Comment by whatever1

6 hours ago

For some visa types, companies are obligated to prove that they advertised the position to American citizens. Failed, hence they needed the foreigner.

This is a huge dealbreaker for campus hires, and specifically masters/PhDs who are, well, by definition, specialized in their field and hence very rare.

So you recruit at her graduation the girl who has done groundbreaking research in deep neural nets and is the key to one of your big projects. She happens to be non-American (because the majority of graduates are non-Americans).

Now what? You know that there is nobody else on the planet that has done this research, yet you have to start recruiting for this position for Americans.

What is the incentive you have as a company to pour a ton of resources on this effort? Recruiting is very expensive. Time is also very expensive when you are at the forefront of innovation.

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whatever1

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cryo28  5 hours ago

And what percentage of H-1Bs are these PhDs with groundbreaking research backgrounds? The vast majority of the H-1Bs are hired by a handful of consulting firms (mostly indian) to do mundate SWE/IT jobs that don't require any special skills but a few months of bootcamp.

Also, don't forget that truly exceptional researchers can self-file for green-card using national interest waiver categories: EB1NIW, EB2NIW don't require employee sponsorship.

So, I think your point is moot.

  • whatever1  5 hours ago

    How does the green card solve my problem as an employer? Should I also force them to get married with Americans so that they have better chances of working for me?

    I just want to sponsor a visa for a worker of rare qualifications. If they choose to become permanent residents of the US it’s their choice, and frankly none of my business.

    The system we have is insane.

novia  5 hours ago

> She happens to be non-American (because the majority of graduates are non-Americans)

Is this not by itself a problem?

  • whatever1  5 hours ago

    Americans don’t go to graduate school.

    With a bachelors in an engineering field as an American you can be making close to 6 figures the day after you graduate.

    With a huge student debt and the clock ticking, do you get a job or do you join a PhD program to get a stipend of 25k/year for at least 5 years?

    Grad school becomes attractive to Americans only during recessions.