New H1-B visa restrictions
Really thought someone would have posted about this as soon as it came out, what are your thoughts on this? Great for Americans as in an industry such as IB, I can definitely see how this would discourage banks from bringing on internationals, although it sucks for internationals.
"The Trump administration announced an overhaul of the H-1B visa program for high-skilled foreign workers that will require employers to pay H-1B workers significantly higher wages, narrow the types of degrees that could qualify an applicant and shorten the length of visas for certain contract workers."
"Ken Cuccinelli, the No. 2 official at DHS, said on a news conference call Tuesday that he expects about one-third of H-1B visa applications would be rejected under the new set of rules."
"Under the new rule, the required wage level for entry-level workers would rise to the 45th percentile of their profession’s distribution, from the current requirement of the 17th percentile. The requirement for the highest-skilled workers would rise to the 95th percentile, from the 67th percentile."
Some excerpts from the WSJ.
I think this will kill international hiring for at least 1-2 yrs. If IBD analysts are classified as "higher-skilled" workforce the wage level applicants have to meet is 95th percentile. If they're considered "entry level" applicants, which I think is more likely, they would still have to meet 45th percentile now.
OLD WAGE NUMBERS / NEW YORK / "FINANCIAL ANALYST"
Level 1 Wage: $34.79 hour - $72,363 year (17th percentile)
Level 2 Wage: $49.05 hour - $102,024 year (34th percentile)
Level 3 Wage: $63.31 hour - $131,685 year (50th percentile)
Level 4 Wage: $77.57 hour - $161,346 year (67th percentile)
Now, the Old L-3 (50th percentile) can be used as a proxy for the New L-1 (45th percentile).
https://redbus2us.com/new-h1b-perm-wage-levels-regulation/
So your base would have to be somewhere between $110-125K or above, as an analyst/associate. No banks would pay their analysts $110-125K base. And no, they only look at your base not your bonuses. In California, these numbers are even higher. $160K for LA and $200K for SF (50th percentile)
Fuck Trump. Biden 2020.
sooo you're mad that a) immigrants can no longer get fucked over by big companies abusing visa programs, resulting in flagrant underpayment (aka big companies just exploiting immigrant workers) and b) American workers' wages no longer have to try to compete with underpaid immigrants in point a
ooook then!
Dude we're talking about banking here, do you think GS "exploits" and "underpays" its foreign analysts?
Honestly man I'm not going to sugercoat it - it's really tough right now. It's been getting more difficult ever since Trump became POTUS.
The sad reality is majority of H1-B workers are asians - I promise you this would not have been an issue if they went predominantly to europeans.
People seem to think that Biden will do something about this. Let me tell you why he won't. Search "Visa Bulletin October" on Google and click on the first link. Scroll down to the table titled "Final Action Dates For Employment-based Preference Cases". Look at India (which is where most of the H1-Bs are coming from, not as many applications from China). EB-1 is unreachable for most applicants since it requires you to have a PhD or be a renowned researcher or be a high-level executive. EB-2 and EB-3 are more accessible since they require a master's and a bachelor's, respectively. Not the hardest thing to qualify for them. Once you've actually gotten your H1B and your employer finally files a green card for you (which can be anything from as soon as you get hired to years after you get hired), you'll wait. I've heard that you have to reach VP in banking before banks will file your green card, so I might be wrong. But look at that backlog. People that applied in September of 2009 and January of 2010 are only now allowed to file for EADs. Once they get those EADs (which will take a few months), they have to apply for the green card and they have to wait upwards of 5 years before being allowed to get that final green card. After you get that green card, you have to wait 5 years before applying for citizenship. It should take another few months before you even get that citizenship. At best, if you applied in September of 2009 and January of 2010 for your EAD, you'll be a citizen by 2030. In other words, you'll have to wait 20 years before mattering to any American politician. In other words, neither Biden or Trump will care about you.
Here's my main point with this. This system sucks. If you applied in 2010, you're waiting until 2030 before finally attaining the "American Dream". Is this a long time? Yes. Is it going to get any better in the future? No, it's only getting worse. New estimates say that future applicants will have to wait upwards of 150 years for this process. In other words, they'll die waiting. If I was an international student that was considering different countries out of India, I would seriously consider going to Canada or the UK. If you're deadset on the US (and I say this only semi-facetiously), marry an American citizen ASAP. It's the easiest way to get out of this. I can't even begin to explain how bad this system is. I was a child when my dad bought us here and he was on an H1B visa in tech. I was on an H4 visa (the dependent visa version), and we got in line for the EAD-> Green Card -> Citizenship when I was pretty young. I never even got to the EAD stage and now I'll have to recruit for SA and get rejected from a LOT of places because I'm an "international" student despite growing up here.
Am I a bad person if I want Trump to win so he keeps this policy? I feel for the international kids and have respect for you all, bus as an American I also want the best for myself and in a field already so competitive, having less competition is in my best interest.....
Plenty of studies have shown that immigrants create more jobs in the US than they "take". And considering how much harder it is for internationals to get into good IBs in the US, and how few of them actually end up making it, I wouldn't point to them as the cause for you struggling to recruit