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Comment by qaq | Hacker News Reader

"Visa holders get one 30-minute paid consultation with an immigration attorney" wow

I think it basically means they can’t answer visa related questions so anything they can’t answer gets punted to this consult.

It’s a consideration that they’ll have lots of questions that would have been “I don’t know, go find an attorney.” So now it’s “we paid this attorney to answer you up to 30 minutes.”

Visa holders are extra hosed during layoffs, but there’s not really any way to avoid this as you can’t favor visa holders to not be laid off.

The attorney may have even paid the company. Getting 1:1 contact with hundreds of recently highly-paid clients that need your services is likely worth not only doing free but paying the company laying off for the privilege. The 30 minutes is enough for the commercial, not the actual services.

US residency being tied to employment is still so funny/ridiculous to me, as a non-American. What a raw deal for the immigrants.

> US residency being tied to employment is still so funny/ridiculous to me, as a non-American. What a raw deal for the immigrants.

That is quite common, especially in the developed world. The US is a little stricter in the timelines and thresholds it applies, but not as much more as people seem to think.

Immigrants get a raw deal everywhere, especially immigrants from developing countries.

Not true for Canada and most of EU.

> Not true for Canada and most of EU.

I don't know where you get this idea but that is absolutely not the case.

For specialized work visas it certainly is.

There are also visa in the US that have nothing to do with employment.

What country doesn’t do this?

Yes, it kind of is a raw deal for immigrants. But it’s one of many things that suck for immigrants (look at the fees immigration attorneys charge). The exchange is that they typically get a 2-5x multiplier in earnings from their home country and consider it worth the risk.

It’s kind of like med school and residency. It really sucks and is difficult and is a “raw deal” yet everyone puts up with it because of the payout.

Most countries don't. American immigration is a mess with unknown delays and archaic processing techniques. Just because the employees get a 2x multiplier in earnings doesn't mean the immigration pain is worth it.

In a land of immigrants - having such a poor immigration process for highly skilled employees will only mean that the best and the brightest talent will no longer be interested in moving to the US when they could get treated much more fairly in other countries. The result will be the workforce will be filled with mediocre and sub-par talent who are willing to go through the painful delays in the immigration process.

> Just because the employees get a 2x multiplier in earnings doesn't mean the immigration pain is worth it.

The evidence of millions of people putting up with it refutes your statement. I think the immigration record in the US shows that people literally think the pain is worth it.

I don't know of any other country that does.

I know lawyers can be verbose but surely it takes less than 30 minutes to say “you’re fucked”

Hey it's not "you're fucked!"

It's your fucked unless your true love decided today was the day to get married!

Companies often keep visa'd employees on payroll so they have more time to find another job. I personally feel this goes against the temporary intent of the visa, but it's a very common practice.

better than nothing, in my opinion. At least they were considered.

almost equal to nothing.

this is worth, like $500. would have looked better if they didn't even have this at all.

-- $500 is a lot of money --

it depends in which pockets you put the money

I'd consider this a blessing, tbh. Just the fact that there's an attorney on call that I can ask questions of, and I can talk to my friends who also talked to the consultant instead of hunting down an attorney for myself -- or more likely not and just going it alone and reading the documentation myself (I know guys who do this).

There's a lot of benefit here for those who need guidance.

Let's say there's 15 people with visas, they're probably going to have very similar conditions. The company pays a lawyer for two days of work, one full-time work day to look carefully into what options people with visa have, and another day to spend 30 minutes with each person individually to explain the situation and answer any question they might have.

If each individual goes to a lawyer and they want the same treatment, it's not going to cost them $500, it will cost them significantly more.

less than that. I see $250 as an hour for many immigration lawyers so this is like $125.

Seriously? Look at their other severance benefits.

Besides if you need an attorney for an immigration case it would be a massive amount of hours. The 30 minutes consultation is helpful to decide if you need to pursue a case.

I can't believe with all they are giving you still had to shit on it somehow.

Tell me you never dealt with US visa system without telling me you never dealt with US visa system

I've had at least half a dozen US visas (J-1, TN, H-1B, plus renewals, then EAD and now permanent residency). I would have appreciated this benefit if I'd been laid off.

The only tangible benefit would be to keep people on payroll instead of severance which would more than double the time they have available to find the next job

There's a new ruling for H-1B visa holder with I-140 approved.

What's this new ruling?

Which nice but there are a lot of H-1B visa holders without I-140 approved

I haven't, what about my point changes if I did. I acknowledged it's expensive.

I can tell you what your options are being on a visa for free. You dont need a 30 min consultation with an immigration attorney. Better benefit is instead of severance, keep employees on visa on payroll through that severance period.

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