"A specialty occupation is one that requires the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and the attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. 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."
This was the point of the visa. Now tell me how many people under H1B fall into that category.
Some companies extended severance as salary to allow the employee to stay in compliance for a couple of weeks and people would scramble to find any job
Now worse than that, practically one might be up for this admin's ice to grab at the moment of their termination, or the update of that termination into USCIS's system, as the status is lost, unless they immediately book a plane ticket for today or tomorrow.
60-day period is incredibly short to sort out one's belongings (and dependents) but it at least promises a way to let you leave legally, with some dignity. This proposal of elimination just reads like a plan to render people illegal and hunt them down.
Other than AOS issues (i.e. if AOS takes too long and your H1B expires, you have to stop working and probably leave to avoid becoming illegal, but leaving might have implication on the new visa's application) or whether H1B->O1 can do AOS at all, O1 also has travel restriction for some reason, the visa sticker (not the status) is a single entry. Want to visit family or go elsewhere for tourism? You are stuck outside of US until you apply for another travel visa. Sounds like it has no dignity to me.
I'll bite. The problem is when you lose the visa and no grace period rule is in place, you are now an illegal immigrant instantly. The category now up for grab for ICE's concentration camp, at least theoretically, including all of your dependents because their visa is voided as well. How practical is it to get a plane ticket for today/tomorrow the moment you are laid off? Do people who get laid off also gets a teleportation machine?
As others have pointed out, this grace period did not exist before 2017, and prior administrations have managed to do just fine without building teleportation machines or conducting Trump style raids. If someone is in the process of self deporting and can show they are making good faith efforts to leave, there is no reason to arrest them. But there has to be a line somewhere. Another possibility could be interpreting the end of employment/expiration of the visa as the day your last paycheck is delivered. Two months is crazy though.
> If someone is in the process of self deporting and can show they are making good faith efforts to leave, there is no reason to arrest them.
That likely was the assumption and source of trust, i.e. enforcement's goal is to uphold order and has a sense of logic when being implemented. The current upset has a context of the breach of such trust. In other words, the enforcement now is sometimes aligned with Trump's domestic politics maneuver rather than immigration law enforcement, it is increasingly hard to not interpret new rules between the lines.
“The maximum 60-day grace period starts the day after termination of employment, which is typically determined based on the last day for which a salary or wage is paid.”
> The point of H1B is that the talent is so rare and valuable that it can’t be found domestically. If you get fired or laid off, hate to say it but you weren’t valuable enough to keep around.
Since H1B visa holders possess valuable business skills that can’t be found domestically it makes sense to recruit them when they become available
Looked at another way, the lack of grace period was indeed a problem back then, and that's why the Obama government proposed and finalized a rule to solve that problem. And now the Trump government proposes to reimpose the problem.
Poorly. How fucked up it was that we expected people to be on a plane out of the country the day they were fired was a recurring discussion. In practice no one actually did and there was a de facto grace period, but what people got away with was wildly inconsistent and how long you could spend in the country after getting fired was effectively random. Codifying the grace period made the whole process much more humane and predictable with no downside.
What happens after this? This administration has clearly sent a message that foreign workers are not welcome in any capacity. Fruit not being picked, research not being completed, tech not being built. Hell, a quick search shows AAMC reports 20% of doctors and med students are foreign born and educated.
No one seems to care in this admin. Absolutely wild.
so this post was at the top of the 1st page of HN just a few min ago, and now it's down on Page 2 (#36 atm). Is this due to the title change, or something else?
This just adds to the list of reasons not to accept a position in the U.S.. The U.S. is a country that doesn't want you and whose elected government is dedicated to making you feel unwelcome. The money had better be damned good to even consider it, and now you'll probably have to demand 60-days of vacation and a written guarantee that you'll be able to take it before your employment can end.
It's probably better to make a little less in a country that will treat you far better.
This seems especially cruel in the wake of recent tech layoffs where you can find out that you're no longer employed while riding a corporate bus to work in the morning without any warnings or time to prepare.
Can you imagine living here for many years, having a rented house with all the furniture, a car, bank accounts, gym memberships, friend groups, kids enrolled in local schools, and then suddenly being thrown out of the country without even having a chance to liquidate any of it just because Meta or Amazon has just dropped another 10k people layoff and and you're unlucky to be a part of it?
I thinks that it is entirely possible that they view the workers as some unnecessary burden to be eliminated and to be replaced with AI. 0 day grace period is probably intended to steal the workers' belongings by preventing them from selling them. Only humans will do such inhumane thing; AI would have never recommended this.. ever because they are trained to have more empathy.
How much of H1B hiring is because companies want to pay people less and how much is it because there genuinely aren't enough trained people to do the jobs?
I ask this question because I don't have any exposure to h1b hiring, so I really do not have any sense for what really goes on. It sounds like these programs get abused, but there is a lot of noise out so I can't be sure.
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[ 0.19 ms ] story [ 29.3 ms ] threadThis was the point of the visa. Now tell me how many people under H1B fall into that category.
definitely not a good time for H1Bs
“New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore” (ieee.org)
With no grace period at all, you'd just have to abandon them, and I guess try to sell them remotely if you even can.
fired and on an h1b? Gotta take an emergency plane outta here on short notice?
Mail us your car and apartment keys and we'll liquidate your assets for you and wire the funds to you
We are seeking 1M$ for 10% of the company
Has to have been brutal during the recessions
60-day period is incredibly short to sort out one's belongings (and dependents) but it at least promises a way to let you leave legally, with some dignity. This proposal of elimination just reads like a plan to render people illegal and hunt them down.
This is a "Proposed Rule", and the comments window is open. Use that "Comment" button on the page to share your opinion with the decision makers.
That likely was the assumption and source of trust, i.e. enforcement's goal is to uphold order and has a sense of logic when being implemented. The current upset has a context of the breach of such trust. In other words, the enforcement now is sometimes aligned with Trump's domestic politics maneuver rather than immigration law enforcement, it is increasingly hard to not interpret new rules between the lines.
I believe that’s already the law. https://www.uscis.gov/archive/options-for-nonimmigrant-worke...
“The maximum 60-day grace period starts the day after termination of employment, which is typically determined based on the last day for which a salary or wage is paid.”
Since H1B visa holders possess valuable business skills that can’t be found domestically it makes sense to recruit them when they become available
No one seems to care in this admin. Absolutely wild.
It's probably better to make a little less in a country that will treat you far better.
Can you imagine living here for many years, having a rented house with all the furniture, a car, bank accounts, gym memberships, friend groups, kids enrolled in local schools, and then suddenly being thrown out of the country without even having a chance to liquidate any of it just because Meta or Amazon has just dropped another 10k people layoff and and you're unlucky to be a part of it?
I ask this question because I don't have any exposure to h1b hiring, so I really do not have any sense for what really goes on. It sounds like these programs get abused, but there is a lot of noise out so I can't be sure.