Slashdot Mirror
Trump Administration Tightens Scrutiny of Skilled Worker Visa Applicants (inc.com)
wyattstorch516 writes: The Trump administration is tightening the scrutiny on the H-1B visa program (Warning: paywalled; alternative source). Changes would undo actions by the Obama administration. There are two big regulatory changes looming that would undo actions by the Obama administration. "The first change allowed spouses of H-1B workers the right to work. That regulation is being challenged in court and the Trump administration is expected to eliminate the provision rather than defend it," reports WSJ. "The second change affects the Optional Practical Training program, which allows foreign graduates from U.S. colleges in science and technology an extra two years of work authorization, giving them time to win an H-1B visa. The Trump administration could kill that benefit or reduce the two-year window, according to people familiar with the discussions." The Journal highlights a "series of more modest changes that have added scrutiny to visa processing":
- "USCIS directed last month that adjudicators no longer pay 'deference' to past determinations for renewal applications. This means an applicant's past approval won't carry any weight if he or she applies for a renewal.
- The agency is conducting more applicant interviews, which critics say slows the system. The agency spokesman says this process will ramp up over several years and is needed to detect fraud and make accurate decisions.
- In the spring, the agency suspended premium processing, which allowed for fast-track consideration to those who paid an extra fee. This option wasn't resumed until October, meaning many workers who qualified for a coveted H-1B visa had to wait months for a decision.
- State Department officials have been told to consider that Mr. Trump's 'Buy American, Hire American' executive order directs visa programs must 'protect the interests of United States workers.' And the Foreign Affairs Manual now instructs officers to scrutinize applications of students to ensure they plan to return to their home countries. A State Department official said the official rules haven't changed but said a 'comprehensive' review is under way."
- "USCIS directed last month that adjudicators no longer pay 'deference' to past determinations for renewal applications. This means an applicant's past approval won't carry any weight if he or she applies for a renewal.
- The agency is conducting more applicant interviews, which critics say slows the system. The agency spokesman says this process will ramp up over several years and is needed to detect fraud and make accurate decisions.
- In the spring, the agency suspended premium processing, which allowed for fast-track consideration to those who paid an extra fee. This option wasn't resumed until October, meaning many workers who qualified for a coveted H-1B visa had to wait months for a decision.
- State Department officials have been told to consider that Mr. Trump's 'Buy American, Hire American' executive order directs visa programs must 'protect the interests of United States workers.' And the Foreign Affairs Manual now instructs officers to scrutinize applications of students to ensure they plan to return to their home countries. A State Department official said the official rules haven't changed but said a 'comprehensive' review is under way."
First off, it's "President Trump" and execution of his platform is pretty much what the voters expect, isn't it? Or have we come to expect less of our voted officials?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
There's no practical way to actually force them to hire qualified US applicants. They can just make up ridiculous requirements and then wave them for the cheapest H1B that comes along. This is how it's already working. All this action could possibly do is drive up the cost of H1B workers. Most likely it won't even do that. It'll just consolidate the hiring process to some agency the Trump family profits from directly. It won't actually create more real jobs for citizens, or break the salary stagnation problem.
Now the POTUS needs to get the SCROTUSES that sit on the SCOTUS and interpret the COTUS for the POTUS to re-interpret the COTUS to protect American Jobs.
Doing so will require the support of all the ROTUSES and SOTUSES of both HOTUSES and of course the GOTUSES of the SOTUS.
If the POTUS can't do that, than why don't we just elect a cat to sit in as the POTUS.
Just in time!
Twinstiq, game news
Trump's Mar-A-Lago gets approval to hire 70 foreign workers
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trumps-mar-lago-approval-hire-70-foreign-workers-51041012
I'm a US citizen who just took a job in Japan and the system here is that once you get your visa, you can work anyone you want to work for the duration of the visa (1 year). After that time is up, your current employer has to sponsor you. It changes the dynamic because the employer knows they can't hold onto you so they they a) only invest in someone they really want and b) do what they can to make sure you are _happy_ working for them because they don't want to have to go through the whole process again. I'm not saying the system is perfect but if the company lied to me or treats me like crap I'm perfectly free to find another job (and people do).
The current US system is going to be abused as long as it let's employers enslave employees. Ethics aside, as an employer you'd have to be stupid to ignore a relatively cheap pool of labor that legally bound to you for the years it takes most people to get a green card.
Large-ish tech company (ASIC design), headquarters in SV, but we're a satellite office elsewhere. Of maybe 40 people, I'd wager at least a third are H1B, and probably a quarter are on OTP. And we're growing and still hiring.
We've posted and solicited all over, websites LinkedIn, colleges, etc. We just can't get very many American applications. No idea why, but we hire from the pool of applicants, so we have lots of talented H1Bs. If this goes through, our applicant pool is going to get even smaller.
It really is a fitting symbol of the insane level of polarization in US politics that an article simply reporting on what the administration is doing is labeled 'anti-Trump clickbait'. Hint: If reporting on the actions of your president counts as 'anti-Trump', that should tell you a lot about the level of competence of Trump and his suitability to rule.
But nah, better just to shut your ears and yell about boycotts and witch hunts, right? Reminds me of Gollum from the Lord of The Rings. 'Filthy mediases, reporting on what is happening. We hates it, we hates it, precious!"
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
Even though the U.S. citizens did not elect him
President Trump is our constitutionally elected president. If you don't like the process spelled out in our Constitution, feel free to start the amendment process.
Failing that, feel free to leave.
Immigration law is just that - law. Enforcing the law is the job of the executive branch. I see nothing wrong with enforcing the laws on the books. If you don't like the law - work with your congresscritter to change the law.
For businesses claiming a "shortage of talent" - I want to ask one question: How many internships and apprenticeships have you sponsored? I'm not talking about running-for-coffee internships. I'm talking about partnering with one or two local engineering colleges, taking a couple of prospective grads and training them to do the highly skilled work that you want done.
Too many businesses complain about a talent shortage, do nothing to solve the problem, and then ask for Government to solve the problem for them.
You may like (or not like) German immigration policy - but you can not also ignore the fact that Germany integrates training for their skilled workforce into the education of that workforce - and the on-the-job training is done by the industries that need the talent.
If you aren't doing anything to try and fix the problem, you have no right to complain about it.
There are two optional practical trainings possible for students admitted to accredited US universities. Curricular Practical Training that happens before graduation. and Optional Practical Training, that happens after graduation. Both are limited to 12 months. In addition for STEM graduates, there is an additional 15 month extension to the OPT, allowing them 27 months of work permit, and if you include CPT, an F1 student can work for 39 months in USA.
This news item seems to suggest the 15 month additional time give to STEM graduates is going to be taken away.
I have seen the abuse of CPT and OPT. Mostly in non science fields. People enroll in a 12 month "executive MBA" programs in cheap less popular state schools, (heard of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, or University of California at Washington PA? these legit PA state schools with low fee), and game the system to work get 24 months and sometimes wangle another 15 month by showing their STEM undergrad degree from some diploma mill in India.
On the other hand, people coming to USA, be eligible to enroll in legitimate accredited US univ, with a genuine STEM program and get the degree and get to work in USA are the good kind of immigrants/workers we Americans should seek to encourage.
What we need to really fight is the way the body shopping Indian companies like TCS or Wipro or Infosys or their American counter parts Accenture, Syntel, iGate who game the system by claiming degrees from Indian Diploma mills to be equivalent to American Accredited university degrees. This is the abuse we should fight. Any Indian, Chinese, or any one, who struggles through GRE the way my kids do, and do a genuine Masters should be welcomed.
But the body shopping companies have the money to spend of lawyers to game the system, and the unorganized students from foreign countries can't match them.
Think about what we are doing here, we recruit smart people from all over the world, give them an American standard education, insight into American way of doing things, and then send them back. At the same time, we allow low quality graduates from Indian diploma mills to flood our system depressing the wages of Americans.
Can we be more insane than this? The incredible stupidity of our system astounds me.
I am from India, now I am an American and as American I want the next generation of me from India. Not the TCS dummies.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Americans sometimes wonder why real wages have stayed stagnant since the 1960s. The simple answer is supply and demand: in response to the toxic effect of unions, businesses have been lobbying for us to dump more people into the workforce. This increases supply and thus reduces wages, which allows business to counter-act unions. We have been flooding the workforce since the 1960s with women, Hart-Cellar Act third world labor, illegal immigrants, H1Bs, and now digital helpers like computers and (soon) robots. Each one of these dumps cuts wages. What Trump is doing is pure business logic: he is reducing supply, increasing demand, and therefore, raising wages.
Alternative Right.
Easy enough to fix - don't allow them to hire any H1B that doesn't meet all their stated requirements. If they want to lower the requirements, they must first prove they couldn't find an American that meets those lowered requirements either.
The H1B system is being horribly abused, but simply enforcing the existing rules would eliminate most of the problems. Requiring a public job listing on a single nationwide job board would be a relatively easy way to make sure the companies are actually looking for local talent before resorting to imported labor ("We see 653 Americans applied for this position through the board. Please prove that none of them met your requirements...")
An alternate method I've heard proposed is to require that H1B's be paid at least X% more than the median salary for comparable positions - after all, they're supposed to have such impressive skills that the local job pool can't satisfy the demand.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
There's no practical way to actually force them to hire qualified US applicants
As much as I dislike Trump, his administration can most definitely prevent companies from importing cheap pseudo-skilled H1B companies by essentially playing the same game, i.e having immigration authorities putting similarly unattainable requirements on H1B applicants. One pretty effective way that would almost end the whole business in it's current form is to just flat out discredit any and all indian schools and training facilities altogether. The still ongoing travel ongoing ban debacle clearly shows that Trump doesn't care at all about blanket banning whole countries from the U.S.
"Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
It would help if fucking ass-holes like you would understand that H1B Visas ARE NOT being used to employ people in very specialized niche areas, areas that cannot be filled by American workers, that require hiring workers from abroad. The positions being filled are run of the mill programmers.
And when some startup company has a real need and a real position to fill they can't get an H1B Visas because outsourcing companies like Tata has gobbled up the H1B Visas applications.
Not too mention there's one STEM job per 3 STEM graduates.
So yea fuck off.
"If we need to compete in technology, we should be hiring 100% locally.
I'm sorry, that's BS. There is no incetive for someone to learn technology if it isn't used in the US actively - that means no local talent pool outside of people who maybe worked internationally. If a domestic company begins using that technology, they have no choice but to pull from overseas. Likewise, a lot of major standards bodies are international (3GPP, ITU, etc). If you need someone with that tier of expertise, they are rarely going to be American. But, hey, whatever helps you justify your nationalist agenda.