[JCTheDenthog]

Rigorous examinations for English fluency and for competency in their alleged field of expertise would be a good start. I have several H1B coworkers in the US who barely speak intelligible English, and who barely understand normal conversation let alone anything technical. A blatant example of this that I experienced recently being that several of them could not understand that just because a method in C# is asynchronous does not mean it executes out of order.

[cguess]

This is a hiring issue, not a legal one. The US has no official language, and no language tests, so requiring English in law would be dicey to put it mildly. What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

[JCTheDenthog]

>What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

Having actually worked at a Spanish language news outlet before (1 of 4 tv and radio stations in the office I was doing IT help desk work in), I can tell you that every single employee spoke English somewhere on the level of very good to near native fluency. As it turns out, knowing English (or the native language of whatever country you're in) is an incredible value-multiplier for almost every job position imaginable.

As far as language issues at my current job goes, it turns out once you hire a manager that speaks both Hindi and English (or Marathi and English, or Bengali and English, you get the picture) it doesn't matter much if the H1Bs he hires barely speak English because he can just start shouting at them in Hindi if they don't understand (even if several native English speakers are in the meeting too).

[cguess]

Again, this is a hiring issue, not a legal one. You want to make it against the law for your boss to hire bad managers?

[svachalek]

The H-1B visa is specifically for hiring "highly specialized" workers. Lack of the supposed skills that let them across the border is in fact a legal issue.

[bijowo1676]

H1Bs are not hired for their knowledge of english, however you can define it. They are hired for specialized occupational skills

[naturalmovement]

Skills which, with very few exceptions, are conducted in English.

[bijowo1676]

You don’t need to be Shakespeare to do specialized job that’s first

Second most visa applicants already get tested on their English skill when they apply for Visa, for example, universities require English proficiency for F1 visa using GRE exam

And why do you think you are better than an employer in assessing required English proficiency of an employee

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

>for example, universities require English proficiency for F1 visa using GRE exam

Why would the universities fail them on these exams, when it would mean losing out on that sweet, sweet tuition money?

[gmueckl]

But Visa applications need to prove English proficiency already. So it's somehow neither here nor there.

[DANmode]

> This is a hiring issue, not a legal one.

When the law specifically dictates stuff like the talent of the person, I’m not convinced you’re correct.

[JuniperMesos]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/desi...

[naturalmovement]

EO 14224 designates English as the official language of the US.

[generj]

Which is clearly illegal.

Congress would need to declare any official language(s). Moreover, by treaty and law (NALA of 1990) obligations to Native American tribes there must be more languages than merely English.

[pandaman]

>and no language tests

English test is a requirement for naturalization, which is governed by the same INA, which governs H1B and other visas.

[cogman10]

No, that's a silly test. If I want to bring in a world renown battery expert from China, it's ridiculous to also add on "and you must speak English well". English fluency has absolutely nothing to do with expertise.

What we actually need is a higher minimum salary for H1B employees. Right now it's something like 50k per year, which is insanely low for a "hard to find expert" it should be more like $300k per year. H1B employees should be some of the best paid employees in a company. Raise that minimum salary and you'll overnight fix almost all complaints with the H1B program. Except for from the business owners who are abusing the system to get cheap labor.

[sinatra]

Hah. And you think a Govt agency will be able to do a rigorous enough examination to eliminate people who don't know that just because a method in C# is asynchronous does not mean it executes out of order?

Reminds me of a friend whose job application got rejected by some Govt agency in Canada due to "experience mismatch." Job required "Software Programmer" experience but he was a "Software Engineer" instead.

[fg137]

> could not understand that just because a method in C# is asynchronous does not mean it executes out of order.

Want to bet how many naturally born US citizens in your colleagues can answer the question in a technical interview?

[JCTheDenthog]

I'm not expecting them to know it ahead of time, I'm expecting them to understand it when it is explained to them.

[readthenotes1]

Many of the people I grew up with "barely speak intelligible English". Communication is important and the easiest way to fix that is to bring people from your linguistic group to be a coworker....

[throwaway85825]

Any legal barrier will just be cheated around.

[pastel8739]

> I have several H1B coworkers in the US who barely speak intelligible English, and who barely understand normal conversation let alone anything technical.

English fluency is certainly not a requirement for fluency in any technical field. Perhaps you mean that they cannot understand _your_ descriptions of technical topics, though

[JCTheDenthog]

Seeing as my Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Mexican, French Canadian, and Brazilian coworkers don't seem to have these issues with me I don't think the issue is with my explanations.

[sometimes_all]

Funny, when I was in the US, my Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Mexican, French, British, and 99% of the American coworkers had absolutely zero issues with my Indian accent, except that one American guy who would ask me to keep repeating even though the rest of the room had already understood and processed what I said.

The problem likely lies deeper than just the accents; and by the way, the English requirement (including a verbal test) is already set in place for most of the workers. The regular halfway-decent ones will likely already have TOEFL scores hovering around at minimum the high 100s, and in the non-university hiring pipelines I have seen, the English/ESL tests seem to be common if you are not from an English-speaking country, so if you are seeing people where nobody can understand what they are saying, you need to take a better look at your employer's hiring practices.

[pastel8739]

Sorry I didn’t mean you specifically, rather you as an English speaker