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."

Comments

Mr. Trump's 'Buy American, Hire American'

[fred911]

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?

Re: Mr. Trump's 'Buy American, Hire American'

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually we have come to expect less from our elected officials. In fact, we have come to expect little to nothing from them so in that respect the sitting president is overachieving.

Re: Mr. Trump's 'Buy American, Hire American'

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone expected that, but ultimately we were all pleasantly surprised.

Re:Require a national job board

[Narcocide]

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.

Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Now that Mar-a-lago is fully staffed

[HalAtWork]

Just in time!

Do as I say, not as I do

[JoeyRox]

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

You fix H1-B's by not leashing the employee

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:This could wreck my group..

[Anonymous Coward]

Well you could always trying paying a decent wage. That always gets people's interest.

Insightful? Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Insightful? Seriously?

[sabbede]

Parties predated the Constitution, as they are an inevitable byproduct of electoral democracy. Some of the founders hoped to avoid them, but they split into the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties as the Constitution was being written. Primaries are an internal party matter, each makes its own rules and there was no need for either to be mentioned in the Constitution. The term Gerrymandering didn't exist until 1812 and States draw congressional districts. Corporate personhood is a fundamentally necessary legal concept that predates the Colonies, which were themselves incorporated. As are municipalities, churches, NGOs, unions, non-profits, etc. Their personhood is established in common law, and supported by the Constitutional rights to free association and making contracts.

Re:Insightful? Seriously?

[Dishevel]

Did you cast your vote based corporate cash?
The funny thing about this election, I do not remember when a candidate spent so much less on an election and won.

To all liberals whining about enforcing the law

[zerofoo]

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.

Actual rules about PT

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I am nursing two H1B applicants through the system. So this is from my personal knowledge. It might not be 100% correct as of today, but it was correct, at some point in the recent past.

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.

Re:Actual rules about PT

[cmdr_klarg]

Can we be more insane than this? The incredible stupidity of our system astounds me.

Insane? It's actually quite logical. The wealthy are making tons of money by fucking over everyone else.

It's not stupid; the system is working as designed. It's not good for society in general, but it is operating as intended.

Re:This could wreck my group..

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm legitimately curious as to who your company is? When I graduated with my BS, I'd specialized in ASIC design. Took every class that my university offered on the subject and did well in them. When I interviewed to get jobs in the area, I personally felt I'd aced the interviews. They never gave me a question I couldn't answer. Yet none of the firms made offers. When I asked where I went wrong and how I could improve myself, basically, why they chose not to make an offer to me I was always told "we decided to go with someone with more experience". Note the jobs I was applying for were junior level positions with no experience requirements. Eventually I landed a job in software and have been there since, though my passion was ASIC design. I now realize they were aiming for H1Bs and didn't want to hire Americans. This was circa 2005 or 2006 for reference.

Supply And Demand Will Benefit Workers Now

[alternative_right]

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.

Re:Supply And Demand Will Benefit Workers Now

[sabbede]

Yes supply and demand, but you left out a vital factor - Global competition. WWII left exactly one industrialized nation with its infrastructure intact. It took about 20 years for everyone else to rebuild and catch back up. During that time American industry had no competition.

Re:Require a national job board

[Immerman]

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.

Re:This could wreck my group..

[guruevi]

Right, if you're not getting applicants, it's because you're not paying them enough. My company hires H1B's too though, it's easy, it's cheap and the labor is tied to you. One of my clients actually hires "administrators" (aka secretaries/office managers) through H1B, it's easy, it's cheap and they don't have to worry about competing on wages or benefits.