On the other hand, Trump is doing a few things to alleviate the situation:
1. He will likely strike down hard against Indian IT companies which take more than half of H1 visa quotas. That should help spouses, who are qualified, to have a better shot at getting an H1.
2. He is proposing a merit based GC going forward vs. the current system where there are country quotas and where family applications take priority.
Both these will help. However, I would have liked to see these happening first vs. H4-EAD taken away.
If they're not, what's the problem? The best performers still got their visas, and USA got the top talent.
Is there any indication that any of these or their domestic representatives donated to Trump's campaign? I'd search but I don't know any names. Seems like a gravy train the companies would be attentive to maintaining, though.
Really there should be no path to a green card for H1Bs.. that is against the purpose of that visa. Get an EB3 if you intend to immigrate.
Directly from wikipedia:
"Even though the H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa, it is one of the few temporary visa categories recognized as dual intent, meaning an H-1B holder can have legal immigration intent (apply for and obtain the green card) while still a holder of the H-1B visa. Effectively, the requirement to maintain a foreign address for this non-immigrant classification was removed in the Immigration Act of 1990."
a) As pointed out by the comment earlier, H1B holders can have dual intent: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/About%20Us/E...
b) Structuring of EB2/3 queues according to the birthplace of the applicant itself is more abusive than most things to do with immigration to the US.
For engineers like me who went to the US in the mid-90s on H1B, spouses were not allowed to work. The US government changed it, to be in sync with other countries that allowed American employees' spouses work in the host countries.
This new move will have an effect on the spouses of American workers abroad, since host countries will retaliate as a mark of protest.
https://www.jobs.ch/en/vacancies/information-technology-tele...
But in all seriousness, in the main cities you can get by speaking English.
Wouldn't this mean that Americans would have higher wages? Wouldn't a tight labor market incentivize investment in the growth of our own workers instead of working to maximize profits for corporations that already have historic profits by deleveraging workers?
One person was able to transfer to the US after 6 months due to L1 blanket status of the US company. This just requires presenting a form to a consulate and does not require an individual petition to be filed with USCIS first.
I know of one CTO who came back to UK from SV because of pressure from his wife
Does anyone know what cost savings are they talking about?
but also: white Australians don't trigger racist reactions & clamping down on all Australian E-3 immigrants would not be as effect of a dogwhistle.
Or could it be something else?
Maybe Americans don't tend to see their whole IT and Dev departments being filled with Australians, who are NOT willing to work in high COL areas on $60k year, share apartments and a car among 6 adults, and work 60 hours a week since the money they're saving won't buy them squat once home in Australia.
This is not true for Indians and others from low wage nations.
Most Americans aren't stupid. They know that businesses here use these visas to push down wages and working conditions. Considering this, I think Americans have been pretty damn friendly to most foreign workers for quite some time.
But eventually, even the most friendly of societies is going to say enough is enough.
If I'm going to be selfish: the US establishing itself as a politically unstable and inconsistent country means more opportunities closer to where I live. More talent staying in Europe, more talent attracted to Europe.
If I were American I would worry about important talent pools now finding more opportunities in Asia.
- Poor funding for some school districts
- Lack of accessible transportation options for folks in far flung areas
- Lack of funding for individuals to go to college/expensive education
- In this case, damaging careers, families and not letting people work at all, akin to slavery.
Then, they come out and say:
- Why don't you work hard?
- Why don't you get a job?
- Why don't you save money?
- Why aren't you more like us?
Why aren't they more like you? Because you don't let them be like you.
America is cruel!
The rights were given to them, that's when a lot of spouses gave up their careers elsewhere to build a family life here.
Now, like a video game, the rights are being yanked away. What are they supposed to do? Leave kids here and go back try to rebuild a life without family? Take everyone with them and try to readjust?
Imagine being lured into college with funding and after 2 years, they just yank that funding away, leaving you hapless. What do you do then?
The second impact is an increase in costs, not a savings. It's referring to the fact that companies who currently have H4 employees will lose those employees, and will incur costs in replacing them.
Now with the retracted spouse rule you again benefits Asian visas because their spouses usually don't work. In contrary to Europeans.
The dogwhistle is signaling to racists exactly this: that removing the ability for spouses on H4 visas to get EAD will reduce immigration from non-white countries. So's your comment.
You injecting race into the conversation is racist itself, and does nothing to help advance the conversation.
How does stopping their spouses from working prevent that? If anything, they would be the least affected by this change because anyone doing that is probably young and single.