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Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

(www.reuters.com)
1245 points mriguy | 8 comments | 19 Sep 25 19:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.853s | source | bottom
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suriya-ganesh ◴[19 Sep 25 20:57 UTC] No.45306489[source]▶
Interesting decision. I'm on the F1 -> H1B pipeline myself as a software engineer. And my wife is a researcher working on Genetic Engineering.

Of the both of us, I've been the strong proponent for moving the US. and with each passing day, its getting harder to make a strong case for the pain, and uncertainty of moving here.

Lately everything has been counter to what one would expect from a pro-growth, accelerationist country. But I understand where the reasoning is coming from, though.

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1. nceqs3 ◴[19 Sep 25 21:22 UTC] No.45306787[source]▶
if you are exceptional, there is always the O-1 visa
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2. suriya-ganesh ◴[19 Sep 25 21:36 UTC] No.45306944[source]▶
I might.

It's not just this specific issue, honestly. Throwing wrench on all economies, that my wife and I bet on is what's horrible. Research fund cuts on premium institutes, the wonky arrests etc.

Even yesterday, I had to make a case for why all of this certainty might be worth it. And it was not easy. At this point though, I certainly agree that the US is not in a trajectory for appreciating external contributions.

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3. guywithahat ◴[19 Sep 25 21:45 UTC] No.45307047[source]▶
The H1B really should have just been an O-1 from the beginning. Being a software or genetics engineer isn't really that interesting, we literally have millions of software engineers, and more genetics engineers than we have good jobs. If someone is truly exceptional than they deserve an O-1, and if you truly can't find any engineers in the US at your salary then maybe you should move overseas.
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4. ◴[19 Sep 25 21:52 UTC] No.45307130[source]▶
5. dyauspitr ◴[19 Sep 25 22:02 UTC] No.45307241[source]▶
No, you become exceptional after coming here. The majority of our unicorns are first generation immigrant founded.
6. suriya-ganesh ◴[19 Sep 25 22:24 UTC] No.45307458[source]▶
Might be, but that's how you end up in a situation where all the technical skill is outside the US and the products inside are a marketing layer over technical efforts.

Similar to what ended up happening with china and manufacturing.

7. kelnos ◴[19 Sep 25 22:31 UTC] No.45307524[source]▶
And the requirements for O-1 aren't even that difficult. I know people who are frankly not exceptional (not mediocre either, though, of course), but have worked with lawyers to systematically fulfill the requirements of the O-1 visa. It does take time to do, and I assume the legal assistance isn't cheap, but I think a lot of people on H-1Bs who don't even consider it, could do it.
8. sashank_1509 ◴[20 Sep 25 10:12 UTC] No.45311993[source]▶
O-1 is a subjective visa which means the process is heavily gamed. Pay conferences to host your papers, pay newspapers to write meaningless articles about you, get a famous personality to sign off on your recommendation letter (I know startups used their board of advisors only for this) and on and on. It’s mostly a joke at this point. O-1 can be scrapped and you wouldn’t lose anything