Posted on 04/03/2017 1:51:55 PM PDT by Rusty0604
As Nasdaq reaches ever record-er, record highs, it seems the ability to create a "Hello World" app is no longer enough to warrant an H1-B visa according to new guidelines from the Trump administration.
the new policy guidance that would make it harder for companies to use the H-1B visa program to bring foreign computer programmers into the U.S. A policy memo from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services changes the way the agency will process visa applications for computer programming positions, making companies jump through extra hoops to fill those jobs with foreign workers...
The memorandum also does not properly explain or distinguish an entry-level position from one that is, for example, more senior, complex, specialized, or unique.
Furthermore, the memorandum also did not accurately portray essential information from the Handbook that recognized that some computer programmers qualify for these jobs with only 2-year degrees. While the memorandum did mention beneficiaries with 2-year degrees, it incorrectly described them as strictly involving the entering or review of code for an employer whose business is not computer related.
... Based on the current version of the Handbook, the fact that a person may be employed as a computer programmer and may use information technology skills and knowledge to help an enterprise achieve its goals in the course of his or her job is not sufficient to establish the position as a specialty occupation. Thus, a petitioner may not rely solely on the Handbook to meet its burden when seeking to sponsor a beneficiary for a computer programmer position. Instead, a petitioner must provide other evidence to establish that the particular position is one in a specialty occupation...
Companies use the H-1B program to import workers for highly skilled positions that are difficult to fill. The Trump administration, however, has alleged that tech companies and IT outsourcing firms have abused the program to the detriment of American workers.
The lottery for companies to apply for 2018 visas opened on Monday. Interestngly, as livemint reports, a feature film about the difficulties facing an Indian temporary work-visa holder waiting for permanent residency will be screened in 25 US cinemas on Friday, with backing from Silicon Valley investors, fuelling an already heated immigration debate.
Advocates of immigration often cite H1B success stories like Sundar Pichai of Google and Satya Nadella of Microsoft. But the work visas are controversial and critics say companies that use them the most information technology services companies with the bulk of their operations in India are hurting American workers by undercutting salaries and taking away jobs. Workers who want to gain permanent residence are treated like indentured labor, said Vivek Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon Universitys College of Engineering. If they change jobs or take a promotion, they lose their turn in line, so they end up doing menial jobs during the most productive years of their lives, he said.
I call this one of Silicon Valleys darkest secrets, said Wadhwa, who is also a director of research at Duke Universitys Pratt School of Engineering.
Good. About time
We have absolutely no lack of programmers in the US.
>>I’m sure they will be able to find Americans capable of doing a lot of these jobs. if not, our education system needs to be seriously overhauled. It needs to be anyway. <<
The one group of people on the planet that should NOT be allowed to code are Indians (call center not casino).
I worked with their crap for nearly 20 years and it is garbage. Inelegant, unsustainable, badly-written, unintelligible, Godonlyknowshowitruns, GARBAGE.
The fact this crap won’t be slung as much is a gift to unsuspecting American institutions who don’t even KNOW the timebombs they hired these people to create.
Long overdue.
When Google or Microsoft say that they can't find enough Americans at their average wage of $120 or 150K for H1Bs, they might actually be telling the truth. The problem occurs at the 65K level, where American Master's and Ph.D students would be entering the workforce. It's hard to compete against people who are pretty much forced to work 70 or more hours a week to avoid deportation, and it's hard to get promoted in a shop full of Indians or Chinese, who usually favor their countrymen. My son went through this for a couple of years at a computational sweatshop, and I believe him.
He's gone to a better place now, a startup that values his skills.
BS - they want cheap labor to exploit from people they can cut loose at anytime. It's a joke.
I agree completely.
America needs to start supporting American workers.
Big time.
I guess Venkat’s “Six-Week Java Academy” in Mumbai, conveniently located right above the dosa joint, is in trouble...
Precisely, my good FRiend.
Perhaps a few unemployed millennials might now find a useful direction?
I think America needs as many good coders as it can get. Its almost a national security issue. The more coders America has, the more high tech businesses will be American. Where it falls apart is when they are not truly high quality programmers. There are lots of Indian consulting companies who hold H1-B employees hostage. Often they are lab workers or QA (quality testers) who are not nearly as skilled. But they are cheap and because they are consultants, a company can get rid of them easily.
Trump should make the H1-B just for the best programmers and Engineers or highly skilled. And H1-Bs should not be for foreign companies that bring over employees for the purpose of low wage substitutes. H1-B should be for American companies that want to hire full time highly skilled employees at full American wages. Not sweat shop consultants.
Yes, I believe it. These big tech companies say they want immigration for humanitarian reasons, but the real reason is their bottom line. As far as employees goes, I learned that you get what you pay for.
My youngest daughter is a coder that works for an Indian owned company in Silicone Valley.
She has about 20 coders that work under her, offshore in India.
She Cleans up their work as part of her job.
Am sure other U.S. companies are doing the same.......
Wish she’d quit them and work somewhere else ....my 3. cents
My company outsourced QA to an Indian firm. I spent three months reviewing and redoing their testing, and QA isn’t even part of my official job description. Their work was that bad. The QA is back in-house now.
Exactly. And maybe our institutions of higher learning should focus on turning out more people capable of needed productive jobs instead of social justice and gender equality degrees.
All you people here and in the media completely overlook the fact that a huge and separate crime of H1-B is that thousands of people are here working in the US on these Visas that are in jobs that are not really all that technical.
I’m a senior SAP functional analyst and there are many functional analysts here in this country on H1-B and every one of them could have been filled by Americans but aren’t due mainly to driving down wages.
You have to remember that the program is not just terribly corrupt and destructive to Americans, but in several different ways.
I know what you are saying is true. It is a travesty. We need to make sure Trump hears constantly from the people and not just the tech companies.
There are a lot of Americans available and able. The people who didn’t fulfill any affirmative action quota.
I’ve been booted twice for foreign IT
I think the lack of independent testing for skills is a major problem that really shows in this H1B issue. Employers must rely too much on the reputation of colleges and the transcripts of their graduates to decide on employees with no established work history. They literally CANNOT do that for H1B hires — a list of foreign college degrees is a complete unknown and unreliable qualification.
If even American students were expected to get certifications in individual skills then employers in IT would have a better measure than just a college’s rep. Unfortunately, most of the certification courses I ever saw in my IT career were a joke — just a way to collect money from students without any honest assessment of the skills being acquired. I hired several MCSE people who couldn’t troubleshoot their way out of a paper bag. I hired coders with BS degrees from American colleges that took weeks to code what took me 1/2 day. Honest, tough, TIMED, certification testing would weed out most of these H1B foreigners who are far from “highly skilled” as the H1B requires.
As it stands, the only way to allow H1B is to require the employers put their money where their mouths are. Make the application/sponsorship fee $200K/yr on these visas. If they are that expensive, you can be sure employers will be choosy and not using them to undercut American wages.
At the same time, this H1B visa (and other work visas) does not address outsourcing jobs to foreign workers. The IRS should ascertain what foreign payments by American employers are going to pay foreign workers — and then collect Payroll Tax and Income Taxes on those payments just as though the workers were Americans.
A few thoughts. I test my applicants myself. At least all the programmers take a test. The test shows code that is wrong. And they have to make it do something different. The good ones also see and correct the problems and inefficiencies as well. They just can’t stand to leave them.
Colleges do the best testing when they accept people. I am not sure there is too much learning for the dollar after that. I hire people from certain colleges because I like that they got into the college. University of Chicago is one I love for non programmers. To go there you like to work hard. And you are not trying to get rich. You are trying to do stuff.
You are right foreign colleges are hard to understand. In India and China, a college named after a big city is very hard to get into. In India its really the field you get into. Getting into an engineering program almost anywhere in India for a named university means you are very smart and detailed. But we rely on our 3 problem test exclusively for programmers. It has served us very well for two decades.
I wish the republicans would change the tax code so that employers get a very large tax break for hiring American full-time employees who make more than $50K and less than $250. Maybe even 50% tax rebate on their salary within this range. Then we could stop with all the other garbage. Companies would hire all the American workers and try to get them over $50K. If they still hire foreigners its because they really need them.
This works better than boarder taxes. Its easier. In the end boarder taxes are supposed to help American workers. But its too easily gamed. Just make hiring American workers cost less through a big tax break.
I also want them to pay employees making over a $1 million with after tax money only (amounts to dividends). That way bonus’ would be spread to more of the staff than they are now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.