DHS weighs major change to H-1B foreign tech worker visa program

The Department of Homeland Security is considering new regulations that would prevent H-1B visa extensions, according to two U.S. sources briefed on the proposal. The measure potentially could stop hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications are pending.

This is a much needed step in the right direction. This is a terrible program in my opinion. And getting rid of it will go a long way towards putting many Americans back to work.

“The idea is to create a sort of ‘self- deportation’ of hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the United States to open up those jobs for Americans,” said a U.S. source briefed by Homeland Security officials.


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I remember this issue was brought up in the recent border wall/budget /DACA thread.

The future is looking bright for American workers.

Source

Hear that Disney?!? You’ll need Americans again, not just there money!!

No it's not.

You're future is F***ed and it has been that way for some time now. Automation and Industrialization will hopefully get rid of many workers all together.

Blaming Indian tech workers and not lynching the CEO's/Corporations that voted it in is just another reason why I question the IQ of this country on average being above 80.

Clearly it's not or you would not be blaming another countries population for your "problems"

Your future is bleak. Enjoy

Yes the CEO's are at fault and Indian workers seem to be taking over. On the plus side the foreign workers can't seem to finish up anything and hand it off for others to finish while they take credit. We step in and get a couple 3 patents and the $$$$.

We won't miss most of them and the country will be better off. The US has the people but don't want to spend the money.

Too bad I'm tired of having my people complain.

a reply to: watchitburn


Gotta say, I think this is generally a good idea. However, I have a friend who lives in Canada. He works for Broadcast Electronics. From time to time he comes to the US to work on an H-1B visa. Most of the time he does tech support from home. I would hate to see him get screwed by this.

Neither H-1B visa holders nor foreign students will ever leave voluntarily. If their legal status is changed they will just stay anyway. Should never have let them in in the first place.

Step in the right direction, but as mentioned how will they get these people out.

The Corporations wont tell on them, sanctuary cities don't feel threatened when the fed says turn them in.

Another step will be needed to give this one teeth, and now your down a dangerous side road with the fed eating up more and more power once again.

Or I could be really really tired and feeling a touch paranoid as a result.

It's needed but it's going to hurt.

In ATL alone it will collapse the housing market. Several counties changed zoning ordinances to include high density housing to accommodate all of these workers. For two years they have been cranking out houses and companies have been filling them with H1bs. The countless workers who live in those houses need cars to get around the burbs. They need the cars to drive to all the new chain stores and Indo-Pak businesses serving these instant communities.

That bubble will burst and cause carnage. That's why I'll believe it when I see it. The U.S. markets are too invested in these workers to roll it back now.

a reply to: kosmicjack


no doubt, but like many other aspects of our country its a matter of when it happens not if it happens.

Or better to rip the band aid off and fix it now so our children don't have to deal with it, rather than kick the can and let them deal with it.

Heck I do not have any kids of my own and I want us to deal with our problems now, and stop dumping everything on the next generation.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Oh, I totally agree. Pain now or more later. Now please. It was a wrong-headed policy.

Quite frankly our company is having some major quality problems and the only thing says is we need to save money.

originally posted by: mikell
Yes the CEO's are at fault and Indian workers seem to be taking over.

I've seen the billings. It's not like US companies save any money hiring the H1B visa guys. In some cases these guys cost 2x or more than their American counterparts. It's just a boondoggle windfall for the owners of the head hunting agencies.

You would think competition would kick in at some point. But the perception is American workers are stupid.

a reply to: theatreboy

That's not true. They would leave if there wasn't legal work.

originally posted by: mikell
Yes the CEO's are at fault and Indian workers seem to be taking over. On the plus side the foreign workers can't seem to finish up anything and hand it off for others to finish while they take credit. We step in and get a couple 3 patents and the $$$$.

We won't miss most of them and the country will be better off. The US has the people but don't want to spend the money.

Too bad I'm tired of having my people complain.

It's called grab-the-experience-and-run. A project life cycle goes through three stages:
research/prototyping/conceptual design - finding out what is possible
development - doing the actual implementation
maintenance - clearing a back log of bugs prioritized by severity.

These guys run off back to their home country after the first two stages are complete and move onto the next project.

originally posted by: starviego
Neither H-1B visa holders nor foreign students will ever leave voluntarily. If their legal status is changed they will just stay anyway. Should never have let them in in the first place.

Then they will be here illegally...........

originally posted by: dfnj2015

originally posted by: mikell
Yes the CEO's are at fault and Indian workers seem to be taking over.

I've seen the billings. It's not like US companies save any money hiring the H1B visa guys. In some cases these guys cost 2x or more than their American counterparts. It's just a boondoggle windfall for the owners of the head hunting agencies.

You would think competition would kick in at some point. But the perception is American workers are stupid.

Imagine if our Education System actually focused on training students for the jobs that are actually in demand. The H1b's happened in some part , due to the failure of our system to provide workers.

Back in the 1980s Americans developed the best military hardware in the world without foreigner engineers.

a reply to: pv1984

Science was simpler back then.

originally posted by: pavil

originally posted by: dfnj2015

originally posted by: mikell
Yes the CEO's are at fault and Indian workers seem to be taking over.

I've seen the billings. It's not like US companies save any money hiring the H1B visa guys. In some cases these guys cost 2x or more than their American counterparts. It's just a boondoggle windfall for the owners of the head hunting agencies.

You would think competition would kick in at some point. But the perception is American workers are stupid.

Imagine if our Education System actually focused on training students for the jobs that are actually in demand. The H1b's happened in some part , due to the failure of our system to provide workers.

That has nothing to do with it. Every technical job has it's own learning curve. What we need are students who know how to learn. What we need are students who are motivated and have a sense of integrity to keep their commitments and promises.

The Indian and Chinese workers are very good at getting things done. My experience has been the Americans are just as good most of the time but American workers are easily offended by management practices. And the perception by upper management is Americans are stupid in general so those are two pretty big hurdles.

What I can't stand is the H1B visa workers actually cost 2x what an American would cost and STILL they get preferential treatment for jobs!

originally posted by: watchitburn
This is a much needed step in the right direction. This is a terrible program in my opinion. And getting rid of it will go a long way towards putting many Americans back to work.
....

I remember this issue was brought up in the recent border wall/budget /DACA thread.

The future is looking bright for American workers.

Source

Here's the thing, though... are there American workers qualified for those jobs? One woman I know who was over here on that program was an anesthesiologist from France. That's hardly your average high school graduate. There are many nurses who are from other countries because of nursing shortages... ditto physicians.

The tech industry isn't something you can pick up, either, just by breathing. Ditto any lab research.

What's more likely to happen is that these companies will find ways to move critical parts of their work (the types that NEED this kind of worker that's in short supply here in the states) overseas or subcontract it. And under a shortage of health care professionals (which you may not really care about until there's an emergency and it's your child who needs the help) care will become less efficient and more expensive.

A good solution would be to get more Americans to enter the science and engineering fields and graduate college and universities with Bachelors level degrees and Masters level degrees. More doctors and nurses need to be recruited and teaching profession should be revamped to give teachers higher pay and to make sure they're better qualified to teach by reworking the education program in many colleges and universities.

I don't see much support for that, though.