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Let Spouses of H-1B Visa Holders Work In US, Says White House

Posted by samzenpus on from the bring-your-spouse dept.

Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Carolyn Lochhead reports in the SF Chronicle that the White House has announced a plan allowing spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the United States, a coup for Silicon Valley companies that have been calling for more lenient rules for immigrants who come to the United States to work in technology. 'The proposals announced today will encourage highly skilled, specially trained individuals to remain in the United States and continue to support U.S. businesses and the growth of the U.S. economy,' says Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. 'A concurrent goal is for the United States to maintain competitiveness with other countries that attract skilled foreign workers and offer employment authorization for spouses of skilled workers. American businesses continue to need skilled nonimmigrant and immigrant workers.'

Currently, spouses of H-1B visa holders are not allowed to work unless they obtain their own visa but tech companies have been calling for more H-1B visas, and supporters of the rule change argue that it will bring in more talented workers. Critics say they believe expanding the H-1B visa program will allow lower-paid foreign workers to take American jobs. The plan immediately drew fire from Republicans. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, accused the administration of acting unilaterally to change immigration law and bring in tens of thousands of potential competitors with Americans for jobs. 'Fifty million working-age Americans aren't working,' Sessions said in a statement, adding that as many as 'half of new technology jobs may be going to guest workers. This will help corporations by further flooding a slack labor market, pulling down wages.'"

10 of 566 comments (clear)

  1. seems like a back door by jaymz666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To getting two H1Bs for the price of one!

    These are already being abused by tech companies to force lower wages on those already legally in the USA, be they citizens or resident aliens, this will make it worse.

    1. Re:seems like a back door by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I wonder if they'll start "encouraging" their H1Bs to marry other people they want to hire now?

    2. Re: seems like a back door by alanQuatermain · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "Get a green card and move on in"? You do realize that it can take upwards of 20 years to get a green card, right? That's my case, and my father is a US Citizen. Right now I'm here on an O visa, and I've been approved for this year's H1-B lottery, so I'll soon be allowed to apply for a green card without resigning from my job. Only H1 visas allow you to work *and* immigrate. If I stayed without an H visa I could still apply, but I'd have to give up working in the US for something like 8-12 years while I wait for my application to be processed. I'm here because I'm among the best in my field. I also earn a good six-figure salary, so I'm definitely not here to help my employer cut any costs. Like it or not, there's a large global community now. You can't expect the US to compete if they can't attract the best & brightest from around the worldâ" or is it your assertion that no-one from outside the US couple possibly have anything to contribute?

    3. Re:seems like a back door by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      You can't just get a green card anymore.

      I got one relatively quickly. It took almost 7 years. Ten years is not atypical. It is not realistic to expect anybody to engage in a 7 year process to immigrate to another country unless they have a job there, and no company is going to extend a job offer for 7 years in the future no matter how qualified and irreplaceable.

      You fix green cards first, then you can drop visas. Because the role of visas is replaced by green cards (or, an alternative way to think about it, the role green cards should fill is being covered by visas).

    4. Re: seems like a back door by alanQuatermain · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My father is the son of a WW2 veteran from Colorado. Though he'd been trying to locate his father since the 1960's, none of the US institutions ever deigned to reply to him, so it was only recently that we were able to trace the family.

      A DNA test proved conclusively and beyond a doubt that my grandfather was this US citizen, and thus my father is considered to have been a US citizen since his birth in 1945.

      I'm over 21 and I'm married, so I'm third-preference Family Class. The waiting list for that one is in excess of 20 years right now, which means I could get my green card round about the age of 57. Oh, but my father can't sponsor me until he's lived in the US for five full years, so if he (age 69) moves to the US right now, then I *might* get a green card by the time I'm 62 years old and about to retire.

      That's *just* what you all want, right? For me to move here in time to retire & live off a pension? [/sarcasm]

    5. Re:seems like a back door by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Please cite this theory and the empirical validation of it.

      The citation was provided in the post that started this thread. Here it is again. It explains both the theory, and gives several historical examples. Young, educated immigrants are a boon to the overall economy.

    6. Re:seems like a back door by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, immigration actually does come knocking and will show up at various places of work and residence.

      I know because they came to a place where I work looking for someone within the past year or two. Literally a bunch of Agents just showed up asking questions.

  2. Wow seriously? by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm surprised you guys haven't revolted over this entire thing yet. Up here in Canadaland we've had something similar happen with regards to the TFW program, similar to H-1B. Shit hit the fan about 3 months ago and ever since then it's been all over the news and at the rate it's going the entire program will be dead by years end.

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    Om, nomnomnom...
  3. Re:work is survival by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    you are hitting home with me.

    I'm living in the bay area, been here over 20 yrs and I'm a software (and sometimes hardware) engineer. I rent and my lease is up in a few months from now. I lost my job several months back (large layoff at work) and I've not found a job, yet. I have savings to last me a while, but the big fear for me right now: how the hell am I going to find a new place to live (I have to leave where I'm at right now, when the lease is over) if I don't have a job at the time? and enough income shown via 'paystubs' to make a landlord want to pick me for a renter?

    in the bay area, things really can suck if you end up unemployed at the time that you choose (or are forced) to move. even with good savings and a great past history, landlords will simply pass you by! its absurd, but they all demand to see 3mos of income (at least) or they won't consider you.

    you can be good - and just a bit unlucky for a short while - and end up nearly homeless or actually homeless. its frightening. as of right now, I don't have a job and while I'm trying my best, I don't know what's going to happen when the lease time is up.

    I've lived in the US all my life and I've contributed (well, I think) to the companies I've worked for. but the past 10 years or so, I've found that its extremely hard to find jobs and everyone I'm being interviewed by is from another country. there are not a lot of americans being hired and working in the bay area and its not something that I'm imagining, either. its real. and its affecting me and my ability to keep a roof over my head; quite literally, in this case.

    we owe more to our own people - ones that were born and raised here - than we do for others. I'm sorry, but that's just how I feel. every other country has a 'take care of our own, first' ethic. I don't know why we don't also prefer to take care of our own, first.

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    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  4. Lump of Labor Fallacy is itself a Fallacy... by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... due to the law of diminishing returns... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

    H1Bs directly reduce wages of technical employees, plus they also displace local contractors who otherwise get much higher hourly rates than employees generally due to the short term nature of the projects and higher skill levels and so on. Even if there is not a lump of labor, there is such a thing as a fixed budget at any point in time.

    The US created just about zero net new jobs in the last decade while the population and the GDP grew. So, output is increasing in a 21st century economy while labor stays fixed or declines as a percent of the population.

    On top of that, it doesn't matter how much labor is needed if it can be done more cheaply by robots and AIs. And before such replace human workers entirely, they will let a few workers do the work of many, thus increasing unemployment,

    There are many possible "solutions" to this situation being tried, which I catalog here:
    http://pdfernhout.net/beyond-a...

    The real future of work is to make it play and pleasant. See Bob Black and EF Schumacher:

    Black: http://www.whywork.org/rethink...
    "What I really want to see is work turned into play. A first step is to discard the notions of a "job" and an "occupation." Even activities that already have some ludic content lose most of it by being reduced to jobs which certain people, and only those people, are forced to do to the exclusion of all else. Is it not odd that farm workers toil painfully in the fields while their air-conditioned masters go home every weekend and putter about in their gardens? Under a system of permanent revelry, we will witness the Golden Age of the dilettante which will put the Renaissance to shame. There won't be any more jobs, just things to do and people to do them."

    Schumacher: http://www.centerforneweconomi...
    "The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold: to give man a chance to utilise and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his ego-centredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence. Again, the consequences that flow from this view are endless. To organise work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence. Equally, to strive for leisure as an alternative to work would be considered a complete misunderstanding of one of the basic truths of human existence, namely that work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss of leisure."

    The 1950s short story "The Skills of Xanadu" by Theodore Sturgeon depicts a society powered by mobile computing that has realized both these objectives (especially the first).
    http://books.google.com/books?...
    https://archive.org/details/pr...

    For some comic relief see also the 1950s story "The Midas Plague" where only the very wealthy were allowed to have full-time jobs and work overtime and live in small homes, while everyone else was limited to part-time jobs as best or unemployment and forced consumption of mansions and massive amounts of food and consumer goods at worst..
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

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    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.