They know how many have h1bs, but not how many of them are actually in the US. Which is just amazing. We need to bend over and let them take our privacy away so they can fight the terrorists apparently, but the same government doesnt even keep track of how many h1b holders are in the country? If the data of who every citizen is calling on their phones is so important for national security- how is it not worth the government's time to collect and analyze data to figure out who is actually in the country?
Especially since the government gets from all non-immigrants:
- Common carrier arrival manifests.
- Visa stamp process arrival record and I-94 issuance. [4]
- US-VISIT biometrics collection on arrival. [2]
- Form I-9 when starting a new job. [3]
- Form AR-11 every time they move. [1]
- Common carrier departure manifests.
- Tax returns.
As far as I can tell the only people who "sneak out" do so by crossing the border into Canada and the US should have access to that data from Canadian authorities after the fact also.
They definitely have all the data they need, verifiable many times over. No one wants to do the work to talk to all the different agencies involved to compile it.
When was the last time you traveled outside the USA? Did you notice how Customs and Border Patrol did not check and stamp your passport, like they do for incoming travelers?
Therefore, since there is no way to detect when an H1B worker leaves the country, there is no easy way to estimate the number of H1Bs currently in the country.
Common carriers used to collect paper I-94 forms when visitors were checking in for their return flights. Now they transmit this information to CBP electronically.
I find it difficult to believe that official forms of transport passenger manifest data isn't made available to the government, be it plane, ship, etc. especially with "no-fly" lists and the type of information you have to provide (at least for flights). For boats, I have no clue, but I would imagine it wouldn't be too far off.
FTA: Citizenship and Immigration said in its report that coming up with a number for H-1Bs living in the U.S. “is complex, as no electronic data system tracks or houses this information.”
Strictly speaking that's insufficient as crossing from the US into Canada by land doesn't invalidate your I-94. They do need to join it against a bunch of other data -- which they do have.
Exactly. They have the data, but they’d need to link it to a few other sources for it to be complete.
The US, unlike Europe (at least in my experience) doesn’t check passports on the way out. They rely on flight manifests or information from Canadian authorities on who has exited.
When you enter the country on an H1B or otherwise do anything related to any visa status, the onus is on you to carry around all relevant and supporting documentation, in physical, original paper form. Visas, passports etc. existed before computers, probably in much the same way as they do today.
In there it clearly states that it is because there is no electronic tracking system of any kind. They're trying to figure out the estimates based on paper records.
I would suggest that you take a look at the guidelines[1] for hacker news, which I believe set a good standard for productive discourse. Particularly:
> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."