The Wall Street Journal on April 8 cited a White House statement advising that Homeland Security will soon publish new rules that will allow the spouses of foreigners on H-1B visas (mostly high-tech professionals) to take U.S. jobs. The WH statement was, ““These proposed regulations include rules authorizing employment for spouses of certain high-skill workers on H-1B visas, as well as enhancing opportunities for outstanding professors and researchers,”
This will constitute new competition for unemployed Americans seeking jobs. Whether the administration has the unilateral authority to make the visa status of accompanying spouses eligible for work in the U.S. is questionable, but in any case, past practice has been to negotiate agreements with foreign countries that provide reciprocal benefits. If a country allows the spouse of a U.S. professional worker to take a job in that country’s economy, then that could result in reciprocal benefits for professionals from that country to work in the U.S.
Watch for that standard to be applied when the new policy is promulgated, but do not hold your breath. It is unlikely that there are tens of thousands of American tech workers who are waiting in line to take jobs in India and China.
14 Comments
In case you didn’t know the H1 Visa programs is all about not hiring american workers. Say a job is valued at 75,000 they will post it for 45-50 and we americans know the job salary is too low. So they go through the process and can’t find an american to take it or they illiminate americans for some reason. So now they can’t fill it so they get a H1 Visa person to take it. It’s all political BS to not hire americans and bring wages down.
I agree completely. We are just now slowly seeing some rehires taking place. But wages remain stagnant. It seems Obama is hurting those who voted fr him most, namely recent college grads and minority youth also.
An acquaintance of mine spent several years in Japan while his wife worked there. He couldn’t get a work visa so he soaked in the cultural experience and did some freelance work. He had arranged the whole deal with his wife before they mutually decided to take the offer. No regrets from either one of them. Living abroad as an expat is a unique experience the world over and I’m sure foreign couples can deal with visa restrictions for a spouse.
Yes Concerned Citizen
The H-1B green cards in Seattle bring the whole chain migration clan into America; then want jobs and Medicaid as soon as we let them have it. I see the fathers and grand fathers of the IT technicals MSFT hires wandering around on the streets. They make their gatherring places [with their flags] a place where they can display their culture and dress; not our’s.
Jobs Americans Don’t Want
Dangerous/strenuous jobs paying less than burger flipping jobs for the same or less pay.
Generally the pay for these jobs, i.e., home construction sheet rock, apple picking, etc used to be done by legal Americans….at a decent fair wage. Did homes and food costs go down with cheaper wages? Hades no. Prices went for both.
If you look back who was the first head of state to travel to the Obama WH and be feted with a lavish reception? It was the PM of India . There is a need to woo India again and this is how it is done. It is job reversal for the affected individuals. Five years ago I was working in IT and had to train people from Bangalore how to do my job . Yesterday I was making firewood by hand . We just switched jobs thats all.
You are correct. I looked it up. That was the first state dinner of this administration.
Unfair trade agreements have cost us jobs, now our D.C. ELITE think it’s a good idea to trade people. Before long our kids will have either no jobs at all, or have to leave our country. Talk about “breaking up families”, as Dems say about illegals…They don’t care at all to break up citizen’s families!!!
If you have never fought back on this issue, now is the time!
we must be the only country that does this to it\’s own workers. the uk doesn’t allow foreigners to move there just to look for work. you have experience with one of the jobs on a list. s. korea requires you to hire a korean citizen over a non citizen and you have to meet the criteria for the job to get a work visa.
Cute. H1-Bs are supposed to be for companies that can’t find US workers with the needed skills. So, there’s a skills requirement for the primary visa holder, but then the SPOUSE gets to take any job he or she can get, in competition with US workers?! Stupid.
I prefer “Traitor” to “Stupid”.
Indian companies like Infosys want to ship their employees here so they don’t have to deal with the infrastructure problems in India like power outages. And our government let’s them do it, at the expense of American workers. We allow foreign countries to use our education facilities and infrastructure to compete with us.
Leland this is a mess…………it is an open market…………..meaning………..you would think if there are workers already here they should not be hiring overseas……however it has been happening with the Indians, etc etc so no policy here………….this is actually worse that the illegals that are most jobs Americans do not want……
You mean those jobs Americans “won’t do” like construction? Those used to be high paying jobs until the illegals took them over. And the meatpacking jobs that used to be high paying union jobs until the companies hired illegals to break the backs of the unions. You need to get out from behind your computer and talk to people in the real world. I personally know people who used to work in construction but can’t get paid decent money now.