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."

Comments

Well, that's one thing

[tietokone-olmi]

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.)

Re:Well, that's one thing

[negRo_slim]

minor economic gain is no argument for keeping a broken system intact. scrap the whole thing let citizens get proper pay and not have to compete with indentured servants.

Re:Well, that's one thing

[gfxguy]

I work for a rather large (and here nameless) entertainment company. They tried off-shoring our technical support to Romania. Our various sub-companies make a very good profit, year after year - as much of the entertainment industry, we generally weather bad economies better than most because people fall back to less expensive forms of entertainment like TV and movies rather than concerts or vacations. Why did the bean counters feel like it wasn't enough? I don't know.... but looking at numbers on paper is far different than what happens in reality.

Yes, our tech support was expensive - but responsive, fast, taking care of issues correctly the first time and right away, largely because someone could actually come to our desk and fix things. The Romania deal was a disaster. It's not that Romanians are stupid - far from it; it's that it's a lot more difficult to troubleshoot an issue from 5000 miles away than it is when you're sitting in front of the computer having problems. Then this bean counter probably got accolades and a big bonus, all the while actually COSTING the company more money in lost productivity. We have since switched back. Unfortunately, the company has already taken a number of other cost cutting measures that look good on paper, but have already started to backfire. They will not learn, they are only interested in the short term gain. Companies need more forward thinking leaders, but when CEO's get golden parachutes while driving companies into bankruptcy, it doesn't happen.

So... long story short, it is indeed valuable actually having people here. And no H1B visas needed - none of the fired tech support people were H1B, and they didn't need to be.

Re: Well, that's one thing

[sabri]

1. Employment at will. This concept is totally alien in most of the developed world.

Most at-will states have other laws protecting workers against unjust lay-offs. Try firing someone working for a large corporation in California without building a dossier and have the worker go through a Performance Improvement Plan.

At will is not "you can be fired any day".

2. No paid sick time (OK California and a few other states have made progress).

Every large corporation that I've worked for has paid sick time for all their exempt employees (and let's be honest 95% of all H1-Bs are exempt).

3. No limits on the maximum duration of the workweek. The EU's working time directive is a good start.

Luckily we do not live in the EUSSR. If I want to work 80 hours a week, that's my problem. If I don't, I can work somewhere else (H1-Bs can do that too).

4. No paid vacation or family leave. The US is quite alone here as well.

Again, every large corporation that I've worked for has their own policies for that. It may not be mandatory by law, but it is definitely offered.

5. Non-compete contracts where there is no severance pay guaranteed if you are laid off.

Which are not enforceable in a growing number of states.

6. Binding arbitration which denies your right to trial without a jury.

No, you deny that yourself when you accept the contract. You don't have to. You entered the agreement to use binding arbitration.

Re: Well, that's one thing

[thegarbz]

Every large corporation that I've worked for has paid sick time for all their exempt employees

Great when you work for a large corporation. Not so great if you're a fresh out of school kid looking for some stable income and ending up not working for multi-national who "cares" about employees.

Luckily we do not live in the EUSSR. If I want to work 80 hours a week, that's my problem.

If you want to work that will be your problem. Humans love being self destructive. Nothing says self-destruction more than volunteered unpaid overtime at the expense of your family. Oh you think employees are financially affected by this rule? Maybe you should read it before commenting.

Again, every large corporation that I've worked for has their own policies for that. It may not be mandatory by law, but it is definitely offered.

Yeah great if you're at a large corporation. You get 2 weeks, 3 if you're lucky. We'll continue to mock you from every other country. I've never seen a large employer offer you (even with some negotiation) what most other countries get as a mandatory minimum. But hey 80 hour weeks with no vacation, you sound like you're really living your life.

No, you deny that yourself when you accept the contract. You don't have to. You entered the agreement to use binding arbitration.

Is this another one of those "employees have the power to negotiate these contracts" thing that Americans are the only country who hasn't realised it rarely works out well for the employees?

But hey, all those wonderful conditions we have are voluntary. If you want to screw yourself in the name of your employer, you're more than welcome to do that in the EU too. At least healthcare will cover the result.

Re:I think I know their answer

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:I think I know their answer

[jandersen]

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.

I'm Not Buying it.

[sycodon]

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.