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Comment by williamDafoe | Hacker News Reader

We have a bubble in SWE hiring in the USA, it peaked in July 2021 at 220% of normal hiring!

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 ...

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> due to the impact it will have on their lives

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...

You cant be on an H1-B for 10-15 years. It’s capped at two 3 year visas.

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.

You are not a lawyer. You are also wrong. People with green card applications are stuck for more than 10 years in visa status.

https://isss.temple.edu/faculty-staff-and-researchers/intern...

A green card isnt an H1-B and if you lose your job with a green card you dont have to leave the US.

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.

ok let’s try in small chunks see if you will understand.

“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?

Your attitude is unhelpful, and pretty annoying because you are wrong.

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.

Great. Happy that we now established that you can be on h1b for more than 6 years.

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-...

So you admit you dont need an H1-B to stay in the US once youve filed i-485?

That was my entire point.

It’s not bad to be wrong. It’s bad to not know when to stop.

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.

You ended up admitting i was right - nobody ends up on H1-B for 15 years (unless as you pointed out, they choose to be).

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.

>unless as you pointed out, they choose to be

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 ?

You cannot file the I-485 unless the date is current. This is not and has not been the case for India and China for many categories for many years. And even if you manage to get the I-485 based EAD, it is provisional in nature which has its own risks and overheads.

The visa is temporary by definition, and so you win and get the "technically correct" badge. 10 points to Gryffindor. May I interest you in the writings of Ayn Rand ?

Do you personally know any H-1Bs? Because this is a rather heartless take and shows ignorance of the hardships these people and their friends and family go through.

Respectfully, but you have no clue what you are talking about. Go talk to someone who is on h1b before making assumptions.

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?

There is a cap on H1-B every year (65k), however the majority of H1-B holders has been here for years: over 600k.

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.

> they usually are laid off as a last resort due to the impact it will have on their lives

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.

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