[TillE]

I can't imagine that America's byzantine visa system is accomplishing any useful policy goal, it's just a mess.

Compare to a country like Germany, where you can get a work visa, extend it indefinitely, and then roll it over into permanent residency after five years. No bullshit, no lotteries, you just meet the legal requirements and your applications are accepted in a matter of weeks.

[bsder]

It is a mess, but the corporations love it. It creates an indentured servant class that applies downward pressure on technical salaries.

If you have a US work visa for 24 months (max), it should automatically roll over into a green card. Background checks should be the responsibility of the company to get finished before 24 months and failure to do so should be a Federal felony that puts the CEO in jail.

This would completely unblock the technical pipeline for US visas.

I hope Canada sucks up all the good H-1Bs leaving behind the dregs. It would finally force corporations to lobby to fix the problems.

[hattmall]

It seems like fixing it would push tech salaries down even more so wouldn't corporations prefer that?

[bsder]

Because you've got it backwards.

H-1Bs depress salaries because the companies don't have to give an H1-B a significant raise, basically, ever (read: 5+ years or more).

If people can get green cards in 24 months, those people can leave indentured servitude for a company that pays better. It also completely obliterates the "body shops" as they would have to pay a bunch of money for people who are going to jump out at the first opportunity. So, companies wouldn't automatically bring in a visa holder as there wouldn't be a real advantage over a domestic worker unless there was a real, technical reason for doing so.

I have no problem competing with tech people who come here and can move between companies. In addition, immigrants in tech are generally from a higher socioeconomic strata in their home country and have a tendency to found companies.

More tech folks normally means a need for even more tech folks as long as they aren't artificially suppressed.

[andrewjl]

Why would fixing the visa system push US tech salaries down?

[midoridensha]

Because fixing it would make it easier for tech professionals to immigrate to the US, which would increase the supply of these people.

[andrewjl]

Why don't tech salaries decrease come graduation season when hundreds of thousands of college students majoring in CS move on from college and are about to start working? Or why have tech salaries grown as much as they did when CS major enrollment kept hitting record highs throughout the late 2010s?

[midoridensha]

Salaries are a function of supply and demand. There's a huge amount of demand for these skills, and a new graduating class doesn't change that significantly (new grads aren't very productive after all, and salaries don't change that fast, since people don't change jobs every month). And demand has been increasing, faster than the new supply.

But there's probably other variables too. Why are tech salaries so low in Canada, for instance, despite there being lots of demand, and not that much supply (with many Canadians trying to go south to get the higher salaries there)?

[pkaye]

What prevented Canada from hiring the good H-1Bs before all this if their process is easier?

[bsder]

Laws. IIRC, Canada recently made some changes to their laws to enable them to grab immigrants who would normally be placed under the US H-1B rubric.

[OO000oo]

> I can't imagine that America's byzantine visa system is accomplishing any useful policy goal

I am positive it is. It works like most things in the US. The ruling class profits tremendously from the exploitation it enables, and American citizens are much too propagandized and alienated from politics to do anything about it.

[more_corn]

The sad fact is that the ruling class could profit much more by opening up visas for skilled workers. You only hire workers and pay them because they make you more money than they cost. Business literally doesn’t work if that’s not true. Every visa you deny a skilled worker is lowered economic activity.

Our visa policies directly hinder economic growth. And in the most absurd ways imaginable. H1B is tied to an employer. If your startup goes under you’re out. If you get laid off you’re out. I’d you want to switch jobs lawyers have to get involved.

It’s a lottery once a year so tons of skilled workers sit on their hands waiting. Then most don’t get in because… lottery.

I literally couldn’t invent a more useless and stupid visa system if I tried.

[OO000oo]

That is very naive. What employers want more of is workers that can be exploited for more labor at lower cost, and no workers are more exploitable than those under threat of deportation if they lose their job.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money/2022/05/3...

[midoridensha]

>Compare to a country like Germany, where you can get a work visa, extend it indefinitely, and then roll it over into permanent residency after five years. No bullshit, no lotteries, you just meet the legal requirements and your applications are accepted in a matter of weeks.

Yep, it's much the same in Japan. Work visas for skilled jobs (like IT) are easy to get if a company wants to hire you, and you can apply for permanent residency in 1, 3, or 10 years, depending on how many points you score. IT professionals can easily get enough points for the 1 or 3-year requirements. As you said, no bullshit, no lotteries, just meet the legal requirements.