Trump's New $100k Fee for H1-B Visas
To all fellow international students, start recruiting for opportunities overseas ASAP. The current administration has just signed a proclamation that will practically eliminate all opportunities for international students to land offers.
This really feels like a betrayal of everything that we were promised which was that merit and hard work will be rewarded in this country. But Trump seems to want to find a scapegoat for the current economic struggles rather than addressing the real issues of a stagnating economy.
H1-B holders comprise less than 0.5% of the US population, yet somehow we are the issue for why Americans can not land jobs. I understand the issue with offshoring and illegal immigration, but blaming international students who have worked hard and paid insane amount in tuition fees is absurd.
Even before this legal change, the job market wasn't very receptive to international students. Tech slowed down, banking wasn't big on hiring lately, and other industries aren't exactly striving atm.
If an international is considering studying abroad - now is a good time to look for markets, industries and countries that are more welcoming.
Did you really think that rich, skilled immigrants were going to escape the notice of a populist, authoritarian, wannabe dictator whose whole political career is built around the notion that skills, expertise, and intelligence are things to be hated and feared?
Do you have any idea how many people. 0.5% of 330M is? That is 1.65M people. The working age population is ~209M of that 330M. So that makes the percentage of the working popuation .78%. The fact that most of that .78% is in high paying career opportunities in significant. This is where the real frustration comes from. H1-Bs drag down wages for Americans in these fields as well as take away opportunities.
When you compound the wage drag of illegal immigaration there is a justifiable reason why Americans are fed up with this. Estoteric economic theories about the benefits of this type of immigration are viewed as nonsense by the general population, and honestly economic data that is comming out of the first few quarters under the 2nd Trump admin is quite frankly supporting their view.
You can feel like it is a betrayl to you personally, but the country that is hosting you has felt betrayed by these policies for decades now. When push comes to shove, they don't give a fuck about your feelings. Sorry.
I agree with the idea that companies like Infosys and Amazon have been gaming the system by hiring foreign low wage workers while submitting multiple applications per employee which is illegal. Trust me, I am also frustrated as an international student who feels undercut.
But for the vast majority of international students it is already unbelievably difficult to obtain a work visa. There is a total cap of 85,000 visas per year and the decision process is a fucking lottery!
From personal experience only ~30% of the banks that I applied to actually sponsor work visas. We always lose to the American candidates since employers do not want tot take the risk of going though additional legal hurdles. I completely agree that Americans should be prioritized but we do already go through one of the strictest immigration laws and the 100k fee is the final nail on the coffin atp.
It's utter horseshit that H1-Bs drag down wages for American workers and take away opportunities. We're not talking about someone from Fuckedup-istan claiming asylum and doing Uber Eats, we're talking about people with tertiary education, often in STEM fields, looking to work in some of the highest value adding areas of the economy. What, do you want fewer engineers? Fewer mathematicians? Fewer economists? Like yeah, these people are often competing for finance roles with debatable value add, but wherever these people land they're almost certain to have decent careers, pay taxes, and be good law abiding citizens. Having a dynamic labour market that's open to foreign talent is a key driver of competitiveness around the world - look at how well places like Singapore and the UAE have done - I honestly wonder how much potential GDP growth was lost because of America's already punitive restrictions on skilled migration long before this administration came along.
To your last point; backlash against immigration is a phenomenon across the west, driven by the surge in undocumented migrants abusing UN asylum treaties over the past 10-15 years. It's absolutely a problem that needs to be dealt with. But I highly doubt anyone in America feels betrayed by the tiddly amount of skilled worker migration you've been allowing in.
A lot of unemployed comp sci grads would disagree. I don’t think this has hit finance, but tech it definitely has.
Do you have any idea where the vast majority of H1-B positions actually go to? Also, yes it is 100% proven with data that this is the case. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. It is the reality. H1-B's by their very existence remove positions for Americans and they absolutely do drag down wages.
I bet you also think that illegal's don't have a negative immpact on wages either.
In all seriousness, don’t F-1 visas require you to have an intention to depart after completing your education?
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