Extending H-1B visa grace period from 60 to 180 days
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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 ...
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
The evidence you gave is anecdotal. Many H1b workers were laid off during recent layoffs and scrambling to find a job in couple of weeks just to stay in the country. Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-layoffs-hit-h1b-visa-worke...
And its a temporary work visa program. People know that when they sign up.
I agree they should be give a period of time to find a new job, but when you get an H1-B visa it’s explicit that it’s temporary.
https://isss.temple.edu/faculty-staff-and-researchers/intern...
You dont even have to leave after your I-140 is approved, before the I-485 is approved.
You didnt even read your own link.
Have you been through the H1-B process?
I have.
“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?
Once you file your I-140/I-485 concurrently, and your I-140 is approved you no longer need an H1-B because you get an EAD and AP.
Hence, nobody stays on an H1-B for 10-15 years because nobody needs to. And if you lose you're H1-B you don't have to leave at that point.
I ask again, have you gone through the process? You never answered.
Let’s move to your new point, why someone selects h1b over ead? Many reasons, one is that with ead your partner is not allowed to work.
You can start from here. https://www.rnlawgroup.com/adjustment-of-status-maintaining-...
That was my entire point.
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.
That’s all from me.
And “boots on necks”? I think you have a persecution complex going on.
I encourage you to engage people on HN on a more positive note. Don't take out your frustrations on others.
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 ?
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.
How can one call this favoritism?
On top of that, you couldn't even get a visa in 2021 to enter the US because of the COVID-19 restrictions that were only loosened at the end of 2021.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
See my point above. It's already priced in.
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.
If the answer is, well we're the US and this is the law here, well...