I’d be suprised if anybody has even gotten to the end of my missive
here. :)
Yep, made it through. <g> I agree that visa policy is a needed
discussion, I just choose not to do so in this forum. YMMV.
On 7/2/25 2:13 AM, Pablo Camacho via PLUG-discuss wrote:
I agree with you about H1B visas, Keith.
In the past, I found myself in a situation in which I was a legal US
citizen working with a team mostly made up of H1B visa holders.
It was not a good situation to be in.
I would be glad to discuss details privately since I can't say much in
this mailing list without getting very not politically correct.
On Tue, Jul 1, 2025 at 9:48 PM David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss
<[email protected]> wrote:
Yes, this may be a Linux list, but most of us have worked with or
around people with H1B visas since the computing field attracts
perhaps the largest number of such visa holders.
Congress does tweak things from time to time, and I’ve been out of
the corporate loop for a few years now, so some details may be
outdated. But for the most part, changes to immigration laws are
few and far between.
These people are employed by two distinct groups: either large
companies, like IBM, MS, Apple, Google, eBay, etc; or small job
shops that are typically run by a friend or extended family member
from their home country that has set up a “job shop” and hired
some people on H1B status so they can come to America.
There are some distinctions I skimmed over in my post since most
people don’t know many details.
A foreigner needs a visa to come to America. As a student, they
have one type of visa. If they are attending school here, they
will probably interview for a job. If they get a job offer, it’s
usually contingent on them getting an H1B visa, and that’s done by
the company that wants to hire them. This company is also their
“sponsor”, which all visas require. Each visa has a limited
lifetime, and some can be renewed. If you’re on a student visa and
want to change your visa (rather than extend it), you typically
have to go back to your home country and deal with it there.
There used to be a requirement that students to go back to their
home country after graduating for two years, but perhaps that has
been changed. They still have to go back to change their visa, but
that can be done fairly quickly.
Once an H1B visa has been granted, along with a work permit, and
the person has become employed, they usually want to file for a
"Green Card", which is what takes the longest time. Until their GC
is either approved or denied, they’ll need to keep renewing their
visa every few years, which will be done by their employer /
sponsor. Once they get their GC, their visa expires. If they leave
their employer/sponsor or any reason, their visa expires. If
they’re arrested for some kinds of criminal activities, their visa
can be cancelled. If they leave the country without a permit to
return, they’ll lose their visa.
FWIW, I sponsored a woman to come over here on a fianceé visa
years ago. It was quite an ordeal. I learned far more about our
immigration system and laws than I ever wanted to know, and I got
a first-hand view of how totally screwed-up it is. It’s quite
amazing that it works at all.
I’ve also helped a couple of former employers prosecute H1B hires.
It’s a total racket.
Folks are certainly free to take a stand that, “I’m not getting
involved with politics”. But if you want to see how horrible and
even abusive 70 years of political string-pulling can get, just
try becoming a sponsor for a foreigner who wants to come here for
some reason, or to help a company hire someone on an H1B visa. You
might also discover that perhaps 95% of everything said on the
news media and in articles about immigration laws and policies are
flat out wrong. It’s pretty much ALL politics, since most of it is
lies and misleading information, most of it spoken by politicians
themselves, who KNOW that most of what they say is wrong.
The sad fact is, if you want to put an audience to sleep,
discussing details about immigration laws is a great way to do it.
I’d be suprised if anybody has even gotten to the end of my
missive here. :)
-David Schwartz
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