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A comment on 90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work. Parent comment

Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by MontyCarloHall on Friday May 26, 2023 @01:18PM (#36087050)
Because the original purpose of the H-1B was to facilitate highly specialized temporary workers doing highly specialized jobs that literally nobody in the US would be capable of. For example, suppose an American oil company wants to use an exotic drilling technique that has only ever been used in Norwegian oil fields, and thus only a few Norwegian petroleum engineers have any expertise in. As originally conceived, the H-1B would have allowed them to come to the US for a few years, set up the oil field, and then head back home.

Unfortunately, it has since been perverted into a mechanism for skilled (but nonspecialized) workers to be indentured, often with substandard wages.

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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by returningfory2 on Friday May 26, 2023 @02:31PM (#36087954)
This is literally false? Ever since the H-1B has been in law the requirement is that the person has a degree and is working in a speciality occupation related to that degree. The INA imposes no conditions like “occupations for which there are no US workers”.
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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by MontyCarloHall on Friday May 26, 2023 @02:32PM (#36087964)
Straight from the Department of Labor's site [0]:

> The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States.

The ostensible intent of the H-1B program and its actual legal stipulations are two totally separate things.

[0] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b

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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by returningfory2 on Friday May 26, 2023 @03:56PM (#36088828)
To me this seems to be an upside down view of US immigration law (and US law in general). The INA is the supreme immigration law of the land. DOL regulations and documents are downstream and subordinate to the INA. The true “intent” of the H1B program is whatever is in the INA.
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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by injb on Friday May 26, 2023 @02:57PM (#36088241)
The employer has to prove that they have tried and failed to hire a US worker qualified and willing to do the job for the prevailing wage. The complication is that some people think the existence of the H1B affects the prevailing wage, and the system is therefore skewed.
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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by returningfory2 on Friday May 26, 2023 @03:57PM (#36088834)
> The employer has to prove that they have tried and failed to hire a US worker qualified and willing to do the job for the prevailing wage.

No they don’t. You’re probably thinking about the requirements for employment based green cards, which do require a labor market test. The H1B does not.

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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by foogazi on Friday May 26, 2023 @04:19PM (#36089054)
Yes they do, H1B employer has to advertise the H1B job

Companies list the H1B eligible position and salary internally and externally specifically for compliance

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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by returningfory2 on Friday May 26, 2023 @05:16PM (#36089612)
No, they don’t have to advertise the position. They have to disclose that they are hiring H1B workers. It’s a huge difference. In particular, there is no mechanism by which the disclosure can lead to a US worker applying for the job and blocking the H1B hire.

For H1B there’s simply no labor market test.

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Re:90% of laid-off H1-B visa holders were able to find new work by rhaway84773 on Saturday May 27, 2023 @09:47AM (#36094804)
Right, there’s a whole host of American workers that can do the H1B jobs that are lying around doing nothing, that’s why 90% of them got re-employed and software development salaries are among the highest in the country…
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