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H-1B Visas Proving Lucrative For Engineers, Dev Leads

Nerval's Lobster (2598977) writes Ever wanted to know how much H-1B holders make per year? Developer Swizec Teller, who is about to apply for an H-1B visa, took data from the U.S. Department of Labor and visualized it in a series of graphs that break down H-1B salaries on a state-by-state basis. Teller found that the average engineer with an H-1B makes $87,000 a year, a good deal higher than developers ($74,000) and programmers ($61,000) with the same visa. ("Don't call yourself a programmer," he half-joked on Twitter.) Architects, consultants, managers, administrators, and leads with H-1Bs can likewise expect six-figure annual salaries, depending on the state and company. Teller's site is well worth checking out for the interactive graphs, which he built with React and D3.js. The debate over H-1Bs is an emotional one for many tech pros, and research into the visa's true impact on the U.S. labor market wasn't helped by the U.S. Department of Labor's recent decision to destroy H-1B records after five years. "These are the only publicly available records for researchers to analyze on the demand by employers for H-1B visas with detail information on work locations," Neil Ruiz, who researches visa issues for The Brookings Institution, told Computerworld after the new policy was announced in late 2014.

2 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Re:diff by TimSSG · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And the difference between engineer and developer is.. what?

    Engineers are often held personally liable for their mistakes. Tim S.

  2. Re: H-1B Visas Proving Awful For Americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Maybe low end in america, but they aren't staying in america. They are sending that money to their native shithole, where it will make them rich compared to the locals living on a few dollars a day. And with it they will also steal america tech secrets and bring them to our enemies like china.

    This h1b shit has to stop. Seriously.