[livinginfear]

When I looked into who is actually hiring H1-Bs, I was shocked to see it was mostly bodyshops. See: https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2022/02/07/h1b-visa-stat...

The majority of "Top H1-B Recruiters" are in the "Professional and Technical Services" industry. I think people imagine that most immigrants on H1-B visas are being paid princely sums directly by FAANG companies. Instead the reality looks like they're being exploited by the same Indian bodyshops like Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra, etc. Of the companies in that list that aren't bodyshops, the majority aren't in IT.

Aside from all of the obvious problems with the system, and the political implications, I think many people really have the wrong impression about who the real beneficiaries of the H1-B visa system are.

[nimish]

Ideally the admin would ban bodyshops from using the H-1B process, but that'd stop their benefactors' sources of cheap labor.

[slaw]

Ideally the admin should close H1B for few years until job market recovers.

[fooker]

Here's what will happen if they do that: A large number of universities will go under without tuition fees from international students.

Professors will leave these universities to pursue industry careers, soneven if the job market recovers the universities won't.

Without competent specialized people from the universities, US will lose the tech edge very very quickly. Cutting edge tech requires a large number of people willing to slog through several years of training.

[dartharva]

H-1B is a work visa, not a student visa.

And I highly doubt the kind of universities that rely on tuition revenues from foreign students are ones leading the US's tech edge. The universities that actually matter in this regard will be well-equipped to survive a small setback of less foreign admissions.

[fooker]

>H-1B is a work visa, not a student visa.

  H-1B is the primary path for international MS and PhD students to work in the US.

> kind of universities that rely on tuition revenues from foreign students are ones leading the US's tech edge

That's all universities except community colleges.

>he universities that actually matter in this regard will be well-equipped to survive a small setback of less foreign admissions.

Possible, I'd not bet on it. There is a reason the immigration rules are as they are, and are pretty difficult to overhaul.

[room500]

I think you would see the opposite. You would incentivize going to grad school for a few years under a student visa. Universities could name their price.

[fooker]

> You would incentivize going to grad school for a few years under a student visa.

That's a significant change in immigration policy that's not covered in 'pause H1B'. I agree in principle that if you align the incentives like this, it would work out.

[kyawzazaw]

A lot of professors on H-1B too