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  • Hacker News
  • I worked with and hired tons of H1Bs (and non) over the years and the idea that they earn this visa with exceptional talent is a farce. I work in bog standard web services. We fill seats with H1Bs to write ho-hum crud apps and do UX testing work. Some have been great! Others terrible.

    Could be wildly different for someone in a very high-tech org or medical field, but at places I worked it was used as a convenience, but not necessary.

    by Hippocrates
  • The point of the these visas is to hire outside talent which cannot be found in the US and qualifies as the "best and brightest" and specialized "talent" that is beyond outstanding. Everyone knows this has been heavily abused for years.

    Now the word "talent" has lost its meaning or most commonly means "anyone" for cheap even though the employer knows that they are unqualified and hires them anyway for cheap labor to reduce their operating costs (expensive US employees).

    You can't say "we are hiring the best and brightest" and then decide to then go for those who are unqualified. Now this $100K fee is pointless when AI agents, and data centers (homes for the AI agents) are getting hired over both US employees and off-shored employees.

    One more thing. The big question is who would you rather trust to hire to not create a disaster like in [0][1] (Human or AI agent, hint one of them cannot be held accountable.)

    [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47061682

    [1] https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-investigating-tata...

    by rvz
  • Good, H1B is just modern servitude. But there should be an incentive to hire local workers instead of just hiring foreigners in their own country.
    by sebastiangrill
  • I think this will go hand in hand with tech compensation and jobs falling off a cliff. In the AI world too, we can't have our cake and eat it.
    by unified101
  • So it was never about the talent, but just about cost?
    by mvdwoord
  • It's funny how quickly tech employees turn MAGA when it comes to qualified immigration. Bad zero-sum intuitions about work abound across all strata of society, it seems.
    by Sol-
  • Not surprising, H1B for my entire career was a cost cutting measure.

    Every time we had a layoff some portion would be replaced with H1B.

    Every H1B that shared their salary with me has been underpaid.

    I know its anecdotal but sharing to see if anyone has seen similar.

    by bearjaws
  • Canada is jumping on this opportunity to invite the US tech workers who are frustrated with US H1B visa restrictions and GC backlog by offering an express permanent residency in 10 days

    https://canadabychoice.com/services/move-to-canada/usa/occup...

    Canada also floating idea of alliance with Europe for travel and job opportunities

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-european-union-eu-me...

    by bijowo1676

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