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Comment by pav7en | Hacker News Reader

No, these 250 H1Bs are not direct petitions filed on behalf of Disney. That would've been great for Florida and the Federal govt.

What these companies do is insidious. Say, you're working for HCL in India, HCL files a H1B for you and sends you over for 6 months to the US and then you come back to India and hand over your H1B to them. Not very clear on the specifics, as I've only heard about it.

So during the time you're in the US, you don't get paid US wages for a H1B s/w engineer, which are pretty good. What you get is a stipend for those 6 months and your regular Indian salary which at the very max for the very best won't be more than $40,000 in conversion.

So these are significant savings for Disney and significant profits for HCL.

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This is wrong on several levels...

- H1B visas require that you list prevailing wage and that it's higher than the average pay for U.S. citizens in the same region. It can be manipulated to a degree, but not at scale (1000s) for a single employer.

- H1B visas are for a minimum of 3 years, not six months, during which the immigrant is forced to live and work in the U.S. (not India), thus spending and paying taxes in U.S.

This is exactly my point that I was getting at about the article - it's creating FUD about H1B immigrants and using Disney's terrible corporate policy to contribute to rumors like the ones you just said. If anything, the H1B program needs more funding for enforcement with employers, but stories like this make it seem like the program itself is the culprit.

H1B visas are for three years. it is profitable for HCL to keep the person in US on the visa, rather than have him work from India. You are wrong in saying that the person has to work in US. The salary is at least above 60K. Normally companies pay 50$/hr. The people they are replacing are normally cost to the company at least double that. The rate in India is normally above 20$/hr and employees get paid less than 6$/hr. All companies move towards lower cost areas, and that is the same thing happening here. Walmart, Apple would rather produce goods in Asia than US. Same way Disney would rather hire h1b and give the work to India.

In short these are not real H1Bs. But a glaring example of how the system is being gamed.

And also stigmatising legitimate H1Bs in the country and the American product (mostly) companies which champion their cause.

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