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US Suspends 'Expedited' H-1B Visas (sfgate.com)
"Starting April 3, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will temporarily suspend premium processing for all H-1B petitions," read Friday's announcement, which says the suspension "may last up to 6 months." Slashdot reader elrous0 sees it as part of the "ongoing efforts to curb abuses in the controversial H-1B program." The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
While it could be difficult to divorce the move Friday from the Trump administration's broader immigration crackdown, some experts believed the agency's decision to be apolitical. "It has everything to do with an understaffed, overworked, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services," said Jason Finkelman, an Austin, Texas, immigration attorney, adding that the wait time for an H-1B visa in California is currently about eight months. However, Vivek Wadhwa, an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus in NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, said the suspension seems like a message from the government that you "can't buy your way into America."
Whatever the motivation, Engadget believes this will impact large tech companies. "Financial Times quotes a lawyer saying that 'close to 100 percent' of applications from companies like Microsoft utilize the option."
Whatever the motivation, Engadget believes this will impact large tech companies. "Financial Times quotes a lawyer saying that 'close to 100 percent' of applications from companies like Microsoft utilize the option."
Let's see if this changes the division of income in affected companies to better follow market conditions.
I wouldn't expect too much of a republican administration, in that regard. (nor the other party. let's not make this a pissing match.)
Well said. Also, a lot of these jobs SHOULDN'T require 4-year degrees (which are now ridiculously expensive). Companies should pool together and fund 6-month code academies to fill these positions rather than trying to get cheap labor from outside the US.
the new POTUS labelled the "fake news" the "enemy of the American people". He did NOT say "all journalists are enemies of the people". He was attacking a media that has been relentlessly attacking him for well over a year, recently having been tallied as over 80% negative on him by media watchdogs. These so-called journalists at places like the New Your Times and Washington Post and CNN have openly admitted they were actively opposing him, and while they pretend otherwise, those outlets have been repeatedly caught lying and misleading their audiences. A journalist who tells the FACTS no matter who they report on is one thing, but a journalist who only "fact checks" ONE SIDE, who makes up factoids, makes up sources, makes up quotes, makes up events, etc is an entirely different thing and is in fact an "enemy of the American people".
Obama prosecuted more journalists, and threatened more of them, and withheld more information from them than any president before him - yet you think Trump is against Freedom of the Press? Just what has Trump ACTUALLY DONE to the press????
Obama ordered nuns to provide support for abortions, demanded Christians recognize gay marriage, fought in court to kick a German Chrsitian family out of the US because they wanted to home-school their kids, etc but non of that seems to you problematic. Trump comes along and wants the government to do extreme vetting of Muslims (a blend of a religion AND a non-democratic theistic government and laws) from regions where people with those views are slaughtering people and imposing their totalitarianism with terrorism while doing NOTHING to prevent Muslims already in the US from worshipping according to their faith and you thing Trump is the guy opposed to Freedom of Religion????
Tell me something: Which Muslim-run nation TOLERATES Judaism and Chrsitianity and Buddism and Hinduism and Atheism? Which Muslim-run nation allows Christian churches and Jewish synagogues to be built??? WHY would any sane society that believes in Freedom of Religion allow the unchecked and uncontrolled entry of huge numbers of people with that PROVEN track record in???? The first generation of people who allow Islam to become the majority in any nation is the last generation to see Freedom of Religion in that nation - becuase Islam is NOT just another religion; it's a hybrid.
I agree, but lets not forget how things have progressed so far under an administration which is taking immigration reform very seriously.
A serious plan would have required a serious plan. Trump is like the idiot Minister for Magic in Harry Potter. He had to be seen to be doing something, even if it was hauling an innocent man to jail. His first ban was amateur hour. Do you think the courts are going to forget all his campaign statements? Those are context that speak to intent. Also, the existing immigration process takes around 2 years. It was hardly the wild west. Beyond that, the recent report stated that most people that commit terrorists attacks in this country are not radicalized oversees, but instead are radicalized right here. His plan was to be "seen doing something that sounded good" with little care about actual solutions.
The EU yesterday issued a statement that US visitors may lose rights to travel without Visas to the EU. A statement which should be seen by all Americans as a blackmail attempt, but the reactionaries on the left are celebrating the threat. The reactionaries on the left applauded the moratorium on immigration being placed on TRO. The reactionaries on the left have been screaming that controlling borders is racist.
No matter how many times you try to avoid having to argue rationally by just lumping everyone as a reactionary, it, well isn't going to work, but nice try. Controlling borders isn't racist in itself. Trump clearly and by anyone's reasonably definition _is_. See his campaign, including day one. "They are rapists and murderers.." Then there is the 5 year con trying to portray Obama as other. Trump is a flat out racist. Any other conclusion is just delusion. The only other one is it is some scam to manipulate the people, but he has shot himself in the foot too often for me to believe that one, and in any case, it is not as if that is better.
The reactionaries were further applauding Mexico dumping 150 million tons of sewage claiming that the US deserved it for wanting control of it's own borders.
Haven't heard that one. Valid link? Oh well, maybe Trump shouldn't gut the EPA after all. They might be able to look into such things. If Mexico is dumping sewage, we need to work on stopping it, one way, or another.
Don't put anything type of weapon out of their reach, because thus far they have shown that they are willing to destroy and let destruction occur to achieve their end.
Trump was more than willing to destroy truth itself, to lie so frequently and so often that the average group of people could no longer agree on what objective truth is. He is not an enemy of democrats. He is an enemy of reason itself, for without objective truth, there can be no basic for any form of government. He was more than willing to let it all burn if it got him elected, and even now the fire continues to smolder.
On the bright side, it is finally waking a few news people up, so perhaps there is a small amount of hope, but then Trump has been targeting all of them too, and they are fundamental to the design of our system of government. Without a free and vibrant press, we will find it very difficult to find what really is true, and then without that democracy is dead. It becomes pure garbage in garbage out. That is the world that Trump seeks to embrace. May he fail in it. Hell just today he alleged Obama was running a rogue wiretapping operation, with no proof whatsoever. The guy treats web sites as more definitive than national intelligence estimates. Sometimes I seriously wonder about mental illness.
It is extremely incorrect assumption that these skills can be found in American citizen. I am Indian, I am currently on H1B, working for one of the top companies earning close to $180K annually. And no I don't send single cent to india. Whatever I earn goes back to American economy is some form or shape.
We have so many open positions for software engineering and it's so hard to find talented SW engineers that positions are kept open for long and we have to lower the interview bar. I have personally now interviewed close to 50 candidates on-site in past six months after initial phone screen and out of those 50 perhaps 3 made the bar.
Let me tell you this: When conservative and Republicans cry that there is no shortage of home grown STEM labor, I agree with them. What they don't realize that there is shortage of Talented people.
I have interviewed so many Americans and not one, not an effing single one made the bar. They cannot even answer simple questions like reversing link list, don't know different between swap and virtual memory etc etc.. We are so frustrated with lack of talent pool, that when I get some candidate who knows a little bit more than others he/she seems like a superstar. We get tons of resumes from Americans and foreign students, workers but only a fraction get passed phone screen and out of those fraction are good enough to get hired.
Why do you think these companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon FB etc hire H1B .. because there is shorted of Talented pool. There is no shortage of stem workers. Having CS degree from community college is fucking not same as having it from top rated school.. it fucking shows on the interview process. And based on historical data, Indian & Chinese candidates simply outperforms every single American by miles. Even then we reject those Indian and Chinese candidates because they are still not good enough.
I agree that some companies have abused the visa like TCS, Infosys etc.. and now there is this conceive notion that H1B is just about outsourcing jobs and cheap labor. This is true to some extent. Even I want reform so these outsourcing, cheap labor companies are outlawed. But this is not true for top tier companies. Google/MS etc doesnt give two shits if you are American, Indian, Martian etc .. they want top talent. My company and I both want top talent for our team and it's so difficult to find that we have to lower bar. That's why there is a constant difference of opinion between companies and general public. When MS or FB say there is shortage, they mean shortage of top talent. When public days there is not, they are talking about untalented random people with CS degrees.
I attended one of the best engineering school in US. In our class, every foreign student had same mindset: That this is big opportunity to be in one of the best schools. They treated it as a priveledge. Every American thought: I deserve this, Party, Fun time, I can drop out and be whatever I want.
Where I live, I see all Indian and Chinese kids/teens of first generation immigrants learning, going to school etc. And all I see is that American counterparts kids/teens just fucking around. And I think to myself what will become of these kids?
It's just not difference in education level or class of education which is the problem. The problem.is cultural. Immigrants who live here feel privileged and work hard. American just fuck around and expect world to be handed to them. And public wants companies who are solely motivated by profit to hire lazy incompetent people just because they are US citizens.
Solution is not to restrict or cut down on H1B visa. Solution is to make laws which prevent companies like Infosys, TCS etc to import mass labor. Solution is to let, people like me who are on H1B visa to change jobs freely, work and and let free market dictate so that companies can hire top talent. Think about it: if you had a company would you hire cheap incompetent guy? Nobody wants that.
There's a reason they want the H1Bs instead and that's because they understand the limitations of offshoring and the communication and control gaps
In part, but another side of this is that they want to drive down wages, not just for the imported workers, but for the locals as well. The more sensible way to handle this would be to require companies to pay a minimum wage, and not a universal minimum wage, but one that follows the job description or something like that. Something like that is already in place in many countries - in UK, overseas companies can get visas to transfer staff from their overseas departments, but their pay in UK must be of the right size for the job title.That way the companies can get their genuine needs for expertise met, while not being able to undercut wages for local staff.
Third World countries that still can't provide basic sanitation to their populace are highly unlikely to be producing technical talent that can't be found in the U.S.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
It depends upon what success actually means. If the U.S. "succeeds" by screwing over refugees and other immigrants, can that really be called success? If American "succeeds" by trampling basic rights and freedoms, what price success?
Almost everyone on this site sees the difference between short term "success" by MBA droids, and long term success. For the U.S. to succeed, it should never be measured by short term results, those may be very dearly bought if the long term consequences are a disaster.