New H-1B Policy Demands Visa Holders Have ‘Specialty Occupation’

The Trump administration is starting to make good on a campaign promise to reform the H-1B program. A new policy now mandates any H-1B recipient must fill a specific, specialty role.

For any H-1B visa to be approved, each applicant must be employed in a “specialty occupation,” and the employer agrees to remain in an employer-employee relationship with the visa holder for the duration of the visa’s validity period.

If you’re looking for the TL;DR version of this policy, companies can no longer hire entry-level “software engineers” en masse from overseas, nor can they shuffle them off to subsidiaries. Similarly, a visa holder can’t use the program to gain entry to the United States, then jump ship to another company once here.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also says it reserves the right to change the duration of H-1B visa grants:


As-is, USCIS officers aren’t required to review third-party contracts or define the exact dates or location these visa holders will work. It’s not clear if this policy change will also mean closer inspection of those contracts or job offers.


So far, the White House has engaged in a protracted, clumsy relationship with H-1B. True reform has yet to occur (even after a “comprehensive look” by the administration), and the most recent action taken against H-1B wasn’t direct; instead, the Trump White House limited the rights of H-1B spouses to work.

This change in policy from the USCIS isn’t necessarily shocking. Last March, the agency asked its officers to better identify specialized workers within the H-1B program. At the time, it said in a memo that “an entry-level computer programmer position would not generally qualify as a position in a specialty occupation.”

In limiting the H-1B program to specialized roles, the USCIS might be obeying both the spirit and letter of the program. It’s also a more direct challenge to companies that seem to use the visa program to quickly staff mid-level tech jobs. Even if those bills that want to expand the program manage to pass Congress, this bottleneck might prevent what some see as an abuse of the H-1B program.

126 Responses to “New H-1B Policy Demands Visa Holders Have ‘Specialty Occupation’”

  1. John Connor


    It is the same memo from two years ago…

    if H1B = EXTENDED

    The scam continues ‘maybe’ in the following way 🙂

    A. Their attorneys know all the tricks for the H1B paper work (most of them from the same country of origin)

    B. The managers or executives (H1B related) just hire another H1B’s

    C. Nobody is following the money (taxes from H1B’s, LLC’s from Mangers or C Levels related to this scam)

    D. Nobody is checking the called bench nor the phantom payments to H1B’s (compare their job offer letter Vs. their taxes each year)

    E. Nobody is comparing the job applications from US Citizens Vs. H1B’s for a particular company or job position

    F. Any benefits for H1B whistleblowers to report scams? (fast green card for reporting scammers?)

    Have a nice day uscis, irs, auditors, etc…

    • 4thepeoplebythepeople

      Why all this?

      I mean why this crap?

      Finally it all will cost US economy, US is build by H1B workers, our education system is crap. If we put these crappy rules on H1B then believe me our country will start falling behind, till today were were importing talent and using them to develop our nation. What we are today is because of H1B.

      We don’t need this shit. We need to develop as a nation respected by all other nations.
      These rules will destroy our talent acquisition process and god know what else.

      • Really

        Not sure which industry you believe H1B workers are better qualified or have built or country??? In my industry (Software, Business Development) the H1B visa program has decimated bill rates with consultants without any experience in the actual field they have been sold as an expert. I have had conversations with people that have come through the H1B program who have told me lying on their resume was common in their country as they felt they could pick up the skillset before the client terminated the contract. He saw NO problem with deceiving everyone involved to reach the desired outcome… access to our great country and money!!!! This is a multi-billion dollar industry in India, why do you think that is???

        So please tell me which industry as the industry I am in has been hurt badly by this program. I make less money now than I did 15 years ago. Think about that!!!

      • Tim Reymond

        Mr. 4thepeoplebythepeople, you said “our education system is crap”. How many noble prize winners are from India ? Our scientific advance is declining because of 85% of the entry level H-1B who are cross trained by their experienced fellows. America was at the top of all innovations in science and technology. After H-1B flooded the field America is declining in those fields. If there is no jobs for American college graduates, they will stop going to college staring another massive decline in education. Under the current job situation in America, H-1B must be limited to 20% of current number and H1-B visa applicants must be thoroughly vetted before approval.

        • suman chakraborty

          1. NASA lead by US citizens and MAGA Govt made amazing progress in Space travel in last 40 years. H1B holder from South Africa, Elon Musk created such a regressive company in SpaceX. He is even making rockets to the wrong way.

          2. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, made a legendary museum company out of it. H1B holder Satya Nadella is making it a bad company by challenging even Amazon.

          3. And that legacy company Google, under Sundar Pichai, so outdated than Apple.

          MAGA people are right, country of Birth determines intelligence. And it was immigrants who made it law to allow people to work in ‘speciality occupations’ via ‘lottery system’. While foolish countries like: Canada, UK, Australia use ‘Point system’.

          All is immigrants fault, well, except, Euro American immigrants of course.

      • Gabriel Lobo-Blanco

        I am sorry to see people thinking like this. This is why the country has lost its leading edge and nationals don’t want to get involved in tech related fields. What you say is completely false and you know it. H-1B has been the detriment of the country for years and somebody needs to stop the abuse.
        The president is going around and around instead of taking a firm step, just because there is simply too much money involved.

      • jth4944

        You are clearly an H-1B beneficiary. I agree completely with the comment from “really”. Like him/her, I have actual experience to back it up. H-1B has not and does not ‘build’ America. To say H-1b built America is truly an absurd and WAY, WAY OVER-THE-TOP statement. You make it sound like the immigrants of the 18th and 19th century. H-1B has been abused by every industry I have experienced (from IT to flavors & fragrances). Here’s the reality of H-1B: For every 1 person with the ideas, brilliance, and drive to build an industry in America, there are 500-10000 H-1B recipients who arrive with non-specialized skills, willing to get paid less – effectively putting Americans out of work. Even worse, the existing employees, are tasked with training them!
        Additionally and very importantly, there is simply no technical knowledge, skill or insight outside America that isn’t already understood and/or taught in America. The great, great majority of research is still done IN America. So, if American businesses genuinely need specialized skills, then instead of sponsoring dozens of H-1B recipients, (paying for their travel, housing and salary) they should stop whining about it and have their own people (Americans and people who have immigrated to America (not H-1B)) trained. If they won’t do that, then clearly it is not ‘specialized’ skills they are after.

        • I am a H1B beneficiary and work for a top American company, company interviewed 10-15 candidates before offering me the position with pay 25% over the department of labor set wage (25% over the level 4 wage) that’s like the highest wage set for that job, I don’t mean to brag but don’t generalize that H1B workers are non skilled or work for low wage, I agree that the system is being abused and needs strict vetting but abolishing H1B overall is foolish idea considering there is demand for lot of high skilled jobs, Btw, US is still the greatest country for STEM and research, let’s focus on how to get more kids in to STEM and train them to get good skilled job, then complaining about foreign labor, there is problem on both sides which needs to be addressed, look at how many American graduates are coming out every year and how many high skilled jobs are open… there are indeed more jobs, so let’s tighten H1B vetting at the same time address the root cause of problem, god bless America!

          • John Doe

            “I am a H1B beneficiary and work for a top American company, company interviewed 10-15 candidates before offering me the position…”

            You probably don’t want to hear this, but you were hired illegally. If there are qualified American citizens applying for the job, they must be hired over an H-1B, even a much more qualified H-1B. That is the law. If eleven candidates applied for the position, and ten were H-1B and one was an American citizen, and the ten were all more qualified for that position, but the citizen could do the work, then the citizen must be hired. Again, that is the law. Every single company has broken this law. Nowadays, there are so many H-1Bs out there, easily more than half of any big IT facility, that if ten citizens and one H-1B applied for a position and all of the citizens had more qualifications than the H-1B, the H-1B would be hired, often because it is an H-1B doing the hiring.

          • We have plenty of students in STEM. Most of them leave school with a CS degree and find themselves unemployable due to the strong preference for cheap, indentured H1B and OPT labor. The reason you don’t see tremendous unemployment is because they find work in unrelated occupations after having been rejected in their chosen field. If you get part time work as at a coffee shop with a STEM degree, you don’t count towards actual unemployment.

            This distribution paints the picture quite clearly, note the only industry with a dramatically demographically disparate bias is tech:

            You may not be attempting to defraud anyone personally, but you’re complicit in a larger system that is exploitative to the economy and workers on both sides of the equation.

        • Lookbeyond

          I completely empathize with members on both sides. I have worked with H1 workers and they work long hours, which American workers are simply not willing to work. The Capatilist economy favors hard workers who are willing to work for less (the same old story). That said, if American workers are willing to work for a bit less and improve their skills,there is no reason the will not be as or more competitive than any other worker from around the world. I agree, anyone who abuses the law by faking salaries, or roles or anything for that matter should face the fury of the law. I don’t believe it is fair to blame one over the other. This is a case for competitiveness by the American workers. Companies will hire whoever will get the job done for the right price.

          • I’ll admit to having witnessed that work ethic (or at least a willingness to be present with posterior-en-situ) in the past. Lately though I’ve been embedded as the hero coder for shops that have reached 90+% saturation of H-1Bs. I’m there a few hours before they arrive, I’m still there a few hours after they leave ( general schedule is the train they take gets in at 9:30, they depart sometime between 3 and 3:30 ). I don’t know if that behavior is a result of concentration, or just a generational thing as none of them south of director level is over the age of 28.

      • Jessica

        Millions of students all across the world come to the US for education. I am not just talking about Harvard, Stanford and MIT. If our education system is so full of crap why are these people not getting educated in their superior education system. Do you have any idea what over population looks like? 50% of indian people are sh**** on the streets because the government cannot provide enough bathrooms. Also, I am from another country when we come to America, we study really hard to get good grades so that we can stay here. We do not do well because we have superior education system, we do well because we work hard otherwise we are out. I cannot believe how unaware American people are regarding to how much they actually have. Do you know how bad indian programmers are. They send you work from Hyderbad and then you have to erase everything they have done because they suck so much at programming. Do you know how much IBM went down the drain because of outsourcing? Do you know 90% of Bollywood movies are just copying movies from Hollywood. Dr. Michao Kaku referenced Jersey Shore, to prove how dumb Americans are. Ever watched a Bollywood movie? or a Korean commercial? I have been to 18 countries American people are more motivated, intelligent and hardworking, you guys deserve the best immigrant like Elon Musk(American educated) ,you know when we asked those indian programmers why their programming is so bad they blamed their education system. They also make recent graduates put fake credentials in their resume which could be another reason why they are so bad. Also, most of these mediocre people come to America and talk about how superior their education system is. Most of these people are frauds. I have encountered many, pretended to be more knowledgeable than they are really are and says a lot of things that are scientifically, statistically or historically wrong. When I came to America, thinking I have superior knowledge of Physics, it turns out that I didn’t know the basic concept I have just been memorizing everything and I felt more enlightened as professors covered the real physics in America. American people needs to wake up and understand how much they have

        • Jessica-Sucks


          I know how hard it is being an immigrant, I can feel the same way about you and Melina Trump. I feel sorry for you both being trapped with a tool who is shorter and hairier then an Indian. But moving on, FYI India is much more developed then your stereotype comments. I wonder why you feel ashamed of you country of origin that you never mentioned it in your post.

          On second note, I am a student just like you, maybe from a better school and with better grades. Again, H1B is for people who deserve it and are special (not specially challenged like you). On the contrary 90% of black US Citizen are living off EBT and 70% of white kids are smoking pot before they could get in community college. When you talk about IT, I wonder how many jobs you came across were entry-level eligible. If you say younger generation cannot get jobs, its because of people who own them (American’s) have their norm and hire people on H1B astray have more experience at the same age of a US inexperienced undergrad . And for others, who think they got laid off due to an H1B should think that if they had a unique ability of a job that cannot be replaced by someone who can perform with a months training would be employed.(Ohh I forgot you like to collect unemployment.)How about we start to take responsibility and not blame on any other nation and humans.

    • U S Citizen

      There is an Indian H1B, a new hire into our team who is given a job title “Release Management Specialist” by our H1B Indian Manager. This is one of many manipulations in the system.

      • Gabriel Lobo-Blanco

        This is very typical. This is the type of abuse that needs to be stopped. I agree with the new policies from president Trump, but I think they are just too little too slow. I wish he would just take a more firm approach.

      • Release experts (newer words are, devops folks, build managers, etc.. , now a days engineers backend ones, are more familiar with prod deployments, …., thanks god ) are a common thing in large companies, which automates lot of “black art of prod deployments etc” and makes the whole process of software development more productive. Just try to emphasized importance of release process. 😛

        Disclaimer: I’m on H1b.

  2. wageslave

    I see a lot of twin edged swords here. Shutting down the ability to change jobs is just going to help employers suppress wages. Once a visa holder gets here and realizes that 40k is not going to cut it in Silicon Valley then the only option they have is to jump ship to another employer. Cut that off and the wage is cast in stone forcing American workers to compete at that wage. How about locking the wage into Robert Half salary survey’s high end. Price the incentive to hire offshore out of the market. Or how about some really nasty tariffs.

    • Free Market

      No way!
      Your idea is not in favor of American workers.
      Let the free market to decide the wages, now it is controlled just by H1B’s
      Recruiters perhaps are another mafias controlling our wages.

      • wageSlave

        I’m all for free markets. The problem is that they don’t exist for labor. You will not be able to find a true free market for labor in existence anywhere in the world. You would be hard pressed to find any free market at all. Labor markets are special. In labor markets you have price setters and price takers. The reason for this is that employers WANT to produce more units and employees NEED to feed themselves. Even in the freest market for labor there will never be an equal playing field. The advantage will always be in favor of the employer. Thus the need for labor laws to “right the wrongs” of this uneven bargaining position and avoid the violence that occurs when sociopaths push the equation too far out of kilt. AGAIN.
        Free trade was lie perpetrated by the corporate media. It was accomplished by strategically dropping one word from the conversation. “Free trade will lead to higher global efficiency.” I don’t disagree with this sentence. Drop the word global and push it out to people with inadequate economic understanding to push free trade the concept and you create a big problem. “Free trade will lead to higher efficiency” leaves the perception that it will benefit the United States economy and that was a lie. Global efficiency does improve, but at the expense of existing market leaders. In this case the United States and its labor markets. At one time we had the best tariff system in the world and it protected our labor markets as only tariffs can. Tariffs helped build the biggest consumer economy that ever existed. Unfortunately, building a bigger global economy means less wealthy consumers in the United States and a race to the bottom for our consumer economy as demand recedes and labor strife sets in.

        • wageSlave

          Headline ‘Dow drops more than 200 points on trade war worries.’ Tariffs are a very powerful tool that works. You don’t even have to use them. The mire possibility generates movement that can suppress bad behavior. Target one small player that will move things in the direction you want to go and boom all the players get in line. You can’t be squamous if you want to fix the labor market.

      • Less h1b = less competition = better salaries in the us = More outsourcing

        Best of luck for 2020. After 2020, just like all manufacturing was moved to China, all software development will move to India, leaving you to work at dunkin donuts serving coffee.

    • Ex H1B Holder

      One of the requirements for an H1B application is paying the prevailing wage for the position in the area. I doubt the 40K is the average Silicon Valley Software Engineer makes in that area.

    • Gabriel Lobo-Blanco

      This is actually not true. As an H-1B visa holder, employers are required to pay them a minimum of $60K per year. If they don’t then employees can go to USCIS and file a complaint and their name would be black listed.
      This means that USCIS would not approve any further petitions for H-1B visas.

      • Tim Reymond

        Whos is going to complain to USCIS ? The prospective H-1B employee ? Never happens. The H-1B employee will never complain USCIS even if paid 40K. If the new hire is from India, the Indian Manager will never pay less. The Manager will do a hard bargain if the prospective employee is American. I went through this. So, I know. Because of intense and massive fraud the H-1B must be regulated and vetted. The suffering of American employees was enough and this is time to cut down H-1B visa numbers.

        • The employer has to notify the wage rate to USCIS they pay to the employee everytime they filed a new, extn or amendment visa petition :). Didn’t know people are so silly or blinded by hate.

          • John Doe 2

            I thought most of those so called American employees are also immigrants in some way.
            Half of those American employees either WFH, or come to work at 9 and leave by 3 PM.
            Not ready to adapt new technologies. Don’t trust anybody, not even their spouse.

            American IT industry is nothing without Asians.

        • Good4u

          Everyone here is knows the problem but no one wants to find a solution.

          For any one who thinks its easy for H1b to get jobs in America or employers are keen to hire H1b’s over american citizens because its some kind of conspiracy against american citizens, do this little experiment. Next time you talk with potential employer tell them you need H1b transfer. To debunk another myth tell the employer you are willing to work for half the pay or minimum ($60,000/yr required for H1b). If you know a little Math find the % of employers calling you back or setting up an interview, my guess is its very close to 0% if you round it up depending on state you live in.

          On other hand I agree that there are companies and individuals who have taken advantage of system and this need to be regulated. Simple fixes can do it .First of all H1b Body shoppers should be closed down, as they are lose- lose situation for both business and employees. For me I believe only some one who has gone through American education system ( both for education quality and cost) should be allowed to get h1b, bullet point for American equivalent foreign degree should be removed from requirements and replaced with tests or vetting process which really determines the skill level of person. Americans get a raw deal there where they have to pay close to 200K for education then compete with some one who paid couple thousand for their education (This is why some h1b’s are able afford low wages as they have no student loans).

          Overall America needs real skilled people who are willing to put effort and pay the price to educate themselves to level where american companies and people benefit from them(I believe even american citizens should do this for sake of this country). America will lose in long term if they close the doors as most of the jobs will be outsourced to foreign countries with low labor costs. This is how capitalistic system works.

          Remember America Consumes 40% of world resources and does not make even 5% of it. So there will always be trade deficit if we want to keep the standard of living. the Labor market needs to grow each year not get smaller in order to support our elderly and disabled population. We need to lead with knowledge and innovation which needs brains from wherever they are in the world.

  3. An International

    If enough Americans got degrees in technical field to supply the market you wouldn’t have this issue. Go take a look at an engineering class you will find that not a lot of Americans are there, same goes for hard sciences, you will see Asians, Middle Eastern and Latinos. Hiring an alien is significantly more complicated, not to mention expensive, for companies. If they were to find enough qualified us citizens I can assure you they would hire them. If you have two equally qualified applicants one a american and another of some other citizenship the position will always got to the american. No question.

    • wageSlave

      A shortage can only occur at a price point. Shortages occur when the price is maintained below the equilibrium price. That is the definition of a shortage. US wages in general have been stagnating for DECADES and shortages particularly in the STEM disciplines do appear to be occurring IN THE US. Think micro. The sucking sound you hear may be STEM talent leaving the country to places that pay more and I’m sure that is occurring because of global demand for STEM talent particularly in some engineering disciplines. Think macro.

      Hypothetically, if the price paid for STEM talent here in the US were to double, the schools would fill with talent chasing the new equilibrium. If the labor market was healthy then it would right itself using the pricing mechanism. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be able. I don’t think the pricing mechanism is working because bigger problems exist in the US labor market. When over 86% of the listing are head hunters the market is very sick requiring government intervention to right it again. If there are indeed shortages of IT workers in the US (micro) it is because the employers found a way to leveraged the ability to fix prices below the equilibrium price.

      There is other evidence of this sickness in the labor market and that is the level of under employed and unemployed workers over 50 years of age. This is being caused by the government’s inability to overcome pressures from special interests and fix the broken healthcare system which prices out workers over 50 years of age. A lot of the countries that are gaining from globalization have socialized medicine. Meaning that the industry is not paying for health care directly, but the real gain is because the price of maintaining one healthcare system is way cheaper than maintaining 6 or 7 different health care systems like the US currently does. The US labor market is broken.
      IT workers are extreme specialists and adding “specialty occupations” requirements does nothing to fix what ails the US labor markets. The problem is so much bigger then that.

      • John Doe

        When I got into mainframe programming, quickee schools were all the rage where the gut of unemployed school teachers could study for six months to a year and learn coding and easily find IT work. That was back in the 1980s. John Hancock in Boston had a two-month program where they paid new hires to learn COBOL coding and then kept them on as full-time programmer/analysts. There will never be a shortage of bright and hard-working candidates among US citizens who would opt for something like that in order to improve their earnings potential, but the H-1B program has completely ruined that option for them. It certainly does not take a BS or MS degree to do coding. Ironically, that quickee type of coding school is how many H-1Bs learn the basics of coding in India and come to the US under the guise of being the best and the brightest and the most talented.

    • steward

      @An International: “Go take a look at an engineering class you will find that not a lot of Americans are there” – really? You can tell a person’s citizenship just by looking at them?

      Or do you assume that Americans are only Caucasian? American-born citizens have legal immigrant parents from all over the world. There are many people of Indian descent, with American birth citizenship, who have problems getting jobs as well – because it’s easier for employers to underpay foreigners.

      @wageSlave: The solution is simple: have USCIS set up a website for posting jobs. Any employer can post there, but a job must have been posted there for at least three months without responses by an American who substantially requires with the job requirements for the employer to even APPLY for an H-1B. Applications for H-1B’s would be a minimum of $10K, non-refundable. The company would have to show that any applicant considered for the visa met the requirements for the H-1B and that no American applicants met it. USCIS officers would be detailed to do a 6-month desk audit as well to enforce the new policy memorandum. Companies that use H-1B’s for work not detailed in the H-1B application would be banned from the program for 2 years. This would correct the market failure, which is a prime function of national governments. (Right now applications for H-1B’s not granted *are refunded*. Why? The government has already done the work – and is charging the costs to the taxpayer!)

      That is merely a wrong assumption. Do you know that many companies now use agencies ( alias head hunter) to search for and obtain IT professionals?
      Those agencies are mostly foreign owned and they prefer workers from their countries over qualified Americans.

      • “Those agencies are mostly foreign owned and they prefer workers from their countries over qualified Americans.”
        Correction: “Those agencies are mostly Indian owned and they prefer workers from India over qualified non-Indian Americans.”

      • Tim Reymond

        I agree 100%. If an agency call for job, the chances are 93% that the caller is an Indian and 90% chance the Agency is also Indian. Many of them call directly from India. American job seeker has become hostage in their own country. This tragedy must stop.

    • Anonymous

      Not necessarily. In our region due to the oil and gas crisis we have a ton of Engineers in the market right now. We also have them in schools as students. Its supply and demand. We have way more Engineers in the area than Engineering positions. Students are seeing that the field is becoming overrun not just by our own Engineers but people coming in from overseas. Most everyone outside of the US here has had their government pay 💯 % of their education all the way through college. Students in the US take on massive debt for the education. You have to make sure that whatever you’re pati for and majoring in will have enough open positions that will provide you a living plus pay back all the student loan debt. Americans have requirements to pay for car insurance and other things required by law so they have to make a “living wage” as a citizen. I know of many from Engineering to medical that are working more than one job and many are underemployed. Please don’t use the line of “just move” because it takes time, money, good credit and everything else no matter where or how far you move.

    • YourMaster

      Are you kidding me? There are enough graduates in engineering (regardless of their race) they are american kids. Educate yourself. These kids are also facing hard time finding the jobs. Earlier there would be training programs for the new graduates after they received degrees. Now those only exist overseas as these kids have to compete against new graduates overseas.

      Trump is doing the right thing for America. I hope the corruption does not get him, as his son is selling Trump name in India on properties. We need to put a leash on that.

      In the end, there has to a be balance. Pure globalization will kill any single country because and pure isolation will also hurt the country as companies need more customers and these days for fortune 500 companies 60% of their customers are overseas.

      Go President Trump in 2020 !! Great Job!! Just improve your temper management
      I will vote for you this time( A lifelong democrat )

    • Are you serious? There are thousands of us citizens that held these jobs and were let go and replaced by offshore resources, many of which are now working in our country sitting in the chairs of the people they replaced. I was with a pharma company for 15 years and had to train unqualified people to take my job. If I wasn’t willing to train them, I was not eligible for my severance. Wake up and understand the reality of what’s really going on here. It’s terriblr

    • outsourced_in_Philadelphia

      This latest move to try to limit this H1-B visa abuse will only help so much as the
      lizards that run the corporations will figure out a way to get around it. It seems that it
      is a move that is trying to appease both sides of the issue. While it will be more difficult for the H1B holders, it will do little to solve the problem.
      Wages have been stagnant in the Tech Sector for the past 20 years. Corporate
      profits are soaring, yet there are few jobs out there for the American worker. The chasm between the rich and the poor grows daily. The politicians are aware of the problem, but don’t care so long as it doesn’t affect their wallet. It is unconscionable that such disgusting labor practices still goes on in ” The Land of the Free”.
      And yet another thing, even if the government purges the H1-B Visa
      program in its entirety, and there are no more Visa holders allowed here, there would
      still be issues. Case in point, I just received an early Christmas present from my employer this past December; my position as a Unix Tech Support Analyst in Philadelphia was eliminated along with several other folks. We were replaced by hiring lower paid individuals in the company’s Pune and Bangalore offices. Since December this employer has been laying off workers in January , February, and there are rumors that March will be the same. In this case there were no H1-B visas in the game; just a practice of an American company opening a few storage bins in foreign countries so that they can get cheaper labor. To limit stuff like this from happening the government would have to step in and aggressively audit the hiring practices of employers like this. Proof of citizenship should be supplied for all workers, and a limit be placed on the foreign workers to offset the scales in favor of the American Worker. Most-likely this will never happen in my lifetime; but it’s nice to dream.

      • Specialist_occupation

        I agree it is terrible to get laid off and train your replacement. But the reality is that IT is a highly competitie abd specialist occupation nowadays. The companies cannot remain conpwtitive if they do not hire the best talent.
        Workers need to constantly update their skills and American workers cannot just think their jobs are guaranteed based on tech skills they acquired 15 years ago in tech support. Those jobs will always be outsourced at low wages even if H1B is regulated even more strongly. Artificial intelligence will also eliminate these tech support and redundant jobs.
        If you have the right skills, the companies will anyday hire Americans workers over H1B and pay 25% more than prevailing wages, but not anymore for low skilled tech support jobs.

        • outsourced_in_Philadelphia

          It is true that the employers in American companies are demanding much higher skill sets than they did 20 years ago; but that is a direct result of outsourcing. Since most of the Tech jobs are outsourced, the one’s that are left mandates very specific talents, that are hard to fill. That said however, do not fool yourself to think that American Companies are going to other countries because the people that are onshore aren’t up to speed. It is merely because it is a cheaper option to outsource. The bottom line is what counts with most companies that outsource; and they will often trade off high quality for less in order to save money.

    • Well at least you’re honest about being “an International.” But if anything else you said in your post was true, then the IT departments at Disney and Lowes would still be staffed by American workers. The reality is that it is easy and cheap for these corporations to lay off scores of employees and replace them with foreign scabs like yourself. This devalues my profession and makes it very difficult for new graduates to break into. I can only hope that something destabilizes Kashmir and both countries contributing to this travesty are wiped out in a nuclear apocalypse. That’s probably the only thing that will prevent greedy executives from skirting the law and loading up on cheap labor.

      • How noble, so you would consider annihilation of people and lives over your job. Instead may I suggest you get off your lazy ass, upskill and take a lower pay to compete in the market. Everytime you buy from Amazon or look for the cheapest airfare you are doing the same to the mom and pop shop or airline agent that went out of business. Learn to adapt or perish with the tidal wave.

        • Hi Jill.. Kudos to you👍 Phil is out of his mind, he & his buddies don’t understand market economics.. Bunch of whiners… While I agree there’s some abuse w H-1B program, that’s miniscule compared to fundamental transformation going on.. Truth is there’s short of talent, our kids are not into going into Compurer science & technical fields. Companies r going overseas and they will go more if we stop H1Bs. We need to compete in this global economy, the more we put a blind eye w these protection policies, it’s only going to back fire… Wake up guys!!!

    • Gabriel Lobo-Blanco

      The reason why you don’t see many Americans is because they are afraid of not being able to find jobs after they graduate. Exactly what is happening today. If there were jobs available, they would most definitely go to those classes.
      I have a soon who truly regrets having major in Computer Science. He was not able to find a job in his field so he is not a teacher at an elementary school.

  4. An International


    • Of all the big lies that surround this issue, the biggest is the alleged “shortage” of Americans with technical degrees and experience. Facts are that there are plenty of talented, experienced Americans available. Companies want to pay less and make the excuse that older workers don’t know the “latest technology”. As Norman Matloff’s research shows, there is ALWAYS a “shortage” in people with the “latest technology”. Experienced people have the ability to learn new technologies. Companies don’t want to deal with the learning that is required.

      The big players have plenty of established procedures on funneling H1-B applications to the government. It is NOT complicated or difficult for them. That lie also busted.

      Anything that makes H1-B more difficult, the better.

    • Gabriel Lobo-Blanco

      I once worked for a company, Zanett Commercial Solutions, they wanted to brig in an employee under the H-1B visa program. The way they went around was to literally create a unique job description for the position this person had in the company. Of course, when employers take this type of actions, very common in the market place I may add, it is very difficult for USCIS to argue the request.
      The government needs to take action against this type of employers. But they will continue to say that there is a shortage of talent as long as it is less expensive for them to hire foreign from national.

  5. This is me

    There is no official information from USCIS that the employee cannot switch jobs. Author, can you prove the authenticity of the statement ‘cannot jump ship to another employer’ to an official link? Guess they are just throwing out some random stuff to attract people without knowing anything about what USCIS has published.

  6. I gone through the complete policy released by USCIS on Feb 22. And no where mentioned that “companies can no longer hire “software engineers””.
    Author, can you prove the authenticity of the statement ‘companies can no longer hire “software engineers”’ to an official link?
    Already lot of rumors going on H1B rules and Policies. Please dont publish the posts without proper information. Hope you understand. Thank You.

  7. Trump promised that he would get rid of the program, this is just more of the same. Nothing new here, employers will file a little more paperwork and keep on keeping on.

    America the not so great.

    • Gabriel Lobo-Blanco

      Hello Artiso,
      When you took this job, did you ever wondered if you were displacing and American family from their job? If you did, did you ever wonder what would happen to that family that have worked all their life making their house payments and now because you took their job they will loose their house and would probably have to file for Bankruptcy because they don’t have the job you took from them? Did you ever wonder how much time it would take them to find a new job and how long they would have to suffer because most employers don’t want to pay him the salary necessary to pay their expenses? If you have not, perhaps it is time you should do that, because I am one of those whose job was taken by someone like you. Who was lied to when they told me I had to cross train with other team members so that they could learn to do my job as well. Just so they would later on get rid of me and hire another low wager employee from India.

  8. Aristo

    Dear Author and other gentlemen,
    Kindly find time and talk to anyone of the H1B alien staying in this country to understand the struggles and obstacles each of us (I said us because I am one of them) goes through while in USA.
    I’m getting a decent pay from my employer and that is almost on par with the market rate. I pay taxes and returns like any citizens here. I pay social security even though me or my family would never get benefitted by that.
    I have never missed my Car EMIs, or house rentals. My kids goes to public schools , karate institutions or other classes and take part in all community services organized by the school. In a way, we are helping the economy grow which is always ignored by the ordinary Americans.
    My wife even though she had a Masters in Science and previously employed is playing a sit at home mom role, thanks to the short sighted policy makers.
    Please stop throwing mud on us every time this topic comes in limelight.
    We too are human beings and hardworking fellows working for the betterment of the country and its citizens.
    Stop being stereotyped and stop this public harassment please.
    Aliens are not always the trouble makers!!

    Thanks for understanding,
    H1b holder

    • I don’t feel sorry for any H1B, L1, etc, etc etc – these folks are from the upper middle class in their own countries and deserve no pity.

      This nonsense about US Citizens not being able to do the jobs is a complete falsehood.

      H1B will infest a company and only hire other H1B – I am furious as an American citizen that some H1B who was probably trained by some foolish American who felt sorry for them suddenly gets a superiority complex (and an under the table payback) and cheats Ammericans out of jobs.

      Please end the H1B program

    • Roger the Brit

      I empathize with your comments. I came over from England on an H1B in 1988 as a DSP firmware engineer, and had to put up with nativism from fellow US employees in Chicago, including a US fellow worker who would not talk to me face-to-face – I had to take an intern with me whenever I interacted with him, and after every question I asked he would reply to the intern. However I was paid a good salary – equal to the going rate for US engineers, and got a green card after 3 years. I am now a US citizen and since then I have never felt threatened by other H1B holders. What it boils down to is you have to be a master of your own destiny, and any time your skills are slipping, re-train yourself.

    • There is NO DEMONSTRATED LABOR NEED for the spouse of an H1b visa holder. None. These are the rules that were in place when the H1b visa was granted – you knew then so too bad if you want that changed, too. Enough with the abuse of the host country.

  9. I come with a different approach than you guys and respect your thoughts but i feel the way things are going with the greatest country in the world, soon will come the time when it becomes the not so greatest country in the world for immigrants as well as the people of america. immigrants that are employed in the US for various positions are not hired out of choice but out of necessity. we all have to agree on one point that every individual has his/her strengths and weaknesses. FACT: americans are great managers but not that great doctors or programmers similarly asians or middle easterners are not that great as managers but amazing programmers or doctors. The huge tech giants and most of the mid level companies as well as the new startups have their head offices in the states just for these reason: flexibility of the work atmosphere, great benefits, more funding to pay their employees and work on new projects and last but not the least ability to employe whomsoever they feel proficient enough for the job, not discriminating between caste, creed, gender or immigration status. don’t get me wrong but the immigrants that come to the states are smart and well aware of what they are worth and ask for almost the same salary if not more than the residents of this great country. there are many individual contributors hired by these big companies on huge pay packages to work for them for a certain duration, commonly known as contract employees and most of them are immigrants. this bill is nothing more than a tantrum and will eventually start pushing these tech giants out of the states hence pushing one of the biggest tax paying paying companies out. from being one of the best countries to live in work in usa has become one of the toughest countries to survive in under the current administration, and just to be clear before you guys comment, im a citizen of this country, i love this country and i don’t belong to any immigrant background, but the way things are going right now i fear not many people around the world love my country anymore. The great american dream is no more a slogan between common people nowadays, it’s more like the tough american life.

    • A US Citizen

      Stop being stupid. Those who are hungry with no job and no food on the table do not have time to worry what the world will think about us. Worry for your country and your fellow man first. You obviously are -currently- employed and have no money worries. Otherwise you wouldn’t be singing this stupid song that probably was launched by special H1B special interest groups. When you walk into a company that employs 85% folks from India or China. This is neither inclusion nor diversity. Where are the people of other colors? Anyone can be great at anything and everything. This aspect should not be boiled down to race or gender.

      A US Citizen


      Isn’t this kind of assumption exactly what that dude at Google got fired for?

    • outsourced_in_Philadelphia

      I don’t doubt that you are a citizen of this country….you sound just like an American
      CEO who is taking advantage of this labor situation for your to suit your own needs.
      I am sure that a lot of good people were taken down by individuals like you.
      How do you sleep at night??? You are actually trying to convince yourself that you are justified in your opinions that are motivated by the Almighty Dollar.
      No American Corporations will be leaving this country because of this new bill….that is just a smoke screen. Nothing good has come from the H1-B program; it has only made it extremely difficult for hard-working talented American people to make a living, while making the corporate moguls who feed off the situation very rich.

  10. True Story

    I worked in the US for over 6 years and I was fortunate enough to “jump ship” several times. At the time of migrating to the US, I also applied for my Canadian Permanent Residency. In my last job, I worked for a large Software Engineering company that had over 500 engineers in 5 offices in the US that specialized in State and Local government software. Their revenue came from Tax payers. When I joined the company there were 12 Software Engineers in our department. We had 6 Software Engineers in Manila. In my 2nd month, we had a gift Software Engineer join us from an Indian Outsourcing company. His job for the next 3 months was to learn the software. After he left, there were a series of layoffs, after 2 Software Engineers were laid of, 6 were hired in India. Today, there are 3 Software Engineers in the US office and 20 Software Engineers in India. I am now working in Silicon Valley North in Canada. I actually make the same amount of money with free health care. I have been in Canada for almost 3 years and I can now apply for Canadian Citizenship. The problem is not with H1B’s. It’s with the outsourcing industry. Think about it. 9 jobs lost in the US = 27 jobs gained in India and Philippines.

  11. I am sure sneaky Indians and the lawyers will find a way around it but I am glad to see the administration is doing something trying to stop this abuse of H1b that denied many opportunities for Americans and has been a disaster for Americans IT job market.

  12. ivehadit

    Companies exploit H1B by putting in inflated resumes for work done in H1B home countries. Many domestic employers are quite forgiving and allow for a lot of “learning on the job”. There needs to be some tightening here.

    • I see all the hate for h1b,but please not just on the technical positions. Truth is , a business major is easier to find jobs than a programmer, so h1b will be filed. One simple example is accounting majors, international, have a 99% hired rate, and no master degree required because it is accounting, so easy enough for anyone to complete. Joke is for anyone who wants to stay as well as not doing the slavary programming work can just do a accounting degree. Everybody is attacking technical positions because they filled by people only with a 2 year graduate program, which means cost effective. But business majors mostly undergrad internationals. But who cares a 99% hired rate. The work is easy, no brainer. This is something truly stealing your resources. Programmers market is big because all internet company is international and open since this is why internet is created for and why you are here.

  13. The baLarryrk and the bie. I want to see a few

    The bark and the bite. I want to see a few CEO’s, hiring managers, head hunters etc being arrested, tried and sent to jail for violations of the H1-B provisions. Then we can believe , “Hi , I am from the government. I am here to help you.”

    Please don’t hold your breath on this one!

  14. This bag and forth is getting old and the constant discussion and debate is not moving the ball forward.

    US companies and immigration lawyers are powerful, and just lobby-wise. They know how to stall any legal or political movement with this. It’s all about the money. They know they have a great thing going and they’ll throw any barriers up that they can.

    The H1b AND L1 visa programs have got to stop!!! Enough is enough. Geez! Stop the BS. Isn’t there some sort of executive order that can stop this??

    Does anyone consider that US companies are turning against their own countrymen?!

    I’m sorry third world countries. Just because you go to our colleges and universities, should not mean you get dibs on jobs here.

    Your dragging down hourly rates for American consultants. Calls from Indian recruiters have gone viral!!!!!! US companies and immigration attorneys are screwing us!!!


  15. I will loudly complain if my comment is not approved!!! I think I represent a facet of this already controversial scam and it keeps falling on deaf ears. I know a huge number of people feel the same way.

    In US companies that abuse the program, employees and consultants walk on eggshells.

    If they complain, they’ll find themselves out the door accused of discrimination!!!

  16. What are they defining as qualifying as a “specialty occupation”? I like the sound of this as it will limit abuse, but how they define that could enable finagling so they need to be careful.

  17. Jane Doe

    I am a U.S. Citizen, but Asian woman. I got my master’s in Computer Information Systems 7 years ago and still can’t find a decent IT Full Time job. Go Figure.

    • H1b holder

      I’m glad about your degree but what have you actually learned and what can you do? I’m in IT field over 10 years now and these days it takes anywhere from 3 to 10 months for me to find a candidate that sounds right for a work I have to offer him, and he is likely already have over 50 offers to choose from.
      In opposite I’m seeing way to many fellows who think the world owes them something just because they’ve got a degree, and who is not ready to continue improving constantly.

    • US Citizen

      Any good engineer would not have hard time finding job. I am us citizen and know for the fact that many job are open without qualified engineers. Citizen or H1B. Unemployment rate in IT is less than 2%

  18. I’m not an immigrant worker, but someone in my company with the same position is. We’re small, only 3 programmers, and I was the first one to be hired. Despite being one of the lucky few American college graduates to get a job, I still have a lot of friends that do not, so I understand where a lot of college grads are frustrated. All that being said, after working here I helped pick and hire two additional programmers over the last year, one was a college friend and the other was from India. We didn’t hire the guy from India because he required a lower salary or anything, we hired him because he was legitimately more qualified than the 2-3 American applicants we had. I’m generally on board for anything that will help American graduates find jobs, but banning immigrants from entry-level positions is too broad of a stroke. I think they just need to put a limit on how many can be hired in a year, which means if a company wants to grow they have to hire some Americans as well. It’s not a full solution to the job crisis, but it’ll help a few people out at least.

  19. John Doe

    But they are not immigrants, rather they are someone on a temporary visa. The original H-1B law stated a company could not bring in someone on a visa unless it could prove it had attempted to find a qualified American to fill the role and failed. Companies got around that clause by putting up ads that were completely unrealistic, such as searching for someone with extensive COBOL experience and five years of Java experience, when Java had barely been around for five years, along with experience very specific to the client that only someone who had actually worked at that client before could possibly have. Nowadays, companies do not even bother with these insane ads, because they are so used to getting away with it. It is okay for you to choose an immigrant candidate, but only if he or she is an American citizen now, or at the very least, has a hard-to-get green card. Otherwise, you are in violation of the law.

  20. There is a lot of hue and cry about H1-B visa but very little is said about millions of jobs that have been offshored. I believe, in current time offshoring is a much bigger issue than H1-B. Most US multinational Corporations have 80% or above workforce working from India and other places. If those jobs are brought back to the USA, each and every IT consultant will get a job (with good pay) and more US students will major in Computer Sciences. Right now, the young boys and girls are not interested in Computer Science — rightly so — because they know, there is a very limited growth for IT consultants in the USA, especially someone who is starting fresh out of college. Think!

    • I am not blaming Indians or other third world countries although they are complicit too. I am blaming the Congress and prior administrations for ignoring this problem for so long, turning a blind eye on the pleas of American tech workers who were laid off and forced to train their H1b replacements.

    • H1b holder

      So you don’t even think that some of that companies will simply go bankruptcy since to properly functioning they need X employees but in US they can afford only Y<X. If I were that company I’d leave US entirely just to survive. And here you just destroing jobs not bringing it back as you think.

  21. American 01

    Unfortunately, I have to say that corporate greed by US companies is at the core of this H1b problem. If they wouldn’t continue to fight the US Gov’t to allow the monstrosity number of unvetted applicants to come here… this issue won’t be so bad.

    The H1b program abuse has water-down the professional degree in America and that’s one reason most US college students have elected to pursue other interests. Just like the loss of manufacturing labor jobs to China and other 3rd world countries.

    Secondly, I have worked for a few Indian consulting companies and while most are ran litgetimately there are a lot of them that are in the business of selling their H1bs awards to the highest bidder, costs between $50k to $100k U.S dollars a person, for Indians that want to come to America without the required skills and education. This type of fraud has been going on for years…the US Labor Dept investigate these scams regularly but the fraud awareness never makes the mainstream media or news; why is that? The answer U.S Corporations greed keeps it out of the media because they love and want low cost professional labor from these countries like India, Mexico, etc. to increase profits!

    Lastly, the education for science and technology is not better in these countries than America…but the cost of education is a thousandth percent “less the cost” to obtain the same degree in the U.S.

    For example, I have asked my Indian peers while visiting various locations in India about their cost for a computer science degree in India, they all shared that the costs was around $2500 US dollars for a bachelor degree vs. $50k to $60k cost in the U.S. This is another reason of why Indians professionals that come here to the U.S to work can accept half 1/2 or a third 1/3 of the salary which U.S professionals cannot do based on our educational investment and rising costs of living here.

    In all the prior comments, I saw no mention of these facts regarding the abuse of the U.S. H1b program…and I would bet that most of you on here are aware of these very issues and or have knowledge of them.

    U.S. Corporations greed is to blame for this monstrosity H1b program problem; not Indians or other 3rd world countries.

  22. Gned the Gnome

    One possible solution is so obvious, I wish I’d had time to post it and several other of my tax reform etc. ideas. Just make payments to non-American workers and companies no longer deductible. If they want to badly enough, they can, just don’t get to write it off. Problem solved, including illegal aliens, and it may also get the big offshored companies to bring their HQ and money and jobs back here. Just need to work out the details. Maybe only give the full deduction to businesses paying workers and companies who were already US citizens in 2000 or 2015 or so to help prevent gaming the system?

  23. Sridhar

    These policies are going to make it even better for Indian companies to recruit someone from India and pay them lowest wage since these h1 peoples now don’t have option of switching employers and the opportunities for us citizens will be restricted even more.

    We need a open policy to open the jobs for all h1bs and citizens with the condition that the h1bs should get paid higher wages than citizen.

    These Indian companies are not recruiting citizens mainly because the h1s are more restricted in switching jobs and they make profit out of them. Adding more and more restriction to h1b will only help Indian companies and not going to make it better for anyone else.

  24. If Trump remain the president of US for 8 years then there will be no such problem. People from countries such as India and China will automatically stop coming here. Because US will not be in a position to attract anyone from China or India. Every American has a illusion that they are better than everyone from India/China or other part of the world. And we all know the reality. 20 years back Indian use to see Most of Europe as a good place to work and live and look what has happened in last 20 years, except for 2 or 3 countries most of far worse than India… if Trump continues with his policies for 7 more years, assuming he will be elected again, then immigration problem will be solved by itself.

  25. We can’t go against the wind. If talent can’t come to the US then work will go out of the US to where the talent is. Encouraging or discouraging visas has no bearing on the US jobs. The only drawback about repelling the talent is that we will lose our edge over other nations.

  26. Miles Maybee

    Sounds like the same old crap. Companies claim that citizens don’t have the requisite skills so they can hire H1B candidates that become indentured servants in everything but name, which is what they want for their short term bottom line. They don’t see the damage to citizens or their companies over the long term, or else they don’t care.

  27. h1bHolder

    No one on h1B is happy to accept lower pay and work. The lower pay culture is brought by IT companies which are forced by their US client companies in a bidding process. Also some time there is this EVC (Employer-Vendor-Client) / EVVC nexus that is causing harm to both h1B and the US citizen. The US Company does not want to hire full time employees and also in a bid to lower the cost to company they decide to hire from these local vendor companies who in turn trying to make some money goes to the big IT companies to hire a h1B. The minimum wage increase would get rid of these middle agents and would create a healthy competitive environment for both US Citizen and h1B candidate.

  28. Timur Aurangzeb

    Most of the workers on H1B are hindus. Muslims are not given enough opportunities even if they have exceptional skills. In Wells fargo, a Subramaninan hires a Subramanian or a Sharma in Cisco Hires a Sharma. IT companies here in the US are becoming very Yogi and Tantric in nature. No more beatles or Black Sabbath, instead we get Yoga and Meditation, and “forced vegetarianism” and “BEEF BAN”.

  29. The H1B Visa system is abused (largely) by temporary tech staffing companies who game the system to pull cheap foreign labor from Asia (mostly India). Large Indian staffing companies run roughshod over US law and American workers – Infosys, Tata, Panzer, and other Indian staffing companies abuse the system and hold down American wages by flooding the US with this cheap labor. These Indian dudes come into the US with fabricated resumes and work for half or a third of the hourly rate, and will move from state to state to take the next temporary job wherever their H1B sponsor tells them to go. The will stay in a house with a dozen other Indian dudes which they find using a website for that purpose. How is an American to compete with these guys?

    Heck, sometimes these H1B staffing companies will have a shill candidate do the interview and send a different person to the job site.

    My rate as an IT contractor is the same (or less) that in 2000 due to competition from these Indian tech nomads. No doubt that these Indian dudes are exploited as well – they are bound to their visa sponsor and cannot leave a project since they are bound to their employer and this invites abuse of these Indian dudes.

    Not to mention that the depressed wages discourage US students from entering these fields of study.

    The H1B system was not meant as a cheap labor source for these (above) companies breaking US law. It was created as a vehicle to pull specially skilled people into the US ONLY. Rare people who possess rare skills that are detrimental to growth of key US companies and technology. Not rank and file programmers or entry level programmers with a fabricated resume with run of the mill skills like Java, .Net or SQL.

  30. True Story

    Outsourcing is the biggest issue. If you send 20 jobs to India, how will young interns find training in the US? It’s a bigger problem than folks realize. Even in Canada and Australia, outsourcing is hurting the industry. When I graduated in 2003, IT was the greatest industry to be in because there were plenty of jobs and salaries were very high. I am so disenchanted with the industry that I no longer encourage my kids to get into tech. I would prefer my son’s become doctors or chemical engineers because you can’t outsource those jobs.

  31. Sick of the whole business

    As some folks have already alluded to on this Blog, this latest move to curb the H1-B access is not enough. Most of the outsourcing of technical Jobs from
    this country is because of employers sending them to India and not H1-B. If Trump was serious about completely ending this practice, he would have backed
    The “ Outsourcing Prevention Act” introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders in November 2016. You don’t hear about that anymore, so you have to face that no
    matter what Trump says, he doesn’t want to go full throttle to really try to address the problem.
    It is a real shame that even the in this greatest country on earth our Tech industry has been cannibalized by greedy corporate executives, and mobs of Indians;
    filthy Indians, who don’t take baths, and wear leather jackets.

    • H1b holder

      If I were that company, and what you say would actually happened – I’d just move entirely off the country (not just outsorce). Somewhere with better and cheaper talents. People like you don’t understand how economic works, and for some reason thinks everyone is obligated to you (to provide job, salary, god knows what else).

      • Sick of the whole business

        I don’t need a PHD in Economics to realize what is happening to this country. There is not one American large company that would leave this country to go somewhere else because of offshoring. Why should they. All of them are having too good a time milking the corporate cow. And now the companies just got a tax break reduction from 35% to 21 %…so now that they will be saving money they can afford to bring the jobs back home right? Don’t hold your breath. The corporate executives are by nature very greedy, and although there will be a handful that may do the right thing, the majority of the benefiting companies will pocket the 14% extra taxes and will have a good laugh.

        • H1b holder

          Tell this to the startups who struggling hire at least someone in IT. And as to “greedy executives” – would you be any different in their shoes? I mean come on, go through hell to start a company and make it work and turn it profitable for what? A charity? Of course if there are ways to hire better talents and cheaper I would do that if I were them, my decisions would fully be driven by profits – and why the heck should I be concerned are these Americans or not? Maybe Americans should ask themselves why business stops choosing them – and maybe that’s not the prices only?

          • Sick of the whole business

            I am not talking about startups, but large American Companies. As for the “greedy executives” I would be different; but then again If I was one then I would get fired by the stock holders. I am not expecting you see it my way, especially since you are obviously benefitting from the current situation. And I definitely don’t expect you to feel sorry for Americans that are affected by this outsourcing garbage; but there was a moral code that this country was founded on that despite the fact that Businesses need to be profitable, and not charities, they need to do the right thing, and not exploit their own.

          • Ch hitech Reddy

            If you think about it overall these comments doesn’t matter end of the day companies want employees who are good enough for the role. Nobody would like to sponsor for h1b visa and pay extra if they feel the candidate is not worth it. Indians are good at math and have even invented “zero” which is almost half of the binary language😂, just kidding of course. It’s not right to blame somebody else for your inabilities to get a job. Seriously, if you are worth it companies would chose you right? Why would they go for Indians and pay for their visas and extra money to government, if they think they are not worth it. Can you give me any other reason? About the education system American colleges are best in the world but American grads are not alone the best, if a college is competitive does it imply the country whole population is competitive? That doesn’t make sense. In India the education system is not good enough but students are good and they get selected because they are good enough for the job. No company would hire mediocre candidates just so they can pay more and sponsor them.
            All the other negative comments are worthless over here and are racist ones. There is no logic to what they are talking to, why would you yourself hire someone if they are not good enough. Same goes with companies and countries too. Some say the certificates are fake or resume is fake, they are not thinking straight no company cares about your % or something else, after you get the job if you are competitive you will stay in the job if not you are fired, nobody wants a 4 point student who after getting a job doesn’t perform well.

  32. I am from that much mentioned country in these kind of posts and was in US for 1 year on H1-B. I was hired in small company through the same process everyone is aware of (agency and so on). But I came back after an year for personal reason. But glad I did because I realized later that the looks and the implied dislike perhaps even hate outside work had become too much for me. Had I stayed, I wouldn’t have enjoyed. And I didn’t feel anger; just sadness because maybe I *was* stepping on someone else’s tows. So yes, I believe this is good. In fact I think USCIS should have much more closer, tighter and frequent audits (maybe even more jobs will created that way; no pun intended). It is not only necessary for US but also for other countries where they are forced to reevaluate their ideas about rationalization and dignity. It is also necessary because this will be a great experiment and its results will be apparent only after 50 years or so. This would become important for future generations of the world not only for US or involved countries.

  33. H1b holder

    I am an H1b visa holder, and I agree currently H1b is abused and should be fixed. But nobody is talking about the other side of the coin, and I have a question to you dear citizens and haters of me. What about L1, what about offshores? Maybe the actual problem is with you? Maybe you should get up from your chairs and go get yourself some new skills that are in demand NOW? The world is a different place now, the globalism took over this place and we all compete on the one single market now. Why the heck you sound like you think employers in some way OBLIGATED to hire you and pay you money just because you were graduated 20 years ago? Even if you are lazy bastartds now? I’ll tell you what, I work for a giant tech company and now I’m leading a big transformation project, I consider myself an innovator and I brought a big value to the company. And what I see my colleguaes-citizens are doing? Pushing against my changes, doing their job protection, prevent innovations (not all of them but vast majority). And to be honest their skill levels is often not that great whilst they still paid more than me. Is that what the Great America is? Then I’d better head home once my contract ends, continue work in offshore and contribute to building it, I’ll let you continue rotting and I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. God dammit, Darwin you were so right. But hey ho I doubt this is how America was built, maybe you’ll understand that when economics will start signaling to you (oh wait isn’t this happening already?).

    • John Doe

      Why stop at IT? If as you say globalism is the wave of the future, why not replace every single American worker with someone from another country who will do the job for half price? Get rid of the minimum wage, since enough people will happily come over from China and Vietnam and work for less than that. Then we would have 150+ million no-longer-employed US citizens on welfare and food stamps and living in the streets and committing crimes to keep food on the table for their families and wouldn’t that be swell.

  34. Anyway all are leaving the country of decline. The American workers with sound knowledge on tech can rule now. Inmigrants do not want to live here anyway. Not at the cost of all the trouble. If you are very talented,then u may find a job easily in any country of your choice. Why don’t you guys do that and experience the difficulties of setting urself up in another country and be away from family. Pay taxes there and for once be a humble person and not show attitude. To survive is the biggest challenge. Let alone find a job. If immigrants are able to do that is because they follow rules. Agreed there are miniscule amount of ppl who fake. But the ones who pay for their masters programs and not get aid what about them. All do not come from rich backgrounds. Whatever an average American earns is more than what immigrants earn in their own countries. And with humble background they come here to further their skills. If u cannot get reskilled, do not blame the immigrants, rather look into ur own abilites.

  35. I believe that awarding h1b Visas to the best of the best is the right thing to do. If h1b is completely eliminated imagine What would happen to highly talented folks from all over the world who come here on H1b ( doctors, scientists, professors). As an doctor I have worked (and continue to work) in rural communities where doctors don’t want to practice and I am on h1b. I have not displaced any American born physician ( my previous employer had a hard time recruiting a doctor before I was employed. After I left that employer still hasn’t been able to hire a full time physician in my place). There are many physicians working in rural communities taking care of uninsured underinsured and elderly Americans. Of h1b is eliminated doctors like me will have to leave and it will affect the rural communities. Hence I think the h1b program should remain but the criteria for awarding the visa should be revised.

  36. JJZephyr

    My dad is an engineer with a very specialized skill set (works on robots that conduct underwater exploration). His training was mostly done in South America and Europe (Norway, Scotland), but he chose to live in the US. The amount of discrimination and hatred he had to face was, truly, unbelievable. I questioned him many times as to why on earth he would choose to live here, and came to respect his position with time. This discrimination was undeserved, and frankly, stupid. I understand how people can feel angry over H1-Bs who are truly entry level people, being trained by locals.. To me, that is wrong, and not what the visa is for. This visa is for people with experience and skills that are hard to find. Instead, there are some corrupt businesses trying to make an extra buck by driving wages down. I think the changes approved by Trump will put a halt to this. However, you have to keep in mind that there is still validity in attracting the best, no matter what nationality, to fill jobs that advance society. The impact of immigrants in the U.S. is monumental as being the creators and co-creators of things we use on a DAILY BASIS (from ATMs, USB drives, Google/Periscope/Instagram/Youtube, jeans, the telephone, to even freaking Budweiser!) Ultimately, creating a society that welcomes good, educated people willing to work hard benefits EVERYONE. It’s a pity xenophobes will never understand this.

  37. This rule is there for a long time but valid only for small companies under 10-20 employees. If the company has more number or revenue there wont be any questions asked. Nothing new about it and h1b fraud going strong. They put the rules and explains how to overcome this rule.

  38. My talent my rate

    Take away the H1b program but at the same time please ask Dominos, star bucks, Pepsi, Coke, Pizza Hut, Subway, Ford, KFC, Facebook and thousand others to leave my country.

    • US Citizen

      Cheaters, H1B frauds, go back to your own country. You people have brought down civility and standards of a civilized nation. You come here, cut in lines, show no care or accountability of your uncivilized actions in front of our kids. For centuries, this country fought with blood and sweat for equal opportunities and employment. All of this has been undermined when you see 80% indians in the workplace.

      • My talent my rate

        So-called civilized people were still on the tree when the civilization started in the eastern countries. Go read the history first. Western history is full of loot and slave culture.

  39. From what I see that hiring managers are h1b. They put exact specification to hire the contractor on h1b rather than a good citizen who does not have exact software experience but have lot more experience. H1b will fake their resume and get the job because the hiring manager is a friend or from the same part of India and speaks the language. I personally have seen this happen. We need to make changes to h1b to stop the abuse and stop h4 ead.If the spouses are highly skilled, they can get h1b. This needs to happen asap.

  40. Naryanan

    Each country should protect its citizens first before considering any one else. As an immigrant I agree fully with steps taken by Mr. Trump. He is a great president for America. His actions against illegal immigrants and those legal immigrants who has misused the system is fully justified. Everyone agrees H1B has been misused then why not stop it for a couple of years (or more) completely and see how does the industry perform in US. There is absolutely nothing wrong in it. At the same time people who are truly skilled and came to US without any manipulation should be treated properly as America is a great nation built by Immigrants.

  41. Keith Summers

    In my experience, Americans are only good at Marketing their skills although most of the time, they possess none. Companies run by immigrants have a white representative at the forefront, although most of their work is outsourced, even NASA. Hence the belief that the talent is Locally sourced. Remove the immigrants for 10 minutes and the american economy will collapse. America was discovered by probably the worst navigator in the world and they actually celebrate his incompetence. How stupid are you ? Congratulations Columbus, you can’t tell east from west. Take a look at your own President. As much as you negate the claim, you know you voted for the Jackass in the White House, Yeah you ! America is “great” because they’re good at stealing, looting, plundering and destroying. A bunch of fat, lying, hypocrites !
    You didn’t get the job because you’re stupid, ya redneck piece of white trash !
    Make America great again !