New investigation on H1-Bs

New
DrAV62

New

DrAV62
Dec 8, 2019 30 Comments

Investigation has found that the administration, with their new rules and policies, has been denying visas to experienced, well-paid workers, many of whom have degrees from American universities and have previously received H-1Bs.

There’s been an explosion of H-1B related lawsuits filed against USCIS under the Trump administration alleging that the agency has been making inconsistent and incorrect decisions, ignoring evidence, and misapplying the law.

Here's the full story:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/12/trump-h1b-visa-immigration-restrictions/?fbclid=IwAR2iJigX0vO0YqoEwSGuv3IXx9kU7rKePsR4iXVpIstkXVGGd5Cpp_geBn8

And here's a twitter thread with examples of illogical, unreasonable denials:

[https://twitter.com/cynduja/status/1201605471427350528](https://twitter.com/cynduja/status/1201605471427350528?fbclid=IwAR2o2iK-WJNI_6hIY8OBG-2Dcx2FOGTrJfZT63OAMGyGc-fJLqx_cxXfEdQ)

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TOP 30 Comments
  • Uber
    LastResort

    Go to company page Uber

    LastResort
    When you ask an average American what’s h1b? You know what they say?

    “Oh the takeover of IT department by Indian low wage workers!”

    I am myself on h1b from India but I have many other coworkers on h1b from countries other than India and China and none of them has gotten any rfe or denial when doing transfers or so.

    ..
    Dec 8, 2019 4
    • LastResort that's not true. I am not an Indian and all my H1b related extensions and amendments have been RFE-ed
      Dec 8, 2019
    • Amazon
      vuhU10

      Go to company page Amazon

      vuhU10
      bottom, you’re even more dumb than LastResort (he’s not op btw)
      First, your conclusion about amazon is the most idiotic generalization I’ve ever seen.
      Second, you couldn’t comprehend my reply either. It’s obvious that LastResorts coworkers could successfully transfer H1b, otherwise they wouldn’t work with him. That observation is pure survivor bias which doesn’t mean shit.
      Dec 8, 2019
  • Oracle
    porous

    Go to company page Oracle

    porous
    I thought trump was good for Indians, no? I saw tons of posts from Indians saying how trump was good and democrats were bad.

    What happened?
    Dec 8, 2019 6
    • Google / Eng
      Troogle

      Go to company page Google Eng

      Troogle
      @Oracle, is that you?
      Dec 8, 2019
    • Google / Eng
      hoooli.xyz

      Go to company page Google Eng

      hoooli.xyz
      I am Indian and I can tell u both parties aren't helpful.

      In some sense, I feel some of these h1 tightening is good, because it makes sure that folks realize h1b isn't a permanent status, it's temporary and puts focus on the underlying issue of backlog, whose existence hurts American workers due to the lack of mobility for h1 workers depressing wages for all.

      The worst was the Obama administration, which was corporate sold out and had very lax standards in his second term, backstabbed on his promise of i140 EAD and many such things.

      Some of these things are getting tightened, some will get tightened with law, hopefully if s386 passes with Grassley amendment (this is a long shot, but worth mentioning the only bill that has come this close to passing in last 15 years and has any h1 abuse prevention provision is s386).

      Maintaining integrity of the h1 system is important and when it's compromised, it hurts everyone who is a participant in the labor market.
      Dec 9, 2019
  • New / Eng
    tmzomg21

    New Eng

    tmzomg21
    Correct me if I’m wrong but the same number of visas are ultimately approved, right? So this just means there are more applications and consequently more denials?
    Dec 8, 2019 5
  • Garmin
    MdWstSE5

    Go to company page Garmin

    MdWstSE5
    Somebody at USCIS or the administration needs to speak up that the existing laws are not able to combat H1B and EB1C malpractices that Indian consulting companies routinely do. Until that happens, genuine Indians will continue to suffer.
    Dec 8, 2019 4
    • Google / Eng
      hoooli.xyz

      Go to company page Google Eng

      hoooli.xyz
      Country of birth is not a way to prevent abuse. Congress can always write specific provisions that can prevent abuse. Rules that allow them to audit in detail to find who used b1 in lieu of h1 and find violations - for example. Using country of birth is like bringing bazooka to a sword fight. It wasn't designed for this, nor will achieve abuse prevention without huge collateral damage.

      If people are countries, why are we letting in folks from iran, who are an enemy country? Why China (President thinks everyone from China is a spy)?

      Using country of birth - you can also justify Japanese internment camps ( something that everyone who reads history today agrees wasn't right) and also Chinese exclusion. The list goes on... To be clear, my Chinese and Iranian colleagues are equal and need to be treated fairly and equally as me.

      You can't justify country of birth for employment green card - because someone is already vetted for their skill. Countries like Canada and Australia don't have country caps for skills green card. There is a reason - country of birth isn't a skill. I couldn't do my job better just because I was born in country X vs Y. A green card that is given for my skill - has no place for where I born.

      There is need for diversity and there is exactly a green card for that - diversity visa.
      Dec 9, 2019
    • @hooooli.xyz, there's a MASSIVE glaring difference between Chinese Exclusion act, Japanese internment camps vs country of birth limit. Two of those specifically point to a named nation just because, the other one applies to any nation that exceeds the limit. The analogies are not even close. Also, if you're going to keep only arguing for removal of country of birth without a mention of points based system, you don't have the god damn right to ever bring up Canadian/Australian immigration system. You talk about country of birth is not a skill, yet you don't want a skill based priority. EB system doesn't prioritize smarter or people with more skills, it just allocates slots for them. If you're EB2 and it's backlogged, a flipping janitor filing under EB3 can get their GC before you. How the flippity flop does that even make sense when you keep arguing for skills based? You want an EB system without country of birth, find a country that actually does this, don't bring up Canada/Australia deceptively.
      Dec 9, 2019
  • New
    DrAV62

    New

    DrAV62
    OP
    A couple of things here: 1) denials are not raw numbers, but percentages, so the rate has increased. This means that when someone gets through the lottery for a first time H1B and gets denied, the visa will go to someone else. There's a lot of demand for these visas, so the overall new visas issued won't go down so easily. But, the investigation has found that the agency has denied qualified candidates who shouldn't have been denied in the first place 2) the denials are for first time and renewals. In case of renewals, there's no lottery process and they've been issued H1Bs before but those denials are also going up. They don't look at state issued visas, but my guess is they'd be going down because of the denials of the renewals and H1B transfers
    Dec 8, 2019 3
    • New
      DrAV62

      New

      DrAV62
      OP
      Don't tell me what I can and can't do. If I want to whine, I'll whine. Btw, it's not part of the law to deny at their discretion AND the piece just doesn't look at individuals. They analyzed all the lawsuits filed against USCIS.
      Dec 8, 2019
    • Garmin
      MdWstSE5

      Go to company page Garmin

      MdWstSE5
      @Apple - Government agencies are allowed certain freedom in interpreting the law but those interpretations need to be more or less consistent with the law that has been laid down. For example USCIS can very well reject a civil engineer for a coding job. But if they suddenly reject a software engineer for a coding job that pays market wage after approving him twice before then it doesn’t sound consistent at all. The investigation is focusing on that inconsistency and the fact that more cases are being won on appeal. Don’t get me wrong - I am not saying that Indian consulting companies stopped abuse but in trying to curb the malpractice, genuine people with good credentials and salaries are becoming collateral damages.
      Dec 8, 2019