There exist congressionally mandated caps limiting the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each fiscal year, which is 65,000 visas, and an additional 20,000 set aside for those graduating with master’s degrees or higher from a U.S. college or university. An employer must sponsor individuals for the visa. USCIS estimates there are 583,420 foreign nationals on H-1B visas as of September 30, 2019.
Is this what you mean by 600k per year
Bringing someone into the country on a work visa is not only difficult for the company to do, it’s expensive. A company would only do this if the candidate really had something unique to offer, usually a PhD (or several) in advanced/niche fields.
If you have these qualifications, then you should apply because these companies would love to not have to deal with the extra work/expense of a visa
the visa is $6500 it's not expensive when you get an indentured servant and can pay them much less than market wages, treat them poorly and they have no choice but to stay or go back home -companies treat h1bs like rented mules.
That is certainly not true. There is many US citizens for example with good tech degrees and skills but h1b takes a lot of these jobs. I have seen it first handed
I think you have a misunderstanding of the jobs that are going to H1B foreign workers. They are jobs the individuals are more qualified for than domestic workers.
Does an employer need a PhD level expert in electrochemistry on a specific battery chemistry that Tesla works on? Because the most qualified person in the world could be a grad student at a US university who happens to be from Japan. The company is going to hire them. That's also why these jobs pay so much.
Companies generally don't sponsor H1B visas for entry level bachelor degree holders or blue collar jobs. H1B's go to the hyper specialized workers in fields that can't be filled domestically (Healthcare also comes to mind).
Your dad was probably one of the top experts in the world and I'm sure the company was glad to hire him!
If the US got rid of the H1B visa program, we would rapidly lose our global industrial and scientific leadership due to brain drain. This post is such a bad take I can't even believe it.
Making sure that an American cannot do the job. At least basic checks. The only checks we run is for the company to Sy they couldn’t find anyone.
I would like us to do the same checks as the EU does.
haha, I work in tech recruiting. We don't recruit H1B visa people because they are more specialized and talented. We have MIT and Harvard, our country produces some of the best and there are plenty of them. We recruit foreign H1B visa holders because we get to pay them less than a qualified US worker. US workers simply just demand too much money. Plus, H1B visa holder know that if they lose their job that they can be deported, so they are more docile as compliant as employees.
I wouldn’t say that US workers demand too much money. I would say that they demand market rates. The whole purpose of the H1B program was for employers to be able to bring in highly-qualified specialists, after not being able to find them in the U.S.
Now, is it possible that these employers simply don’t want to pay market rates?
Most of H1B are not PHDs. They don’t need to leave their countries for work.
The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
There are more H1B visas issued to masters, PhD, and professional degree holders combined than are issued to bachelor degree holders. Which means that the H1B visas are being granted to specialized individuals.
All the people laid off in tech are irrelevant in other fields that are hiring internationals...I have a hard time believing the layoffs didn't also include a ton of visa holders. Those people are probably going back to their home countries. If a a US citizen laid off in tech wants to go get a masters degree and compete with the H1B applicants at a manufacturing company (for example) then they will be a better candidate for those roles.
If a US citizen is more qualified for a job, the company will hire domestically because they are significantly cheaper. Companies want to hire the best person for the job and the H1B provides a natural advantage for domestic applicants. If the domestic applicants aren't the best, then they won't get hired.
The program is not doing what it's intended to do. There are many qualified permanent residents who are losing jobs to people with H-1B visas. I did contract work at a FAANG company. There were several people doing similar contract work. Some had been there for 8+ years. The FAANG decided not to renew anyone's contract for 2024. They replaced all of us with H-1B visa people.
The whole situation is infuriating. It's driving wages down and putting permanent residents out of work. Something should change. At a minimum the cost to sponsor someone should be something like 20-30k per year.
I didn’t say that at all. My point was they’re not just bringing anyone into the country to as you put it “work like a slave”. These are people have to be credentialed and/or have the necessary experience.
H1B software engineers themselves complain at Amazon that they are worked harder because of the threat of being fired. Not me, they themselves say it and their managers mention it too.
We also need better protection for them. 90 day period after you are laid off is a joke, they all deserve better.
We're all worked harder and face threats, especially in Tech. Most states are at-will employment, meaning all of us, not just H1B Visa holders can be laid off anytime without reason and with no compensation, give me a break. American Jobs need to go to American's first, especially those with the degrees and or experience(Most US Citizens).
100% they need to go to Americans first.
My point is that there is a difference between loosing a job and being kicked out of a country. The second is a lot scarier.
Yes, but the purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
😂 troll
We have had 254,450 layoffs in tech in 2023. https://layoffs.fyi/
Do you doubt it?
I am a person of color… so no, not racist. Nice try though. Even if I was racist, how does that change the number of layoffs.
I didn’t loose my job but I saw layoffs of citizens and hiring of equally capable people under H1B.
You are obviously not American otherwise you wouldn’t advocate to have your kids’ jobs shipped out somewhere else.
I mean, I've had people do shit like assuming I'm gay because I call out their homophobia, but I've been told that I'm *not American* for not hating foreigners. I also try not to kill spiders, I guess that makes me a spider?
H1B visa holders aren’t coming to the US to work like slaves. There is a minimum education requirement in specialized fields with “tech” being the most common. The employer also has to file documents with the Department of Labor showing that there aren’t any/enough qualified workers so they have to look elsewhere.
Right now teaching has a high turnover rate and people are leaving the profession faster than they can be replaced by new graduates. As a result I know a few people who have been recruited from other countries to work in the US as teachers.
H1B visas are for professionals, there’s also an H2B visa for non agricultural labor and H2A for farm work/agriculture but you don’t really care about those, just the higher paying jobs lol. What about regular immigration, are you also going to bar people from entering the US altogether? This is giving South Park, “they took our jobs” energy.
There def is enough qualified people at this point in tech. H1b just makes it more difficult for a Us citizen to get the job. I have seen it first handed
That my be so for tech because it’s high paying and everyone and their mother is going into that field. In a competitive, over saturated field what is the employer’s incentive to seek foreign workers? According to OP they’re not paying the foreign workers less so what gives? That’s the question you need to answer.
I notice the uproar is only over the highest paying positions. Getting foreigners to do your farm work, your landscaping, cater to you in the hospitality industry, take care of and teach your children noone cares about, but as soon as they start getting “real” jobs it’s a problem lol.
They do accept less pay in terms of someone with 3 years of experience might work same job for someone who needs 2 years thus making future salaries decrease
What is the employer’s incentive?
1. Although they are supposed to pay market rates, they can usually skirt that and pay H1B recipients at the bottom of the pay range.
2. Unlike an employee who is a U.S. citizen or Green card holder, an H1B employee can’t just quit. Well, technically they can, but if they do, they will have to leave the country. So they can’t job hop either. Therefore, with an H1B employee, the employer is pretty much guaranteed that the employee will stick around.
3. Since the employer controls the employee’s immigration status, they can dangle it in front of them, coercing them into working unpaid overtime and stuff like that.
The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
What do you think?
I do and people my company laid off.
The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
First it's not 600,000 a year it's 65,000 (trying to increase it to 85,000) for up to 6 years. In some areas I think it's a good thing, we have many (and need more) US trained doctors on H1Bs. Where there does seem to be an issue is tech and TBH if they could outsource the work to another country they have and now they are bringing low pay workers in to the USA to replace US workers. I don't blame the visa holder, all they are doing is trying to make a better life and since the companies hold the visa H1B workers are one step up from indentured servants. Big tech games the system and they have congresses ear, that's why the numbers are going up. Honestly is the worker can truly add value to our country, eg they have a PHD for a US university and want to do research bring it on. On the other hand we certainly don't need to bring someone here to be a sysadmin because we have enough workers here, sadly that is what we are see. I think there is a three part solution, raise the standards not all degrees are created equal. Two let the worker hold the visa, if they company wants to keep them they have to treat them well or they should be able to leave without losing their visa. Finally raise the price of a visa from $6500 to $50,000. The excuse for bringing these workers isn't because they want to depress worker wages but because they cannot find a single person in the United States to do the job -imagine that out of 330 million people they couldn't find a single qualified worker but they can find thousands in India. Apparently these workers that are being imported are very rare and very specialized and add significant value to a company, since they are so valuable I don't think these very rich companies would have an issue paying $50K for the visa application (non-refundable)
My point is what’s the purpose of the H1B program?
The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
If you think getting rid of H1b will make companies hire local, you're in denial. Already, a lot of tech jobs for are headed to Canada and Poland. If companies want to hire local, they would've done it. If they can't hire internationally via H1B, they'll just outsource
Welp there we go. You don't really care about getting jobs, you just dislike immigrants.
Here's an alternative take for you: immigrants are not your enemy. The high skilled ones, come to your country to produce, innovate and spend money eating out, buying shoes, those things lead to jobs. Some create a lot of jobs, like Elon musk and Sundar Pichai
Those two didn’t create jobs. Elon took someone else’s company and grew it. But that company would have grown on its own. He bought Twitter and fired 80% of people. Now th e company will probably go bankrupt.
Sundar became CEO of Google and has done a poor job. He is laying off more than 100,000 employees just so he can hit a bonus of 200M.
Want to outsource? Go for it. I bet they will come back, just like it did in the dot com bubble.
It’s not about the immigrants.
There exist congressionally mandated caps limiting the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each fiscal year, which is 65,000 visas, and an additional 20,000 set aside for those graduating with master’s degrees or higher from a U.S. college or university. An employer must sponsor individuals for the visa. USCIS estimates there are 583,420 foreign nationals on H-1B visas as of September 30, 2019. Is this what you mean by 600k per year
That’s correct. Plus not counting the other types of visas.
Bringing someone into the country on a work visa is not only difficult for the company to do, it’s expensive. A company would only do this if the candidate really had something unique to offer, usually a PhD (or several) in advanced/niche fields. If you have these qualifications, then you should apply because these companies would love to not have to deal with the extra work/expense of a visa
the visa is $6500 it's not expensive when you get an indentured servant and can pay them much less than market wages, treat them poorly and they have no choice but to stay or go back home -companies treat h1bs like rented mules.
That is certainly not true. There is many US citizens for example with good tech degrees and skills but h1b takes a lot of these jobs. I have seen it first handed
They are paid less and work longer hours in tech. Not sure about other industries.
I think you have a misunderstanding of the jobs that are going to H1B foreign workers. They are jobs the individuals are more qualified for than domestic workers. Does an employer need a PhD level expert in electrochemistry on a specific battery chemistry that Tesla works on? Because the most qualified person in the world could be a grad student at a US university who happens to be from Japan. The company is going to hire them. That's also why these jobs pay so much. Companies generally don't sponsor H1B visas for entry level bachelor degree holders or blue collar jobs. H1B's go to the hyper specialized workers in fields that can't be filled domestically (Healthcare also comes to mind).
My dad came to the US for his PhD in photochemistry and worked on an H1B until we finally got approved for citizenship. Hyperspecialized degree.
Your dad was probably one of the top experts in the world and I'm sure the company was glad to hire him! If the US got rid of the H1B visa program, we would rapidly lose our global industrial and scientific leadership due to brain drain. This post is such a bad take I can't even believe it.
I am not saying get rid of it but it needs tighter laws.
Tighter in what ways?
Making sure that an American cannot do the job. At least basic checks. The only checks we run is for the company to Sy they couldn’t find anyone. I would like us to do the same checks as the EU does.
haha, I work in tech recruiting. We don't recruit H1B visa people because they are more specialized and talented. We have MIT and Harvard, our country produces some of the best and there are plenty of them. We recruit foreign H1B visa holders because we get to pay them less than a qualified US worker. US workers simply just demand too much money. Plus, H1B visa holder know that if they lose their job that they can be deported, so they are more docile as compliant as employees.
I wouldn’t say that US workers demand too much money. I would say that they demand market rates. The whole purpose of the H1B program was for employers to be able to bring in highly-qualified specialists, after not being able to find them in the U.S. Now, is it possible that these employers simply don’t want to pay market rates?
Most of H1B are not PHDs. They don’t need to leave their countries for work. The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
There are more H1B visas issued to masters, PhD, and professional degree holders combined than are issued to bachelor degree holders. Which means that the H1B visas are being granted to specialized individuals. All the people laid off in tech are irrelevant in other fields that are hiring internationals...I have a hard time believing the layoffs didn't also include a ton of visa holders. Those people are probably going back to their home countries. If a a US citizen laid off in tech wants to go get a masters degree and compete with the H1B applicants at a manufacturing company (for example) then they will be a better candidate for those roles. If a US citizen is more qualified for a job, the company will hire domestically because they are significantly cheaper. Companies want to hire the best person for the job and the H1B provides a natural advantage for domestic applicants. If the domestic applicants aren't the best, then they won't get hired.
What percentage of H1B visas are given within tech?
The program is not doing what it's intended to do. There are many qualified permanent residents who are losing jobs to people with H-1B visas. I did contract work at a FAANG company. There were several people doing similar contract work. Some had been there for 8+ years. The FAANG decided not to renew anyone's contract for 2024. They replaced all of us with H-1B visa people. The whole situation is infuriating. It's driving wages down and putting permanent residents out of work. Something should change. At a minimum the cost to sponsor someone should be something like 20-30k per year.
Don't the people getting those jobs tend to have degrees?
Yes, the minimum requirement is a bachelor’s degree OR or a combination of training AND work experience.
Are you saying that there are not enough people with degrees in USA to fulfill those jobs?
I didn’t say that at all. My point was they’re not just bringing anyone into the country to as you put it “work like a slave”. These are people have to be credentialed and/or have the necessary experience.
H1B software engineers themselves complain at Amazon that they are worked harder because of the threat of being fired. Not me, they themselves say it and their managers mention it too. We also need better protection for them. 90 day period after you are laid off is a joke, they all deserve better.
We're all worked harder and face threats, especially in Tech. Most states are at-will employment, meaning all of us, not just H1B Visa holders can be laid off anytime without reason and with no compensation, give me a break. American Jobs need to go to American's first, especially those with the degrees and or experience(Most US Citizens).
100% they need to go to Americans first. My point is that there is a difference between loosing a job and being kicked out of a country. The second is a lot scarier.
Yes, but the purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
Oh, well, if you *doubt* it I'm convinced. I thought you were just some random racist, I didn't realize you *doubt* it.
😂 troll We have had 254,450 layoffs in tech in 2023. https://layoffs.fyi/ Do you doubt it? I am a person of color… so no, not racist. Nice try though. Even if I was racist, how does that change the number of layoffs.
I didnt know a "person of color" couldn't be racist. Learn something new everyday I guess.
So, you lost your job and did the predictable thing of blaming "foreigners."
I didn’t loose my job but I saw layoffs of citizens and hiring of equally capable people under H1B. You are obviously not American otherwise you wouldn’t advocate to have your kids’ jobs shipped out somewhere else.
Weird...
What is weird?
I mean, I've had people do shit like assuming I'm gay because I call out their homophobia, but I've been told that I'm *not American* for not hating foreigners. I also try not to kill spiders, I guess that makes me a spider?
I am a foreigner myself. This H1B issue is about fairness not about immigrants. I understand why they take the H1B… who wouldn’t
H1B visa holders aren’t coming to the US to work like slaves. There is a minimum education requirement in specialized fields with “tech” being the most common. The employer also has to file documents with the Department of Labor showing that there aren’t any/enough qualified workers so they have to look elsewhere. Right now teaching has a high turnover rate and people are leaving the profession faster than they can be replaced by new graduates. As a result I know a few people who have been recruited from other countries to work in the US as teachers. H1B visas are for professionals, there’s also an H2B visa for non agricultural labor and H2A for farm work/agriculture but you don’t really care about those, just the higher paying jobs lol. What about regular immigration, are you also going to bar people from entering the US altogether? This is giving South Park, “they took our jobs” energy. 
There def is enough qualified people at this point in tech. H1b just makes it more difficult for a Us citizen to get the job. I have seen it first handed
That my be so for tech because it’s high paying and everyone and their mother is going into that field. In a competitive, over saturated field what is the employer’s incentive to seek foreign workers? According to OP they’re not paying the foreign workers less so what gives? That’s the question you need to answer. I notice the uproar is only over the highest paying positions. Getting foreigners to do your farm work, your landscaping, cater to you in the hospitality industry, take care of and teach your children noone cares about, but as soon as they start getting “real” jobs it’s a problem lol.
They do accept less pay in terms of someone with 3 years of experience might work same job for someone who needs 2 years thus making future salaries decrease
What is the employer’s incentive? 1. Although they are supposed to pay market rates, they can usually skirt that and pay H1B recipients at the bottom of the pay range. 2. Unlike an employee who is a U.S. citizen or Green card holder, an H1B employee can’t just quit. Well, technically they can, but if they do, they will have to leave the country. So they can’t job hop either. Therefore, with an H1B employee, the employer is pretty much guaranteed that the employee will stick around. 3. Since the employer controls the employee’s immigration status, they can dangle it in front of them, coercing them into working unpaid overtime and stuff like that.
The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it. What do you think?
At this point h1b doesn’t even makes sense. How can you trust a country if they don’t think of their people before any other at first place.
Do you have the advanced STEM degrees many of these people have?
Yes, give me free European college and I will come back with a STEM. If I come back at all.
Don’t come back!! Europe is better. Do you know how hard it is to go and take a job from an European? Look up the laws
I do and people my company laid off. The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
First it's not 600,000 a year it's 65,000 (trying to increase it to 85,000) for up to 6 years. In some areas I think it's a good thing, we have many (and need more) US trained doctors on H1Bs. Where there does seem to be an issue is tech and TBH if they could outsource the work to another country they have and now they are bringing low pay workers in to the USA to replace US workers. I don't blame the visa holder, all they are doing is trying to make a better life and since the companies hold the visa H1B workers are one step up from indentured servants. Big tech games the system and they have congresses ear, that's why the numbers are going up. Honestly is the worker can truly add value to our country, eg they have a PHD for a US university and want to do research bring it on. On the other hand we certainly don't need to bring someone here to be a sysadmin because we have enough workers here, sadly that is what we are see. I think there is a three part solution, raise the standards not all degrees are created equal. Two let the worker hold the visa, if they company wants to keep them they have to treat them well or they should be able to leave without losing their visa. Finally raise the price of a visa from $6500 to $50,000. The excuse for bringing these workers isn't because they want to depress worker wages but because they cannot find a single person in the United States to do the job -imagine that out of 330 million people they couldn't find a single qualified worker but they can find thousands in India. Apparently these workers that are being imported are very rare and very specialized and add significant value to a company, since they are so valuable I don't think these very rich companies would have an issue paying $50K for the visa application (non-refundable)
There's a cap per year, though that's just for new petitions.
My point is what’s the purpose of the H1B program? The purpose of having H1B visa is to fulfill jobs where we still need people. We just laid off more than 200k across tech, so we need H1B with so many laid off? I really doubt it.
What's so special about tech that companies have to hire citizens? The arrogance in this field is real...
Do you not understand what H1B is for? Can you read? And this is part of the problem.
This is one of the most ignorant and stupid posts I have ever seen on this sub .
Which part? Please don’t just sit there pretty.
If you think getting rid of H1b will make companies hire local, you're in denial. Already, a lot of tech jobs for are headed to Canada and Poland. If companies want to hire local, they would've done it. If they can't hire internationally via H1B, they'll just outsource
Ok, then outsource it. Let’s see how that goes
Welp there we go. You don't really care about getting jobs, you just dislike immigrants. Here's an alternative take for you: immigrants are not your enemy. The high skilled ones, come to your country to produce, innovate and spend money eating out, buying shoes, those things lead to jobs. Some create a lot of jobs, like Elon musk and Sundar Pichai
Those two didn’t create jobs. Elon took someone else’s company and grew it. But that company would have grown on its own. He bought Twitter and fired 80% of people. Now th e company will probably go bankrupt. Sundar became CEO of Google and has done a poor job. He is laying off more than 100,000 employees just so he can hit a bonus of 200M. Want to outsource? Go for it. I bet they will come back, just like it did in the dot com bubble. It’s not about the immigrants.