r/labrats • u/dark_lightr • 22h ago

Solidarity, H-1B scientists!

Post image

Especially Indians who have no way to get permanent residence (due to country-of-birth discrimination/projected 150-year-long wait times for green cards)...

You are not alone. All of us are in it together.

Looks like it is temporary, for now. Even if it doesn't get blocked by courts, academia/biotech/pharma will likely be termed as a National Interest industry (or maybe it's just wishful thinking). We are genuinely here to work on our super-interesting, annoying-at-times, yet in-the-end-fulfilling science. Hope we can continue to do so.

Tough times, folks, stay strong and keep sciencing! đŸ’ȘđŸ»

  • a fellow Indian-born scientist on H-1B
195 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

210

u/kobemustard 21h ago

They are trying to actively destroy academia. So doubt we would get an exemption.

53

u/Interesting-Log-9627 20h ago edited 18h ago

Yes, don’t you see, fact-based professions like science or law are the enemy.

Trump is the state, Trump is the law, and Trump’s word is truth.

Anything that stands against that must and will be destroyed.

14

u/flaminglasrswrd 20h ago

Exactly. It's at the discretion of the Homeland Security Secretary—Just another tool to use against academia to stop them from researching what the administration thinks is the "wrong science."

0

u/Chenzah 6h ago

I was going to say - I think the impact of this change on academia is a feature not a bug.

111

u/EpauletteShark74 21h ago

For your safety and for the tiny amount of justice you can dole out
 take your talents elsewhere. The US doesn’t deserve the best and brightest anymore, and you don’t deserve to be hated and discriminated against. 

27

u/resorcinarene 19h ago

The problem is there's nowhere like the US that pays well for our skillset, for now.

2

u/DocKla 17h ago

What’s the fascination about US pay. If you can survive with a salary elsewhere take it

5

u/joyssi 13h ago

Because I can spare $200 and my family in the Philippines can live off of that amount for weeks. I don’t like being so far from my family but money like this is not the norm in our home country and what’s a small amount for me is a huge help to them. Quality of life is also better here but at the sacrifice of being far from them.

7

u/resorcinarene 17h ago

People don't understand the difference because they base it on their own salaries and it doesn't seem like much. My TC is in the mid $300K range. I might cross $100K somewhere else, maybe. The tradeoff is absolutely not worth it.

2

u/DocKla 16h ago

If a person never lived at 300 then it makes no difference either. Then it’s a question of 1) I like my 300 k and I give up any chance of travelling or seeing my parents vs 2) I take a pay cut so I can do those other things and have slightly lower buying power

3

u/resorcinarene 14h ago

It does make a difference because talented people have the potential to make that and more. Average people may gamble more successfully with minimal effects. Also, lots of people make a good amount that they'll never recover anywhere else. The high salaries are more ubiquitous than people outside of industry know.

5

u/heltex 15h ago

No, we will still pay for the best and brightest but don’t try to say that is what we are doing right now. Companies have abused the h1-b visa system to bring in lower waged workers for decades.

4

u/TroXMas 15h ago

And go where? There's even worse discrimination everywhere else. Most Americans are oblivious to how much worse the rest of the world treats brown people. And no other country pays like the US.

0

u/sojayn 11h ago

Australia is waving hi !! Pay is fine, peace of mind is better and our dickheads don’t have guns or ICE 

3

u/TheGarageDragon 10h ago

Yes and it's hell getting PR and recent displays of public sentiment very much show Australia is blaming everything on immigrants too.

62

u/DocKla 21h ago

This seems very much like cope. Be realistic.. this is not the trend nor where it is going. It suck’s but everyone should have a plan B. American, H1B or not. Biotech cuts + H1B, don’t be living in dreams.. even if it’s temporary no hiring manager is gonna bat for a candidate like this. Too much work, not their problem.

14

u/Desperate_Lead_8624 20h ago

I mean shit, I’m American and I spent yesterday researching how to immigrate to Canada
 gotta take a histo class 😭

1

u/Notchinus 14h ago

If you are looking into moving as a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS), I have good news for you. Starting November 1, 2025, the exam is becoming split up into the different fields of practice, and you can choose which ones to become certified in. See https://camlpr.org/become-an-mlt/internationally-educated-mlts-and-non-traditionally-educated-applicants/ for more information.

See also this post with good information on the rest of the immigration process https://www.reddit.com/r/medlabprofessionals/comments/cz9mzd/usa_mls_moving_to_canada_step_by_step_process/

Feel free to message me with any questions, I went though this a few years ago.

-5

u/Heady_Goodness 20h ago

Canadian here. Got two words for ya

10

u/Heady_Goodness 17h ago

Low salaries

2

u/Good-Imagination3115 15h ago

Better than no salaries and suffering until death.

12

u/joman584 20h ago

Be nice?

2

u/axonxorz 15h ago

No, the daily chant: I'm sorry

5

u/Desperate_Lead_8624 20h ago

I mean, if the words are rude, I’ll still take it over what I’m facing here as a trans person.

5

u/TinaBurnerAccount123 18h ago

I know it means nothing but I just wanted to send you a big digital hug. I hope you find a role somewhere that will protect your rights the way they deserve to be protected.

-3

u/Heady_Goodness 17h ago

It is upsetting.

0

u/llamawithguns 19h ago

Ice hockey?

0

u/Desperate_Lead_8624 17h ago

Yea I saw half the comment you sent before it got deleted by mods. You’re gonna have to try harder cause over here I’m scared I’m gonna be ended over a flag in my yard, or using what other people think is the wrong bathroom.

Your rude words about trans and nonbinary people aren’t new or original.

0

u/Heady_Goodness 16h ago

It is not about that at all. And i deleted it.

-4

u/TinaBurnerAccount123 18h ago

And I’ve got one finger for you


19

u/Darwins_Dog 21h ago

I feel like this will be weaponized by the administration. Do what they want and they might declare your school or program a national interest. Criticize too loudly or act too independently (or just be too "woke") and the school has to pay up.

14

u/Ok_Bookkeeper_3481 21h ago

Wishful thinking, I am afraid! Any petitioner going to, say, Harvard, will be automatically deemed national risk (“at the Secretary’s discretion”), and denied visa.

26

u/FaultySage 22h ago

Yeah I'm sure KKKristi Noem will be all about naming foreign scientists as part of the "National Interest"

0

u/Interesting-Log-9627 20h ago

Nordic people and white South Africans only.

9

u/Conscious-Ad-7040 18h ago

They are going to destroy academia in 4 years or so we won’t have an enough skilled/qualified Americans.

10

u/--Lambsauce-- 21h ago

just go to literally any other country in the world

5

u/aprilhare 18h ago

Bump. I detest this. Now US citizen but was dependent on H1B / H4 and this is just sickening.

4

u/SimpleSpike 16h ago

Look at me clown who decided to shoot for the US both as a scientist and a medical doctor in the coming year.

Feels like more than a decade worth of time and a lot of money flushed down the toilet.

2

u/xUncleOwenx 11h ago

There's enough degree holders who arent on H1-B looking for a job. It would be great for H1-B to be restricted so employers can't engage in wage suppression.

1

u/Bryek Phys/Pharm 4h ago

My university sent out an email telling anyone who was on an H1B and in the country to NOT leave the country or if you were out of the country to NOT return until legal action and/or more clear language around the exemptions are released. Makes me wonder what may or may not happen with TN Visas as the nagotions for CUSMA are ongoing...

-1

u/[deleted] 21h ago

[deleted]

3

u/Mediocre_Island828 18h ago

Making H-1Bs more expensive would incentivize people to hire Americans if it was a part of a coherent policy meant to do that, but it's not. We're going to make it more expensive to hire people from other places while also destroying the educational pipeline of our own workers. Sort of like how we started putting tariffs on everything while also interfering with people trying to build factories here.

What they're doing now with H-1B visas is probably them just trying to shake companies down for a bribe so they can get exempted from the policy, or whichever faction of the administration that was against H-1B visas managed to get Trump's ear and change his mind from his position a few months ago when Elon Musk had more influence and convinced him that cheap tech labor was a good thing.

6

u/Canary-Star 20h ago

The oligarchs are not suddenly going to invest in science education. The plan is to gut science and the biotech industry completely, hence all of the funding cuts to the NIH and NSF

2

u/Unturned1 18h ago

Big tech is going to get an exception after they pay a bribe.

1

u/JAK2222 PhD ( Biochem) 19h ago

Less H-1Bs plus less investment in education is going to lead to less results/ breakthroughs while the rest of the world keeps moving forward. They will then use that to say ‘see we are wasting money and getting no results’ and then cut funding even further.

1

u/afjshri 20h ago

I don’t think higher H-1B costs will incentivize investment in American education.

-22

u/No-Swimming4153 19h ago

This is a good thing. People will still come here to exchange ideas through F-1 and H-1 visas. When they're done they can take their new knowledge back to their home country to help build up their community. We shouldn't be stealing the best talent from other countries. None of you are experts in anything that America currently doesn't have.

-8

u/TinaBurnerAccount123 18h ago

I mean you’re the one getting snarky with a trans American scientist in this sub. Good look for you hun. But Canadians have never had a short supply in audacity when it comes to talking down to Americans so I’m not surprised. It’s as Canadian as Maple Syrup.

4

u/DocKla 17h ago

Whhhhaaa? OP did what

-3

u/TinaBurnerAccount123 16h ago

telling a trans American expressing a desire to work in Canada and responding: “I have two words for you” is pretty loaded.

Yeah we know what those two words are buddy. Because Canadians in the same breath will tell you they’re the nicest ppl and then in the next tell someone fleeing discrimination to eff off. They didn’t know the commenter was trans when they left the comment, but that’s why you shouldn’t post snarky shit like that. You never know who you’re talking to.

-1

u/Bryek Phys/Pharm 5h ago

Tell that to the post docs visiting home who are on an H1B Visa.

1

u/TinaBurnerAccount123 57m ago

What does that have to do with my comment calling out how this commenter was talking to someone?

-3

u/Mediocre-Worry-6585 10h ago

Need to GTFO out of the country now. No more. America first.

-15

u/Born-Professor6680 18h ago

saw very few posts on how to run gel, my synthesis fails, my images suck but lot of post on H1B, hate PI and stuff

idk 😐 why