacation days, which was tied to seniority and not really negotiable. IOW I could have negotiated higher salary, but not what I wanted. So I didn't jump.

As a class, perhaps not. All I know is from my what I observed with friends and family, mostly from Latin America, and many not in technology.

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