H-1B visas could soon be stamped inside U.S.
thehindu.com
thehindu.com
There is no shortage of talent already living in the US. There is however an interest in corporate America to fill positions at the lowest wage possible.
Nope, and nope.
If I have a software development firm, and I advertise to hire developers at $10/hour, (aside from interns), how many employees do you think I'll get? Right, I won't get many. I may want 20, but I may only get 1 or 2. I know there are developers available, but those developers want $50/hour! I don't like paying that much, so I keep my offer at $10.
Now I go around whining because "there are not enough workers". If I'm big, like Microsoft, I pay lobbyists to convince ignorant (or simply greedy) politicians that we need to create an immigration allowance so I can import workers from lower income countries. Those workers will be happy to work for me for $15/hour, because it's so much more than they earn at home. Of course as the business owner I want to hire as many of the cheaper workers as I can import.
While the H1-B topic doesn't get much attention these days, it was pretty hot in the 2005-2015 period. Evidence and consensus was that there was not a shortage of local skilled labor, and that foreign talent was not more or better suited to the tasks. There's so much out there on this topic, but here's just one example: https://www.epi.org/publication/bp359-guestworkers-high-skil...
Citation?
The fact that she needs to renew the stamp yearly allows the U.S. to keep their options open in terms of refusing to allow valid H-1B workers to re-enter for whatever arbitrary reason, such as the case of my wife. It's always been mind-boggling that this is required rather than processing it here. She had studied and worked here in the U.S. for over half a decade, had an apartment, had a car, and had a job at a U.S. headquartered company at the time she wasn't allowed back in.
This is why these stamps need to be done in the U.S. It removes a lever for the U.S. to politicize and hold hostage current H-1B holders as well as removing massive inefficiencies in the immigration processes. The fact that it isn't like that added literally years of delay in our life.
And my point is that the logistic issues about stamps are a side issue, with the real issue being the [mis|over]use of H1-B in the first place.
This also isn't just a US issue. Many (probably most) countries have fixed duration visas and will not allow you to just casually return if your visa has expired. You have to plan ahead to ensure you have renewed your visa before leaving (and even to avoid overstaying). Now if you have an automatic tourist visa which kicks in, that can provide some safety; but in some cases some countries will disallow conversion of tourist visa into any other kind of visa without leaving the country and applying. There are vast variations and combinations depending on the details of country-country.
> hold hostage current H-1B holders
I don't understand why people seem to believe that once you have a temporary right, you should be able to have that right forever after. I live abroad, and I have to go through the process and expense to renew my visa to live and work there. If circumstances change in that country, they certainly have the right to tighten up requirements to the point where I would not be allowed to renew. This it not an issue of where a renewal stamp is given.
Also, I think you’re continuing to conflate the actual H-1B visa with the stamp. You can’t get a stamp unless you have a valid visa. My wife’s H-1B was still valid and active at the time, only her stamp had expired. There are also discrepancies between how long the stamps last. Chinese stamps only last a year, whereas others countries’ last longer.
You are also incorrect about her traveling back in this instance. If her passport wasn’t held hostage by the U.S. Consulate awaiting a new stamp, she could have traveled back to the U.S. prior to the ban took effect. Even if she missed that, the U.S. Consulate held her, foreign issued mind you, passport, preventing travel to Canada on a valid visa.
The entire point is that this entire stamp process has these secondary and tertiary effects, seemingly by design, that are disconnected from the actual visas and act as an additional layer of complexity and increases the surface area for arbitrary denial separate form the actual visa process.
The visa and the stamp are two different things.
It really depends-- are the people who are buying H1Bs for "real talent needs" able to consume most/all of the available slots?
I'd expect that's really on the order of a couple thousand people a year. So they'll pay (comparatively) silly money and get their needs met.
But it looks like the quota is in the high five figures, so there are plenty left for body shops looking for cheaper junior SDEs. And you know that someone will say "now that we turned it into a revenue stream, why not 200,000?"
It changes absolutely nothing about the number of people granted or staying on H1B. Nothing to do with visa requirements, waitlists, lottery etc etc. It's just administrative.
The current system is like only being able to renew your driver's license at the exact DMV you got it, the proposal is to allow any DMV to do so. Except here the license expires every 1-2 years and the DMV is an embassy in your home country possibly a long and expensive flight away.
Other countries have rules about where things can be applied for or renewed. It's not just the US. And sometimes those rules require going back to your home country.
And since you mentioned the DMV... If I have a Texas drivers' license, I cannot renew that outside of Texas. I would have to travel back to Texas, even if I happen to be temporarily living in Hawaii.
The H1-B stamp hurdle may have been inconvenient, but many of the H1-B holders I worked with in the past would attempt to travel back home at least once a year, or if not, every other year. It is probably the rare person who leaves their family and home and does not return for years.
Anyways my only point was that you're welcome to whatever policy you like on immigration like say ban all H1Bs but this proposal seems like an awfully roundabout and dishonest way to do it. Other countries just place straightforward laws in place and stick by them. the US instead has one set of standards in law but has begun to enforce an entirely differently set with tricks like wait times, USCIS agents etc without any communication, forewarning or legislation. It's plainly dishonest. But going by the immigration numbers, you might soon get your wish anyways.
In very many cases, there are local workers to fill the need... but the companies are not willing to pay market rates. So they want to import foreign workers who will take a much lower salary. This has gone on for 20 years. https://www.infoworld.com/article/3004501/proof-that-h-1b-vi...
And in the medical industry, if there is a shortage of local doctors, it again likely means that salaries are depressed such that locals find it not worth the pay to do the job. So (highly educated) medical professionals from abroad are welcomed, as they will work hard for less money. If the the standard of living in India were the same as the US, they would not be willing to come here to earn less.
I do not suggest "throwing the doors open" to poor uneducated people. I suggest paying the local market rate for workers and hiring local workers. Those "non-existent" local workers would exist if the pay were appropriate for the work. It would not be necessary to import people.
I don't object to immigration in principle, but when it is used as a way to extract more labor for lower cost, also at the cost of local citizens having fewer job options and more competition, then I do disagree.
Many of the legal immigrants you speak of would not have been allowed to immigrate here were it not for heavy lobbying pressure from large corporations seeking cheaper workers. They created an artificial demand. And I don't believe in the policy of "well it's been that way for a long time, so it should persist". We should frequently re-evaluate our laws and our needs. If that means an immigrant needs to go back home, then so be it. I as an American who immigrated to the Netherlands must jump through hoops and pay not insignificant money to maintain or modify my work visa. And if circumstances in the Netherlands change such that there is an oversupply of tech workers, then I recognize that my opportunity to live there may end. Me living there is a privilege, not a right. Likewise is true for legal immigrants in the US.