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Comment by Georgelemental | Hacker News Reader

An H-1B is a temporary non-immigrant visa. You're not supposed to rely on it to build a life in the US with no backup plan; that was never the intent of the law. However, successive administrations ignored the intent of the law, for so long that people began to rely on assurances that the law never promised. Now that the law is getting applied properly, those people are facing the consequences. It sucks for them, but continuing to not have rule of law would suck worse for all of us

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H1B is explicitly a dual intent visa. You are allowed to pursue a green card while in the country on an H1B. It has been an accepted, valid path for a very long time now. If the government wishes to change that of course they can. But the humane approach would be to let those who have already started the process finish it.

You are allowed to pursue one, but the government is allowed to say no. Hence the need for a backup plan

I don't really think anyone is disputing that the government is able to change their approach to immigration (though it's telling they're doing it by just freezing appointments rather than passing a law), but that you can make changes to immigration law in a way that respects immigrants as human beings. The government is just choosing not to.

Responding to "it's cruel" with "they're allowed to do it" is kind of sidestepping the core of the complaint.

Your first sentence is factually wrong.

I highly recommend that you refrain from commenting on any immigration related topics until you can get your facts correct.

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/h-1b-spec...

> This nonimmigrant classification

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b

> The H-1B program applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens

This is a nonsense debate, really. The H1B is a non-immigrant visa but it's also dual intent so it allows you to pursue immigrant status.

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

> The doctrine of H-1B dual intent has the following legal bases:

> Unlike many nonimmigrant categories, I.N.A. § 101(a)(15)(H)(i) contains no requirement of proving there is a "residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of abandoning;"

> The H category is specifically excluded from the I.N.A. § 214(b)'s presumption of immigrant intent;

You say:

> You're not supposed to rely on it to build a life in the US with no backup plan

when in fact the visa very specifically allows it (as per the "no intention of abandoning"). People arriving in the US on an H1B visa with immigrant intent are absolutely following the law. Is it a good idea? Much more debatable. But they're not acting without precedent nor without specific legal text allowing it.

The "with no backup plan" is load-bearing*. You can pursue citizenship while on an H-1B, but there has never been a promise that the government will say yes.

*argh, why do LLMs have to ruin perfectly good words

brother H-1Bs are transparently vectors for foreign educated workers to come to the US to build lives and eventually get a green card, so the US doesn't have to actually build a functional education system.

no one talented will come pay taxes and make your nice tech companies carry the S&P500 and in turn, everyone's retirement funds, if you treat them like hogs

Thanks for the info. But the WSJ article is taking about green card appointments, not H1-Bs.

It is always possible to make rules stricter for the new applicants. While there was some complaints with visa price hikes, they were for new visas so it was okay. Denying existing legal visa holders entry or time to wrap things up doesn't seem bad to you? These are not criminals per say.

>successive administrations ignored the intent of the law, for so long that people began to rely on assurances that the law never promised. Now that the law is getting applied properly, those people are facing the consequences.

No, there's nothing proper about it and it has nothing to do with the merits of the visas in question. There is no law saying that the state department should make travel impractical for people USCIS has already decided can live/work in the US. The reverse is much more likely. They want to push people off of legally obtained visas by causing unreasonable delays.

H1B is temporary but you can have immigrant intent. It can be extended indefinitely with an approved green card application. Your employer is going to pursue that if you're on h1b and they want to keep you around. Many if not most h1b holders are in that category and will get a green card eventually. They are simply waiting for that to be available due to quotas based on their qualifications and birthplace.

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