Computer Programmers May No Longer Be Eligible For H-1B Visas [Update] (axios.com) 352
Two anonymous readers share a report: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quietly over the weekend released new guidance that computer programmers are no longer presumed to be eligible for H-1B visas. This aligns with the administration's focus on reserving the temporary visas for very high-skilled (and higher-paid) professionals while encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers instead. The new guidance affects applications for the lottery for 2018 fiscal year that opened Monday. Companies applying for H-1B visas for computer programming positions will have to submit additional evidence showing that the jobs are complex or specialized and require professional degrees. From a Bloomberg report, which has confirmation: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services department issued a memorandum that makes it harder for companies to bring foreign technology workers to the U.S. using the H-1B visa process. The new guidelines, issued late Friday, require additional information for computer programmers applying for the work visa to prove the jobs are complicated and require more advanced knowledge and experience. The new policy is effective immediately, so it will change how companies apply for the visas in an annual lottery process that begins Monday. Indian outsourcing firms, which have faced the most amount of criticism, stand to lose the most. The changes don't explicitly prohibit any applications for a specific type of job. Instead, they bring more scrutiny to those for computer programmers doing the simplest jobs.
TRUMP DID THE NEEDFUL (Score:5, Funny)
Easy Fix... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are required to train your replacement, then you don't need to be replaced and the H-1B should not be allowed in.
Same for outsourcing. If you require your people to train the outsource company's employees, then the laws should make outsourcing extraordinarily difficult.
Re:Easy Fix... (Score:5, Informative)
That's why they turned to companies like Unisys. Unisys makes the claims that it needs H1B workers, and Unisys seeks contracts with big companies to handle their IT services. Big companies dissolve their IT departments, push the duties to Unisys on-paper, Unisys brings workers into the facilities to displace butts-in-seats of existing IT staff and the original company forces displaced workers to perform training in order to get any kind of severance package. The company that gets Unisys' services feels that they retain a degree of control over the situation since the workers are in their own facilities and there's no need to open the company network up to the whole world for just rote maintenance.
If you want to fix the problem, restricting the nature of the jobs eligible for H1B is a good start. I bet a lot of companies would not be so inclined to let foreigners on foreign soil so deeply into their networks as a matter of course, too much opportunity for malfeasance that might not be easily prosecuted or otherwise rectified, so those companies probably wouldn't seek to overseas their IT support to the degree that they're willing to outsource to outsiders within their own walls. Also raising the minimum wages required for H1B jobs would help, it would show that yes, those H1B workers really are worth the money and that the company really can't find the worker at nearly any wage. The $150,000 number with annual adjustments for inflation or cost of living makes sense, it means that truly skilled workers with advanced training that are not readily just internally trained or promoted would probably remain as they are, but lower-end skilled jobs that your average IT worker with five to ten years experience aren't outsourced to save 50%.
And you don't think they will make up stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
.. to meet the requirements?
"Companies applying for H-1B visas for computer programming positions will have to submit additional evidence showing that the jobs are complex or specialized and require professional degrees."
Re:And you don't think they will make up stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: And you don't think they will make up stuff (Score:2, Insightful)
If you were smart, you'd be writing software to simply output all the unique items from the spreadsheet so you have to only view a portion of the spreadsheet.
But that's why you work in gov't. They should outsource your job to monkeys.
Re: And you don't think they will make up stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
If you were smart, you'd be writing software to simply output all the unique items from the spreadsheet so you have to only view a portion of the spreadsheet.
We write scripts to fix 80,000+ workstations at a time. While the script is running, I'm posting comments on Slashdot.
But that's why you work in gov't. They should outsource your job to monkeys.
Monkeys don't qualify for security clearances.
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Neither do foreigners....
Re:And you don't think they will make up stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:And you don't think they will make up *more* stuff
FTFY. If you've ever reviewed some of those H1B resumes, or interviewed the candidates, you know they've already been making stuff up for quite a while.
Re:And you don't think they will make up stuff (Score:4, Insightful)
And if you have ever read the required job posting for an H1B it is hilarious. The requirements get written by taking the desired candidate's resume and adding "Requires" in front of each line. So instead of "11 years experience coding widgets" you get "Requires 11 years coding widgets". It is shameful to see how the HR department craft the job description such that literally only one person in the work can 100% meet the requirements, even for bog standard jobs.
The only hope here is that a few government drones will be willing to cause a few extra rounds of justification such that recruiting from Bangalor becomes a little less desirable.
A minimum $150k salary should be instituted as well, if not higher.
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Of course they will, but this takes it from an open door to one where you at least need to knock.
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The second is to make the requirement so outlandish that nobody will take the job.
Those HR job ads are a bit obvious to spot: "Must have five years of experience in a new technology that came out six months ago."
So I will earn $20,000 more a year now right... (Score:5, Funny)
So I can expect my salary to go up $20k a year overnight now right? Now my fellow foreigners are no longer allowed in it's going to be land of milk and honey for all us developers... right?
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Riiight....
If you believe that, I have some ocean beachfront property in Colorado to sell you... Or, if you prefer a really nice bridge close to NYC....(sarc off)
Expecting *anything* to have an immediate measureable effect on the nation's economy is stretching it. Even the biggest hammer the government has (The federal funds rate) struggles to have short term effects...
Re:So I will earn $20,000 more a year now right... (Score:4)
Sorry, you still suck :-) But reduced visa worker competition may make your pay go up at least some, regardless.
That being said, it makes sense not to give most work visas to a narrow set of professions, but rather spread it out to more disciplines. For one, it spreads both the pain and benefits of internationalization. IT, farm laborers, and factory workers have taken most of the brunt of internationalization. (An angry rust-belt, which happened to center on swing-states, is main reason T was elected.)
You have to give T kudos for (potentially) doing some things right, even if the rest leaves a hand-print on your forehead.
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That being said, it makes sense not to give most work visas to a narrow set of professions, but rather spread it out to more disciplines.
Which the U.S. already does. An H-2A, for example, is a temporary visa for foreign agricultural workers. We just only talk about H-1B visas here because it's the one that most often applies to our own jobs -- which, by the way, include "Specialty Occupations, DOD Cooperative Research and Development Project Workers, and Fashion Models."
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just broke all your sarcasm detectors (Score:3)
if you believe there to be a free market.
What does religion have to do with this?
I thought economics was a science
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So you'd prefer the status quo to make your salary rise instead? Not really sure what you're looking for here, the government's never going to pass an "Oswald McWeany makes $250K act" or anything like that. Surely restricting foreign H1Bs will at least help the domestic market price rise a bit?
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Nope, companies will just start abusing L-1 or even B-1 visas. The fines are so low that it would be just written off as a cost of doing business.
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Or your job will move overseas. If your employer can get the necessary work done overseas (and this depends on the enterprise), your employer can pay even lower salaries there than if the workers came to live here.
So, this may drive your employer to consider exporting the jobs rather than paying more for US citizens.
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Not sure "flooded" is accurate. That's more the case on the junior/entry level and low complexity positions, but there is still plenty of demand for developers with a few years of experience or whose skills go beyond web development.
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Wages don't necessarily skyrocket for your existing job, but a corollary of
it just increases your chances of getting a job
is that it increases your chances of getting a job when you ask for more money . You do have more bargaining power.
Re:So I will earn $20,000 more a year now right... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really. It probably increases your chances of the entire software team getting outsourced overseas to cut costs, though.
You'll also still have those wonderful IT contracting firms who bring in people on temporary work visas six months at a time. They rotate them out and send the trained guy back home right when they get to the point when they start to understand how the system really works. That shit should be illegal.
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You must not be from the US, or have never applied to a number of US colleges.
They certainly do NOT admit everyone that submits an application.
Once the quotas are met for diversity's sake...it gets a bit competitive for the rest of the folks trying to compete to get in, and not everyone makes it.
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Why did you have to hire four dozen incompetent Indians before coming to this realization and (presumably) changing your hiring practices?
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Every Indian developer I've hired since 1986 when I founded a company that did DBase apps has been horrifically under qualified despite great lies on their resumes.
I think the problem is with the hiring manager that isn't capable of properly vetting candidates.
Of the ones I've worked with-- (Score:5, Insightful)
Pretty much just like the American citizens I've worked with.
The irony.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The irony.... (Score:5, Insightful)
So in essence this is returning the H1B program to what it was intended to do? (Let the U.S cherry pick the world's top talent and not import cheap semi-skilled labor en masse)
If that actually works, you could argue that this is Donald keeping his promise to laid off tech workers.
Re:The irony.... (Score:5, Insightful)
How about "enabling American workers to fill highly qualified positions"?
How do you propose to do that exactly? Seems to me that removing the seemingly cheaper H1B option for companies is a step in this direction...
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Make education great again!
Academia has a lot of issues, as does the college funding model. So much could be done to make schools cheaper and better.
Experience is how they become "qualified". (Score:5, Insightful)
How does somebody become a qualified expert?
Foundational knowledge + experience.
Acquiring the necessary foundational knowledge isn't the hard part. There are many colleges and other forms of training available to American students that can help provide that.
It's experience that takes somebody from merely having knowledge and helps make them a qualified expert.
Do you know how you get experience? You start off at an entry level position, do work, and over time you'll gain experience. Then such people can move on to mid-level positions with greater responsibility, and get additional experience. Finally, after a long time of doing this, at least some of those people will become qualified experts.
But that progression can't happen if Americans can't even get the entry level experience due to employment market distortions caused by broken government programs that essentially import unreasonably cheap third-world labor into America.
Starting at the bottom is the most sensible thing to do. Yes, it will take time, but by allowing Americans to again get entry level experience it will eventually allow them to become the experts that America so desperately needs.
Re:The irony.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Making America great again by "encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers"? How about "enabling American workers to fill highly qualified positions"?
5 more jobs paying 50k each is better than 1 job paying 250k. Those 5 guys at 50k are using that money to buy a house, pay rent, eat out, and go on vacations. The guy making 250k is tying most of that money up, either in overpriced real estate or putting it in a bank/stocks. You help the economy by putting money into circulation, which means it needs to be spent.
Re:The irony.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Still. I agree we need more $50,000/yr jobs as well as more $250,000 / yr jobs.
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Except if you live in NYC. Then you are buying a two bedroom condo for $1,000,000 plus (in a nice, safe area - not a posh, ritzy area)
That's why I said overpriced real estate :)
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The guy making 250k is tying most of that money up, either in overpriced real estate or putting it in a bank/stocks. You help the economy by putting money into circulation, which means it needs to be spent.
Isn't buying real estate the same as "putting money into circulation"?
Don't the people who sold the stocks / bonds to the guy turn around and then put the money into circulation?
Why do we care how someone else spends his/her money? We're not entitled to any of it.
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Those 5 guys at 50k are using that money to buy a house, pay rent, eat out, and go on vacations.
No, they still can't afford to do any of those things in any market where such jobs are likely to be offered.
Atlanta has a rapidly growing tech industry and 50k goes a long way there. Not all tech jobs have to be in NY or SV.
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Making America great again by "encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers"? How about "enabling American workers to fill highly qualified positions"?
Like, for example, helping more of them get experience in the low and mid-level jobs they need to move up?
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Well, if you can find Americans to fill those positions, more power to you and you should give preference to hire them as you can avoid the cost of processing an H-1B visa, let alone avoiding visa processing period. But if you are not finding the person in the US, you can not create one out of the thin air. Experience comes with hard work and doing your time on any given subject. If the remaining 10 candidates who can do thi
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The most effective way to prevent these indian abusers of H-1B visa
It's not the immigrant that's to blame here, it's the companies importing them for cheap(er) labor.
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Making America great again by "encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers"? How about "enabling American workers to fill highly qualified positions"?
Nope, Trump was elected on a promise to give you back the coal jobs... Enjoy :)
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Making America great again by "encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers"?
Yes, because that's the type of employment for which most of the population is qualified, in any country.
Also min wage 80-150K based on COL with maybe (Score:2)
Also min wage 80-150K based on COL with maybe an OT add on if they work over 60-80 hours a week more then 40% of the year at that level.
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How would you track their hours though? It seems unlikely that anyone would self report high hours if it was likely to cost them their job and their visa.
Distinction is about college requirement (Score:5, Interesting)
After reading the recommendations, computer programmers as a profession are not being limited. Programmers who only have an associates degree will be limited. I'm not sure how many H1-B holders only have associates degrees, but I haven't met any.
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Degrees like BA, BSc, BCom (arts, science, commerce) etc are three year degrees and they qualify as associate degrees. Most Indian body shopping companies recruit BE and BTech and avoid BSc candidates because of this. But vast majority of Indian college graduates have only an associate degree by US Standards. Most of them are not in the H1B pool, but there are
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Ultimately most of the work being outsourced is doable by High School graduates. The 4 year degree requirement is a sop to the offshoring companies. If you are going to require a 4 year degree for something you cant pay 100 dollars an hour for it (even though what its really worth is 30 dollars). So then the only option left is to send it offshore or bring folks on H1B who will work below their qualification level to get a shot at immigrating to the US. Stop H1B and the only option is Offshoring. Noone is
Re: Distinction is about college requirement (Score:2)
In Russia up until very recently, all degrees only came as 6 years masters. Add that to a 55% higher education rate. Now you can understand why it is such a s***hole nation. In ran away out of it in horror, and never looked back.
Re: Distinction is about college requirement (Score:2)
I suggest all sane recruiters to throw away anybody out of Russia/*stans with more than mandatory 2 year technical institute degrees. It requires a man to be particularly dumb to waste 6 or more years of productive life to get a degree with a net negative effect on his income.
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After reading the recommendations, computer programmers as a profession are not being limited. Programmers who only have an associates degree will be limited. I'm not sure how many H1-B holders only have associates degrees, but I haven't met any.
I read both of TFAs, and I didn't find any reference to associates degrees. Maybe I missed something along the way, so I'll apologize in advance if that's so. But I did see something on the Bureau of Labor Statistics site's page on Computer Programmers that might be a clue as to just how, uh, clueless our Federal government is when it comes to this sort of thing:
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Not to mention how easy it is to get a fake degree from *insert curry flavored country here*
... England?
I'm glad Trump is doing the right thing here (Score:5, Insightful)
The purpose of H1-B visas is to fill positions that companies can not fill with American workers, regardless of price. Greed CEOs, of course, promptly abused the system to use it to pull down wages and increase unemployment for US workers, such as when Disney forced US workers to train their lower cost H1-B replacements [nytimes.com] (nytimes link).
Trump is doing the right thing here. The actual memo [uscis.gov] (PDF file) spells out the new policy: just because the position needs a computer programmer, we can automatically have an H1-B fill the position.
I am no supporter of Trump and voted for Hillary last November, but I am not blinded by partisan politics; he's doing the right thing here: Protecting hard working Americans.
Re:I'm glad Trump is doing the right thing here (Score:4, Informative)
I am no supporter of Trump and voted for Hillary last November, but I am not blinded by partisan politics; he's doing the right thing here: Protecting hard working Americans.
But if you actually look at the recommendations, you can see it doesn't really do anything. All it takes is a candidate with a diploma mill degree above an associates and they are considered ready for those specialized jobs.
This isn't a real attempt to fix anything. Just an attempt to give them talking points so they can claim to have done something.
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There was no training, it was knowledge transfer.
Wrong. The employees themselves being laid off described it as training. From the NYTimes article, which I won't bother linking to a second time: "It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job." (emphasis mine). Note the use of the word "train", not "knowledge transfer." The New York Times used the word "train" multiple times in their article, and would not used the word if they did not have evidence to back up their allegation.
Or perhaps
this is old news (Score:5, Interesting)
USCIS has already considered Computer Programmer positions more skeptically. to qualify for an H-1B, the position has to require at minimum a bachelor's degree in a specialty field, or the equivalent. some Programmer positions are complex and require this, some do not.
the weird thing is, USCIS should already know this: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/comput... [bls.gov]
seems like USCIS officers are about as well trained as TSA officers
Re: this is old news (Score:3)
Won't they just change the job titles? (Score:5, Insightful)
The company I work for is a light user of H-1B visas, mainly as a way to get foriegn workers into the US to work on different projects. From what I've heard, there's already some sort of "Labor Certification" process that is basically a bunch of hoops to jump through. I'm not sure how this would be different -- the lawyers filing the requirements just make up the information on those requirements. This is the kind of stuff where you see companies posting jobs in some obscure newspaper classified section with absurd requirements, designed to show that they couldn't find any US citizen willing to do the job.
I can definitely see "computer programmer" applications changing to "IT Architect" or "DevOps Engineer" or "Systems Engineer" quickly -- which still leaves us IT folks out of any reform. I've said before that I think the program itself is OK as originally intended -- a safety valve to bring in someone with known skills. The problem is the body shops and large companies who use it to fill low-end positions cheaply. As someone who's "older" and enjoys teaching newbies how not to screw up in IT positions, I really don't want to see the end of low-level employment in IT. How do you ever get up to the level of experience you actually need to be a senior guy if you don't have a ladder of low-level jobs to start with? I've done help desk, desktop support, data center operator monkey, sysadmin and I'm finally in a good engineering spot. If we don't have a pipeline of newbies, no one is going to understand the nuts and bolts you need to know to progress.
Re: Won't they just change the job titles? (Score:2)
Yes totally that.
>I can definitely see "computer programmer" applications changing to "IT Architect" or "DevOps Engineer" or "Systems Engineer" quickly -- which still leaves us IT folks out of any reform.
This is what Amazon uses, just see how much really weird job titles they advertise. In Russia there are just two computer jobs: a computer programmer, and a computer administrator. That's all to it.
Closing a loophole... (Score:5, Interesting)
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also they should ban online job applications systems that make it easy to screen out any one but the per picked H1B + may a few token auto pass overs.
Now if they had to do 10-30 real interviews with at least few being sent in from say unemployment that may must do a real interview and must give real feed back to be able to hire an H1B and not does not fit in with our non US team does not count.
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They can set there online systems to red flag all for job X / make so they must have some very odd and unneeded skill to say we looked for an USC and did not find one.
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Re:Closing a loophole... (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you have any evidence that Google has been pulling in people to fill lower positions? Disney absolutely abused the system, but everything I have seen either personally or in statistics says that companies like Apple and Google have been using the system to pull in high-talent people, and they paying the accordingly. I know that Apple has off-shored a lot of low-level IT (to India), but that is not directly associated with the H1-B conversation, as those people are still living in India.
The real abusers are places like Tata Consulting, Infosys, and Wipro where they secure the H1-B slots for consulting, then go and find actual work for the people they bring in (so the opposite of what is supposed to be happening). The chart in this article nicely lays out the problem, where outsourcing firms dominate the top 20 users of H1-B (data is from 2014, but is unlikely to have materially changed):
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/us/outsourcing-companies-dominate-h1b-visas.html?_r=0
At a guess I would lump half of the IBM positions (remember they are mainly a consulting company), and all the Deloitte & Touche positions in with the mis-use category. And then treat the Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, and Apple (plus half of IBM) positions as valid uses of H1-B (I am sure there are some exceptions even there, but... on the whole...). A quick addition of what I just said has 4,329 legitimate H1-B and 27,806 dodgy positions in the top 20 users of the system (those 20 account for a bit less than half of the use: ~32K out of 85K positions).
Re: Closing a loophole... (Score:2, Interesting)
>The real abusers are places like Tata Consulting,
>Infosys, and Wipro where they secure the H1-B
>slots for consulting, then go and find actual work
>for the people they bring in (so the opposite of
>what is supposed to be happening). The chart in
>this article nicely lays out the problem, where
>outsourcing firms dominate the top 20 users of H1-
>B (data is from 2014, but is unlikely to have
>materially changed):
Do you realize just how much more good do Tata and co. do to America, than
Somebody doesn't understand what SW dev involves (Score:3, Insightful)
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It is good, minor tweaks could make it better. (Score:5, Insightful)
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TCS/Wipro/Infosys/Cognizant do game the lottery but the main way they game it is by using up so many slots that others cant. They hardly use a fraction of the H1s they do get. In your scenario they can still game it by applying for a large number of H1s with LCAs with high salaries but never sending those folks . When there is a resultant shortage of workers in the US the entire project will be sent offshore and the offshoring firms will be happy.
You want to fight against offshoring make H1b unlimited. Any
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They all have Master's Degrees Already... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now they couldn't code worth a damn, the libraries they included in the code ballooned the code base, and god help you if you needed documentation. They were some of the worst 'developers' I've ever met and 1/10 was decent enough to not build code that didn't melt the servers down. The whole reason we had a team of 5 System Admins supporting 2 floors of developers was because of their shoddy coding skills. It was great job security.
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Well young'n, it's a communication instrument very similar to electronic displays or tablets or such but requiring no power source and is usually large enough at small expense that an entire room of people can view it comfortably. NOTE: It requires no passwords either, only a dry erase pen (much cheaper than an electronic writing stylus).
Oh, it also won't force updates down your throat in the middle of a presentation.
If that's true there will be significant shortage (Score:2)
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The Indian companies dont really want to file for H1Bs. They want to take the work offshore. They file a large number of H1Bs and dont use all of them. But this way the client companies who dont plan visas years in advance dont have a visa available when they do give up on searching for local candidates and are willing to settle for a visa candidate. At that point they have 2 choices wait a year or hire as contractor from the consulting firms.
This is bad as students graduating in the winter semester cannot
Why are there so many H1-B stories (Score:2)
Why are there so many H1-B stories on Slashdot? Why are you guys fixated on H1-B?
If you create artificial scarcity by cutting off supply, the market will work around you. You remember what happened to manufacturing jobs?
In the short term, your salary may rise because there is a shortage of computer programmers. But businesses will accelerate moving those jobs out to cheaper geographies. This is already happening. You're just trying to make it more of an urgent issue.
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the market will work around you.
Yeah, haven't you noticed how doctors, lawyers and entertainers have seen their positions reduced and removed due to professional licensing/mandatory professional membership requirements?
Re:Why are there so many H1-B stories (Score:5, Insightful)
If you job requires physical presence here, it is difficult to outsource. Doctors are safe. Lawyers are safe too. They Indian lawyers cannot represent you in US court.
Computer programmers do not enjoy those protections and cannot. Unless govt mandates that businesses cannot outsource. That is not likely to happen. And if it did, the tech industry outside of US would rejoice. As that would bring an end to the near-monopoly US businesses have in this field.
Sergey Brin wasn't born here, Elon Musk wasn't born here, Steve Jobs' father wasn't born here. On and on and on. At some point you will realize that immigrants and their families make a huge contribution to making the US tech industry the best and the biggest in the world.
Don't be short-sighted and try to kill the chicken that is currently laying the golden eggs.
The tech industry in the US is quite healthy. If you are any good, you can easily find a job. In this economy, if anybody cannot find a job as a computer programmer, well, a blame on H1-B program is misplaced.
Need to read the Memo before posting an article (Score:4, Informative)
All this memo is saying is that since the Nebraska center is now processing H1Bs like it did during the Y2K rush it needs to do so at the existing standards (4 yr degree needed) instead of the Y2K standards (No degree needed to get H1B). Nothing to see here. keep walking.
From 2006 onwards only the Texas center has processed H1Bs and the standard has been a 4 year degree is needed.
American College Grads (Score:2)
These kids I interview often don't have CS degrees (I'm a team lead and I screen many candidates). 10 years ago, many people were telling American kids not to go for IT degrees because it wasn't considered a stable career. That the dot-com growth was temporary and that the jobs would soon be outsourced. This has been partially true, but we've been able to hold onto them through H1-B visa programs as well. But without graduates with the necessary qualifications, and with the current aging generation of progr
Re:American College Grads (Score:4, Interesting)
If you haven't taken an internship in software engineering, then I really can't justify hiring you. Sorry
If you're an intern, and have taken some programming courses, and have plans or are in the process of taking some specialized courses, then we absolutely do bring in *paid* interns that way. In my group's case, we look for system software related courses. Operating systems, or embedded, or even digital logic design. We're pretty flexible.
We bring in almost as many Canadian interns (from Canadian schools) as American interns. It's been slim pickings for American interns. Most of our interns from US universities are here on a student visa.
MAY no longer be eligible (Score:3)
H-1B Visas were always meant for positions not readily filled by current residents or citizens. As the article and summary state, a computer programmer doesn't get automatic approval; the company must prove why the requirements are not met by people already here. I just expect an updated buzzword BINGO card. I do wonder if USCCIS knows the difference between a computer programmer and software engineer.
Just coding is no longer sufficient (Score:3)
According to the US code:
https://www.nafsa.org/_/file/_... [nafsa.org]
"Based on the current version of the Handbook, the fact that a person may be employed as a computer programmer and may use information technology skills and knowledge to help an enterprise achieve its goals in the course of his or her job is not sufficient to establish the position as a specialty occupation. Thus, a petitioner may not rely solely on the Handbook to meet its burden when seeking to sponsor a beneficiary for a computer programmer position. Instead, a petitioner must provide other evidence to establish that the particular position is one in a specialty occupation as defined by 8 CFR 214.2(h)(4)(ii) that also meets one of the criteria
at 8 CFR 214.2(h)(4)(iii). Section 214(i)(1) of the INA; see also Royal Siam Corp. v. Chertoff, 484 F.3d 139, 147 (1st Cir. 2007).8."
Now you must offer more than a 2 year degree and no experience. You must somehow substantiate that you possess expertise. You should be "prominent", or a "recognized authority", or expert (as demonstrated by referreed publications or a thesis).
Your occupation must "require theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in fields of human endeavor including, but not limited to, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, business specialties, accounting, law, theology, and the arts, and which requires the attainment of a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific specialty, or its equivalent, as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States."
Developer vs Programmer vs Engineer (Score:5, Insightful)
Gotta check the legal fine print on this one. Haven't most positions been retitled from "Programmer" to something else a while back? It's easy enough to talk around the skills and call the job something else.
Makes sense (Score:2)
Now to train those out of work coal miners in object oriented threaded transactional mobile database security.
IIf(COAL::Empty(),Stack::Overflow(),Stack::Fill())
Hardly a barrier (Score:2)
>> require additional information for computer programmers applying for the work visa to prove the jobs are complicated and require more advanced knowledge and experience.
You know its blindingly easy to make up some bullshit reason why some cheap indian guy happens to be the worlds expert in something obscure, like the hello world app he just wrote.
Yea (Score:2)
It's about fucking time (Score:2)
Seriously, anyone who claims that the H1 visa program is not used as cheap labor pool is a damn liar.
I have many large customers in the US. I am located in the the EU, so I dont have a vested interested in your visa program.
Anyhow, these are huge firms in the automotive industry. Very often things come up during the phase of a project and management first questions is, can we have someone in India do that work for us and if not, can we get some Indian guys over here?
Ever been in Michigan? There are so man
But will it be enforced? (Score:5, Informative)
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Can't wait to see some of my coworkers go back to where they came from :-)
The Russian men can leave. The hot Russian women can stay.
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Say, I thought Trump was against illegal immigration - which your co-workers are if they hold H1-B's.
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Look, a president delivering on one of his promises is a big *big* deal in my opinion.
Especially this president who can only get his golf game done each weekend.
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