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Comment by rll | Hacker News Reader

And another type. Canadians with TN-1 status (and Mexicans with TN-2) will typically switch to an H-1B in order to apply for a greencard. I worked in the US for about 8 years on TN-1 status, and then switched to an H-1B for the 6 months it took to go through the accelerated greencard process.

The xenophobia also seems a little over the top on this issue. With the rather broken American education system, is it so unbelievable to people that there may actually be quite a few non-Americans that are simply better qualified for these jobs?

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> With the rather broken American education system

If the American education system is so broken, why do so many Canadians travel south to attend American colleges and universities? My wife certainly did, to get her law degree.

> is it so unbelievable to people that there may actually be quite a few non-Americans that are simply better qualified for these jobs?

That isn't unbelievable at all. However, our immigration system, as broken as it is, serves a different purpose. The H-1B visa is meant to fill jobs that cannot be filled with domestic talent. Not jobs that can be filled with superior talent. A fine difference, but still a difference.

Personally, I'm for eliminating all this visa nonsense and allowing anybody who wants to come here to do so. Then again, nobody asked me.

I also think the US education system is "broken" or close to it. Remember the recent polls saying 40% of Americans don't believe in evolution? Something is surely wrong with this picture.

It is not until college level that the US performs better than other countries. And then (for the majority of people) you would need a scholarship to be able to go.

K12 education has poor results and above that it is economically broken.

e: I don't mean this as an attack, I just want to say I can see where the grandparent is coming from.

> Remember the recent polls saying 40% of Americans don't believe in evolution? Something is surely wrong with this picture.

Yes. You actually believing that statistic. Seriously?

> It is not until college level that the US performs better than other countries.

That depends on how you define performance. If you define it by creative endeavors and behavior, I would say that's patently false.

How is it that such a poorly educated populace produces the most vibrant culture and economy on the plant? Must be a miracle.

> And then (for the majority of people) you would need a scholarship to be able to go.

The overwhelming majority take out loans or work their way through. At times, parents help out. Occasionally scholarships pay some of the way. Very rarely does a scholarship cover the entire tuition.

Why wouldn't he believe the statistic? It's a scientifically conducted poll. People answered their phone and said "Yes, I don't believe in evolution."

You could make some arguments about culture vs education but I doubt those individuals are very educated, so it's an uphill battle for you.

If someone says that the earth is 5,000 years old, you should take him at his word that he believes it.

> Re: Statistics

I do believe it. We have governors that publicly don't accept global warming as well.

> Re: Education

It's not the education but the market that creates "the most vibrant culture and economy". That's why some of those contributing to our culture and economy came to do so from abroad.

> Re: Tuition

My point is still that it is quite a large burden, whether or not one manages to delay or share the burden.

I'm not sure that it's so much "xenophobia" as the fact that companies are pretty well-known to be abusing the H1-B process right now to avoid hiring qualified Americans. The advantages for employers are quite strong, not least because H1-B holders have far less mobility and are essentially at the mercy of the employer.

I'd like to see a credible source for this. There are references to a handful of shady companies misbehaving, but I have yet to see hard facts or credible stats (I'm not saying they don't exist). On the other hand, I have seen a lot of xenophobic hysteria and comments from American "IT professionals" whom I certainly wouldn't want to work with.

In my own experience, my employer is struggling to find qualified people. We are a fast-growing startup in LA and simply cannot scale as fast as we would like (mail me if you want more info). There is no shortage of foreign applicants but, afaik, I am one of only two sponsored H1B employees.

Individuals with an H-1B can transfer employers under the AC21 rules. Many people with an H-1B simply don't know it. There's a lot of information from AILA here: http://www.aila.org/Issues/Issue.aspx?docid=12647

The problem with a transfer is that you could "reset" the employment based green card process, putting you to the back of the queue, and adding several more years, and uncertainty to the process.

This is not correct.

If you have a GC petition under processing, and switch jobs by transferring the H-1B, at the new job you will have to start the GC processing all over again. Nonetheless, you can transfer the "priority date" (PD) from the first (abandoned) GC petition to the new one.

This piece of misinformation cost me many years, so please don't spread it. I waited too long for the "right job" to come by and wasted many years. I could have started the GC petition at the first opportunity and transfered the PD as I switched jobs.

Thats why I use "could" in my post.

As mentioned by another poster, you can switch jobs if the EB category stays the same. In that sense, you do have to wait for the "right-enough" job, where they employer is willing to agree to you categorize you in EB2 or EB1 if you have a PHd.

In addition, companies/lawyers take their sweet time preparing paperwork. Which means:

PERM application in process? Can't switch jobs from 3 months to a year or more. My PERM took > 1 year to be approved. Others I know took more time.

A H1 transfer or PERM can also be autited for no good reason, and waste time for people. An audit will discourage people from switching.

I140 in process? Should I switch and waste time invested in PERM?

You can technically switch, but there is plenty of FUD to give people second thoughts.

You can only transfer the Priority Date (PD) if you have got your I-140 done with the old company and you maintained the same classification when you filed your new labor certification (LC) with the new company (EB2 -> EB2, EB3 -> EB3 ok, but EB3 -> EB2 not ok).

Your last two sentences are spot on... I am guilty of it too.

also most employers have no idea how to accomodate transfers. They're scared by any prospect of extra paperwork or even worse, consulting a lawyer. If the H1B holder was free to move about from job to job as easy as a greencard holder, then all indentured servitude and low wage abuse would cease overnight.

If you are in demand, then mobility is really not an issue. I know a friend who switched jobs within 6 months of coming here.

In the tech industry, mobility isn't as big an issue as people make out. I've successfully switched jobs on my H1B.

There are not nearly enough qualified and affordable senior level programmers in the country. We tried to hire them. Most candidates, that are senior on paper, do suck, they can't solve even medium complexity problems.

Unless you have a crazy budget, you will spend a loooong time interviewing and going through one shitty candidate after another. We've interviewed close to 60 people, hired 3 (NYC). One of the 3 turned out to be a rat who delegated all the work to other developers, and had to be let go.

In cities like NYC or SF, you need a very high salary to attract true talent.

In cities like NYC or SF, you need a very high salary to attract true talent.

Worth pointing out that one of the big problems the industry has right now is the assumption that those are the only two places to put a tech company.

Whats the going rate for a competent senior dev in NYC/SF ?

$150-200K among my friends.

Actually, there's no upper limit. We've seen some crazy examples:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/11/google-offers-staff-enginee...

LOL

If companies actually paid "$150-200K" there'd be an applicant line visible from space.

With "accelerated greencard process" do you simply mean the greencard process as it exists for people that are already employed in the US as opposed to the slower / more uncertain process for people that, for example, use the Diversity Lottery or that are employer-sponsored but not already in the US?

I am not sure how it works actually. I know the Labor Certification part was skipped entirely and I was put in some higher priority queue. Whatever they did, it took just under 7 months from start to finish.

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