TARP repayment and H1 restrictions

[vkaul]

Will the H1-restrictions cease to exist once the banks return the TARP money.

 

[curioUno]

the first question to ask is : " even if the banks return TARP money will they be in any position to hire at all? "

 

[Yan He]

I don't know how the regulation goes, but we repaid the trouble money in June but up till today HR still asks candidates with legal status to work only.

 

[vkaul]

yan you are in morgan stanley right?
So is nobody sponsoring h1 in finance industry right now?
I know firms are hiring right now.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

It may take a while before you can untangle yourself from the TARP restrictions.
And by legal status to work, I assume it also includes current H1B holders? So OPT is a no?

 

[Yan He]

Andy, I think "legal status to work" in this situation is, no H1B sponsor needed. Have no idea if OPT considered "no sponsor needed", HR should have their own criteria.

Yes, many firms are hiring, so does MS. But I think each firm has its own requirement about the legal status.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Will the H1-restrictions cease to exist once the banks return the TARP money.

I did a bit more googling and from all the reports, the answer seems to be yes. Banks want to do as they wish with executives compensation and hiring which is restricted as long as they will have TARP money.
Here is a bit of old news

JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley in race to repay TARP funds

Why are they rushing? They want more flexibility in compensation and hiring than they is possible under TARP restrictions. By having greater flexibility than other banks still strangled by TARP regulations they will be able to lure the best and brightest employees from banks who can't offer the same level of compensation.

 

[zhouxing]

There are simply too many talents coming and working in the States in the past. So Americans do not care. Now more and more talented foreigners choose to not to come / return. Many of them get much higher social status and even make more $$$ in their home countries. So this issue will be less and less relevant to those foreign talents, arguably the exact people US should retain/attract for its own benefits.

Such trends actually already exists for some time, even though it has not been noticed. Taking Mexicans as an example. Almost everybody and all media are talking about incoming Mexicans. But if we really think about this, at least, I have noticed that there actually not many educated Mexicans around in US. I think it is fair to say that, compared with Chinese and Indian alike, it will be much easier for educated Mexicans to come to US. If these people are not coming, it might be because they feel they are better off back in Mexico. If Mexicans prefer to stay home, sooner or later, vast majority of talented Chinese/Indian will do the same. Then let's imagine a Silicon Valley without Chinese/India, Quant / IT / Risks etc team without Chinese / Indian on Wall St.

I personally think US is repeating the same mistake Chinese made 300 years ago.

 

[fegain]

yan you are in morgan stanley right?
So is nobody sponsoring h1 in finance industry right now?
I know firms are hiring right now.

Does anyone know if JPM and GS and other ex-TARP recipients have started sponsoring for new H1Bs?

 

[Stefan Zota]

I work at GS - Technology Infrastructure and I am not aware of a change in H1-B hiring.
However there may be more flexibility in certain divisions.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Some guy on WM said that even through GS and MS repaid TARP in June, HR is not permitting hiring of any candidate who needs visa sponsorship.

I don't know if this is just some rumor or only applicable to GS, MS.

 

[woody]

I believe the old rules are still in place, where a company must prove that there are no qualified American applicants or that the foreign applicant has a special needed skill. Correct me if I'm wrong about this for large companies.

 

[Uncle Max]

Big banks are on a public watch now, therefore they will probably stay away from hiring H1-B for a while.

However, hedge funds don't have these obligations, have better pay and opportunities in general. So, why bother with big banks if you need H-1B sponsorship?

 

[alain]

HF usually don't go through the hassle unless it is really worthy.

 

[vkaul]

I thought hedge funds are less secure and it is better to start with a big bank. Once laid ofw from a big bank you can go to a big bank but other way round in not true.
Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

HF usually don't go through the hassle unless it is really worthy.

So you are saying HF wouldn't do H1B sponsorship, or less likely to do that for their prospective employees? That may be true for the small ones but I would imagine the more established ones like Citadel have lawyers and HR personnel just like the big banks.
So in that case, people are joining big banks because they like the whole paperwork infrastructure afforded to them.

 

[Stefan Zota]

I believe the old rules are still in place, where a company must prove that there are no qualified American applicants or that the foreign applicant has a special needed skill. Correct me if I'm wrong about this for large companies.

Old rules, before 07, were uniform for all companies. H1-B visa requires that employer to show that U.S. citizens cannot be found to furfill same technical requirements.
However it is somewhat of a generic statement, there is no process to prove it. For instance, for green-card this is much more structured.

New rules differentiate between financials that received TARP and rest of the companies. It is basically a hard restriction.

I see also observations regarding hedge funds H1-B. Only several large funds will go through this process. Andy is correct about HR size.
The pool of people that need H1-B applying to hedge funds is small anyway. Greencard is different discussion ...

 

[vkaul]

So who sponsors green card hedge fund, the banks or neither. That is an important consideration to the company you are joining if you are Indian or Chinese as it takes a long time before you can get a green card and it is important to start the process asap.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

One of the first questions you will be asked by HR, recruiters, hiring managers these days is your immigration status. Depends on the situation at the hiring place, they will decide to move forward with you or not.
I had a few phone screens with HR people and they always end the conversation with "Oh, by the way, what is your status?". Very casually but may be the most important question these days.
You can prevent this by stating it on your resume. Save lot of time for unnecessary phone calls.

 

[vkaul]

But basically is green card out of favor with any company right now?