Hacker News Reader

Comment by product50 | Hacker News Reader

The challenge here will be for international undergrads graduating from US universities. How are they expected to find a job when the minimum salary reqd to get an H1 is $150k+? This is why they have Level 1 Computer Programmers and Level 4 Software Engineers. That Level 1 is meant for undergrads so that they can have a chance to enter the workforce. Of course, Indian companies misuse that a lot and do classify their workers as Level 1 as well to save on cost.

Also, you are not accounting for non tech professions. For example, fashion industry doesn't generally pay as well. Do you expect that none of them are granted an H1 in that case?

The solution is much more complex than you have laid out here..

View on HN

H1-B is supposed to be used when there are no qualified candidates in the US. The US is overflowing with throngs of people capable of being Level 1 computer programmers and working at the bottom of the fashion industry.

No offense at all to those in the US for H1-B, but too many citizens are unemployed or underemployed right this very second.

Deleted comment

This is not true. Employers don't have to show that they went out looking for US workers when filing for H1

Yes, they do. They need to show proof of having advertised the job somewhere. At least, I've been through this process three times, with three different lawyers, and we've done it every time.

Well, sort of. They don't have to answer any replies, though.

Exhaustive discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10969721

But note in particular that firms specialize in coaching companies on how to fake compliance with such laws:

story: http://www.post-gazette.com/business/businessnews/2007/06/21...

video proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

"PERM Fake Job Ads defraud Americans to secure green cards"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

And invariably the job is written in a very legalistic way to make sure that nobody ever actually qualifies.

There's a chicken and egg situation there. Invariably, I've applied to jobs that want "hackers!" or "full stack devs".

Neither of those jobs actually meet immigration categories. If you want to hire someone through H1B you need to provide a job spec that is needlessly specific with exact skills checked off. The kind of job that, if you saw it, you'd think "I never want to work there, they list a job as if it's a checklist of acronyms!"

Not true. There are not enough qualified candidates. It still takes a long time to find people in places like New York, Boston and San Fransisco. Not every company is Apple that they attract tons of resumes from prospective candidates.

> Not every company is Apple that they attract tons of resumes from prospective candidates.

If Apple can attract the candidates and you can't, you're not offering enough money.

This is exactly the point about the "engineering shortage". If there is a shortage, salaries should be going up. Since salaries are not going up, there is, by definition, no shortage.

Maybe it takes too long because the salary you're offering is too low.

Each job posting has a job code. So if its for a non tech, the job code will be different as well as the corresponding salary/year on the LCA. Sorry for generalizing H1B to IT.

It's very common for fashion models to get O-1 visa. Just few pro photos for commercials/magazines are enough for papers, you can do that in europe. And it have no cap, so O-1 is more popular in last years

Reply on news.ycombinator.com