Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Prior post...meant to say red badge.

Most H1Bs at Cisco are blue badge through contract companies. FEDs don't have a clue what's going on.

I heard when a couple is getting married in India, there are two questions the bride asks; when are you going to become a manager, when are we moving to US

The overall number of registrations submitted in FY 2026 decreased sharply from last year; 343,981 eligible registrations were filed this year, while 470,342 eligible registrations were filed last year.

They implemented some more anti-fraud provisions this year and registrations decreased sharply from last year.

@ph
That’s a great question. Nothing stops an American from applying.
As a manager, the comments on this thread are infuriating. None of us I know and especially the company attorneys will falsify the salary we submit on behalf of the H1 employee. They are not paid less.
It looks like people wants us to lay off the H1B employee as soon as ANY American lose a job and hire the American instead. That’s very disruptive to our business.

Can't an American citizen apply to work in the US on a H1-B visa? If no, why not? What happened to America First principle?

One thing is clear here: anytime someone speaks facts, they get downvoted.

H1-B is meant for US companies who are short of talent

No, H1-B was introduced to moderate the salary increases of programmers (as they were called then). Nice little favor for the billionaire class.

We won’t be flooded with refugees if we did not create the death squads in Latin America that causes the mess people are fleeing from.

My God, go backwards to the 70’s.

Trump makes so much noise about illegals coming into our country and building a wall at the US-Mexico border.

Why isn't his administration doing more to address reducing the H1B visa cap, or reforming the entire H1B program?

https://redbus2us.com/h1b-visa-total-cap-history-from-1990-to-current-year/

@e0 I don’t see how Americans are blamed for illegal Indian immigrants and world refugees. However I see you are no American. You are one of those habitual liars who wipe rear with the left hand.

@cz
“ Is the United States responsible for solving world hunger? Shouldn’t Americans focus on taking care of Americans first?”

You make me laugh.
We won’t be flooded with refugees if we did not create the death squads in Latin America that causes the mess people are fleeing from.

Every continent we were involved in and we still believe that 30 years later, people won’t figure it out.

So yes, if we create the refugee problem by arming one side (with our usual high minded excuses) we are responsible for fixing it.

@cd Is the United States responsible for solving world hunger? Shouldn’t Americans focus on taking care of Americans first? Laws and regulations only work for law-abiding citizens. They don’t deter people who are habitual liars. For example, consider the recent case of an illegal Indian truck driver involved in the deadly crash on the Florida Turnpike (https://www.foxnews.com/us/judge-denies-bond-illegal-immigrant-trucker-deadly-florida-turnpike-wreck). Such individuals are opportunists who show no remorse for the harm they cause others. Unfortunately, G2 and many managers like him in Cisco fall into this same category. By looking at Cisco today, I feel that America is doomed.

@ca
Can you expand on your thoughts? What’s coming in your opinion?

@c8
Requiring advanced degrees got us in this mess.
Once the employee leaves, the job description carries over and also requires a MS in CS so another one gets hired.

@ae
“ Some are willing to push boundaries or take risks in order to move ahead.”

That’s certainly not limited to h1b.
When you are starving or need to feed your family, working 20 hours per day isn’t seen as a problem. We are saying the same thing.

It makes sense on paper but who would yank their kids from high school overseas to come here temporarily only for their student to be out of status in a few years? That’s exactly what would happen if we prefer older workers.

Young families will have their children grow up in our culture.

@c7 we are going down the socialism path and no one sees it. People are crying about 200-300 people getting laid off and H1Bs - they have no perspective of what’s coming.

To your surprise I don’t need to grind Leetcode or take AI tests. My Indian friends tell me there are many openings. All I need is to pick up the one I like.

I'd fix this problem by requiring all coming on 'talent' visas to have phd from an us based university. so, if they come here and spend money while getting immersed into our culture, no problem - come join us. but it'll have to be our degree, paid here and done the way we do it. also, i'd cap things per region or country. if india is 15% of global population, they get 15% of the capped allocation of visas. i think enough people are pi---d right now with all visa scams going on they will have to do something about it. also, we at cisco were pioneers of this scam, we had departments with 90% indians 20+ years ago, at that time everyone else was clueless. we are masters of thsi...

Nothing is going to change. H1Bs are extremely highly paid and well honestly hard working than most Americans.
They do not value work life balance. An EM who does not have Indians and Chinese on his team and only has Americans will lose to his/her peers. His/Her team will be out on Friday or will work remotely from some holiday destination while his peer EMs with Indians and Chinese teammates will deliver high impact projects.

The only way out of this H1B madness is socialism, where profits of a company does not matter , rather main purpose of economy is worker participation. 10% stake in Intel is first step.

"I asked him how he managed to arrive so quickly, and I found out that he had come on a tourist visa."

How lame one needs to be to lie on internet where everyone is Anonymous ? My friend go and grind Leetcode, next layoff is round the corner.

Stop Asian companies taking over H1-B visas and importing thousands of them illegally.

H1-B is meant for US companies who are short of talent. These days there are enough talent coming out of US colleges. No need to get cheap labor from other countries.

When the contractor showed up at Cisco’s office again, I learned that this time he came with an L-1 visa. The L-1 is a U.S. nonimmigrant work visa that allows a company to transfer employees from its foreign offices to a related office in the United States. It is usually intended for managers, executives, or employees with specialized knowledge about the company’s products, services, or processes. What I realized is that while the government can reshape the H-1B visa program, it cannot fully prevent companies or individuals from finding ways to exploit the system.

Later, I learned more about the contractor I had interviewed. The budget from Cisco was close to a quarter of a million dollars. Contractors at Cisco carry a red badge, which means they are not Cisco employees (who carry blue badges). Instead, he was an employee of a consulting company in San Francisco that was owned by Indians.

Unfortunately, this poor fellow was only paid around $40,000 a year, and his salary was deposited in Indian Rupees. While that might be considered a decent wage in India, the cost of living in San Jose was extremely high. As a result, he could only afford to rent a bed in a bedroom shared with seven other roommates in the same situation.

Later, he requested a transfer to Cisco’s RTP office. After that, I never heard from him again. I sincerely wish him the best in whatever he is doing now.

When I was at Cisco, I was once asked to interview a contractor from India. Since he was based there, the interview took place at midnight my time. To my surprise, just three days later the same candidate appeared in our San Jose office. I asked him how he managed to arrive so quickly, and I found out that he had come on a tourist visa.

I reported the situation to my manager, and the contractor was asked to return to India and wait for the proper work visa.

This experience taught me that people approach opportunities differently depending on their circumstances. Some are willing to push boundaries or take risks in order to move ahead.