No it's not that good for software developers or anyone really.
Many of those hired on H1B are doing roles for which they simply can't get enough local talent. And so all that is going to happen is that companies are going to shift entire projects offshore or simply not take on as many projects.
There does need to be reform. But frankly given the chaotic manner in which the Trump administration is crafting and implementing policy I don't think their approach to reform will be nuanced enough.
> Many of those hired on H1B are doing roles for which they simply can't get enough local talent.
I can only speak to my experience. At my current employer we have about 60-70% H1Bs in my department (development). Even more in QA. And they aren't particularly talented. After reviewing the public information though, they are getting paid 50% of what I am.
So they are living with multiple other visa workers in one apartment, can barely afford repairs to their old cars, etc.
It'd be great if the wages were more equalized. It's really not about talent at anywhere but the big 4. It's about money.
I am not working at the Big 4, am on H-1B, and am a hiring manager at an SV firm. When I hire an H-1B it is not about the money. Not challenging your experience, but pointing out that there are other possibilities also.
The inclination for people to hire those who remind them of themselves is well documented which means if you're not doing it to save money then you're doing it to favor your tribe.
I hire both people on H-1B visas and those who are not. All I was saying that the immigration status does not positively or negatively affects a candidate's job application, where I work.
Well, yes. I mean at the Big 4 (and really, this applies to any large, cutting-edge company: Twitter, Oracle, etc.) they do reach out of the US to find great talent for higher up positions. But they also abuse the visa process for lower wages in lower positions.
Lots of other companies without hype just want lower wage workers. I figure these are the majority.
> But they also abuse the visa process for lower wages in lower positions.
No, in lower-level positions also they are paid the same as their colleagues who are citizens. During the hiring process, the immigration status is not get considered as a positive or negative qualifier.
> Lots of other companies without hype just want lower wage workers.
I agree.
> I figure these are the majority.
This is possible, but I am not sure. It is true that many companies who get the most visas don't pay well. But the well-paying firms do not apply for lots of visas, and there are lots of them, leading to a long thin-tailed distribution. Also, many of these H-1B immigrants, once they get their green cards, go on to found successful startups increasing the size of the economic pie for everyone. One such person, Jyoti Bansal, sold his startup for $3.7B last week.
In France its quite straight forward to get a skilled worker visa -- just earn more than 3100 Euros per month (~1.5 * average earnings in France). Shouldn't be a problem for tech workers.
(They are also introducing a 'tech startup visa' in the near future.)
True. There has been a significant increase in outsourcing in France in the last 5 years, but I don't know that it involves labour from lower wage countries. Obviously few Indians speak French, but there are many call centres outsourced to Senegal and other former French colonies. I think it is only a matter of time before ICT jobs migrate as well.
Exchange interns are J1, student interns in the US use their current F1 Visa with a CPT (Curricular Practical Training) permit for summer internship, or sometimes an OPT (Optional Practical Training) permit.
Sure. It's a nuanced discussion. It's not just about price. It's also about the various experience within the local talent pool. I still remember at Apple looking for WebObjects developers, finding none locally but dozens at Infosys. What exactly are companies supposed to do ?
And companies like Infosys are often playing in specific, less sexy spaces i.e. enterprise J2EE, DBAs, System Administration etc whilst newer generation of developers prefer Go, Rust, Javascript etc.
> It's not just about price. It's also about the various experience within the local talent pool.
Same thing. H1B just made them that way, with both metrics being in favor of the employer (except the vast majority of times the skillset is misrepresented).
The astroturfing by someone who has no experience with how H1B is used, is telling.
I keep hearing this but personally have seen people passed over for H1B candidates when both were equally qualified. Even seen a few senior developer positions filled this way and in every case it was money.
It feels good to tell ourselves we didn't hire locally because there wasn't enough talent when in many cases its just far easier to accept a recruiters suggestions where multiple recruiters simply undercut each other.
>Many of those hired on H1B are doing roles for which they simply can't get enough local talent
This is the scam they want you to believe, but it's being abused to simply keep wages low.
It's very easy to post fake job ads to make it seem like "you can't find someone" for the job, and there are plenty of lawyers who will help you get around those loopholes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
I have been reading for years how broken the current system is, so I would bet that there is a market for that.
The issue is the motivation behind the change. What if the changes are designed to please an electorate that is not directly impacted but they just really really want to see some heads rolling?
There are some serious credibility issues with the current US govt. Left or right, populists pretend to swing a magic wand and magically fixing problems. Ban immigrants, implement 90% tax for the rich and so on, until these vote generating policies break apart.
Also don't forget that Trump is emotionally immature.
He has a long track record of viciously attacking those whom attack him. Could well be payback for many of the SV companies that criticised him both publicly and privately e.g. Lisa Jackson from Apple meeting with Kushner/Ivanka this week.
It's definitely a program that could use reform. However from what little the article mentions of the 'draft' executive order, I don't see many specific policy changes to the status quo.
If this follows the pattern of 'make a big news splash' and 'leave huge ambiguity regarding actual policy' then it is really not helpful for any kind of business decision.
The rational response right now might be to avoid new H1B hiring completely, lest you spend months on an application that later gets nullified by shifting policy. That's not a win for SV companies that favor H1B hiring.
If they make clear changes that do help create more visas for high skilled workers, I agree that's a win for silicon valley, and a win for US labor. Overall the US does well when other countries send their top brains here.
No, they won't. B-1 visa holders are not allowed to work, E-2 holders are rare among the SV workforce and don't represent any slice of the job market, L-1 visas are limited to SV companies with foreign presence, of which there are not so many compared to the total amount of startups in SV.
If anything, any potential change to O-1 visas (don't know whether any are planned) will have larger impact than what you're describing.