This was a great read and hits close to home for me. Not many people realise that getting a visa to live and work in the USA is extremely difficult, if not possible.
I recently did some contracting work for a US based startup. I am based in Australia and the startup was in Seattle. I am in this weird area because I am self-taught and have no college/university degree and fall just under the 12 years required experience to substitute for a degree. The rule is 3 years of proven work experience for every year of a standard 4 year degree. So no visas applied to me I could apply for.
I eventually just took a remote contracting position with the company and flew over for the maximum 3 month stay and travelled around. During my time there I encountered a lot of taxi/Uber drivers who immigrated from various countries and nothing personally against them, but I have a unique skillset that this startup was looking for and was struggling to find themselves and yet it is impossible for me to travel and work in the USA? Once again no offence or ill-will, but how is it possible for someone to move to the USA to drive a cab, but a developer can't actually get a job in the US? Kind of perplexing.
Supposedly the US values highly skilled jobs, but it seems they only class professions like a lawyer, doctor or some other profession that requires an extended period of study as highly skilled. For software development maybe considered highly skilled, but not so much front-end development/Javascript.
Comparatively, Canada make it easy to obtain a work/stay visa for an initial period of 2 years and I believe you can keep extending it. You don't need any academic qualifications or jump through any massive hurdles. Why is the US like this, especially with a close ally country like Australia? It's the same story in the UK, if not, you get even more scrutiny trying to get into the UK for work. But as the author writes, the skilled immigration problem seems to be affect people from everywhere.
I guess it's like that everywhere. I studied in Poland with a friend from Nigeria, and the amount of hoops he had to jump through every 6 months to extend his stay permit was unreal, even despite the fact that he spoke fluent Polish, had a part time job and got really good grades. Each time he was asking to extend his permits, it could very easily be denied for whatever reason and he would have to abandon everything and be flown back to Nigeria. Also, he saw hostility towards him in every office he went to.
Meanwhile, if you're illiterate but from Chechnya, you get a free apartment and welfare checks here courtesy of the taxpayer, because apparently "the situation is political". It's ridiculous.
When it comes to visas everyone wants to be special. Unfortunately the international recognized way of being special is having a bachelors degree. If that wasn't a requirement it would probably be even harder skilled workers to get visas. It sounds like if you work a couple of more years you can apply for an E-2 visa and hopefully avoid the H1-B lottery. That is not a bad position to be in. Considering the outlook for someone wanting to immigrate to the US to drive a cab I wouldn't be very bothered by that either.
Nope, the US does not have a skills based migration system. It's entirely family based. Opposite of Australia, which is built around skilled migration and does not give preference to family members. It's ridiculous, we turn our backs on the highly skilled in order to admit someone because they are the parent or sibling of a US citizen. Why should we import parents with no guarantee they will do anything but need expensive Medicare and Social Security in old age?
Ok, for others who might be interested in immigrating, a few other things that I learned from my experience:
- If you already are done with your studies, look for jobs at educational institutions. Universities, research laboratories, think tanks. They are exempt from the quota and can hire at any time of the year and outside of the quota.
There a few downsides. First, most of the openings at these institutions will require some kind of grad school. Second, these institutions are not known for paying the same salaries as big name companies in Silicon Valley. Third, you can not transfer the visa to another company, so if you get an offer from another company that does not share the quota-exempt status, you are back in the position of waiting until April and hoping the new employer doesn't fuck up the application and that there aren't 10 gazillion other applicants from IBM, Google, Infosys, Tata and the like.
- One hack: consider first moving to Canada. Their immigration laws are much saner in the US and are more merit- and qualification-based than the US. With a simple job offer you can get a resident visa in Canada. After 2 years as a resident you can apply for citizenship. And Canadian citizens can work in the US, under the TN visa.
With this you avoid all the crap about the H1B lottery and have a stronger position to work in the US after ~3 years. If I ever plan to be in the US again in the next 3-5 years, I would actually move to Montreal first.
However, applying for a Work Permit is still rather cumbersome (which is typically the first step after the job offer and before Express Entry) I just went through this process with an employee. While there is no arbitrary quota, the process does take between 3-6 months.
But overall the path to citizenship is much shorter than in the US.
And Canada has public healthcare. So, no need to worry about healthcare while you're self employed.
For Canada hack - you might actually like it better in Canada than in the US. I first moved to Canada after finishing my graduate studies in the US about 15 years ago with the plan to go back in a couple of years.
I liked Canada so much that I decided to stay here (Toronto, Ontario) and have been happy about my decision ever since.
Yes, taxes are a little bit higher, but the place feels saner and safer. Various levels of government are supportive of new businesses (lots of incentives, grants, R&D support programs), especially in technology sector.
After the PR via Express Entry which takes, say 1 year, you wait 3 years (recently changed by Harper[1]) before you can apply for Citizenship and then it will be almost a year after that when you get the citizenship (27% get in 12 months, 54% in 18 months). So you are easily looking at ~5 years from application. Then you need to find someone who will file a TN visa for you.
The Canada part is misleading. It takes about two years to get PR (similar to green card) in Canada via Express Entry (well, technically 6 months to 1 year from the time you apply to CIC, but because you virtually need a work visa or provincial nomination to acquire enough points for entry, it takes an extra 1-1.5 years). You need to wait 4 years after getting PR to apply for citizenship. It takes about two years to get granted citizenship after that, but they are trying to reduce it to one. So the whole process takes 6-8 years not 2.
With that said, the immigration laws are indeed saner and merit-based.
The Australian work visa is even friendlier than the Canadian one. I'm not sure how the Australian citizenship process works but it used to be you could apply for permanent residency shortly after going there for University. I think it's a bit stricter now but worth looking into.
This is why I ended up in London - to me it's the next best thing. Being an EU citizen I have equal rights here and employers can't lowball my salary, because they have no such leverage like they do in US with H1-B visa. There's nothing immigration-related looming over my head and working hours are better than in US (from what I hear), so I have plenty of time for starting my own gig on the side initially when I'm ready for it.
The irony is that you can get to US if you have a million to invest (if that hasn't changed yet), but if you have already made it this far, going to US kind of defeats the purpose - "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere".
While it's relatively easy for people with an EU passport to move to the UK, the work permit system is just as bad as the H1-B visa system. It's capped at around 20000 applicants per year.
For those with good English and tech skills without an EU passport, Dublin is a fairly good option. The work permit system is reasonable and the demand for skills is quite strong. There are also a lot of US companies with operations in Dublin, which opens the possibility for an L1 visa to get to the US.
I think UK companies should also consider setting up offices in Dublin, so they can get access to talent they can transfer to the UK using the intra company transfer visa, similar to companies in the US having offices in Canada.
> employers can't lowball my salary, because they have no such leverage like they do in US with H1-B visa
They have to pay you at least the average wage for your position, experience and area.
At least from the other H1B folks I know, all of them get above average salary.
There is a lot of indian body shops doing consulting (infosys, ...) that are super shady, but if you work at a 'regular' US company, you should be fine from what I've seen.
End of the the 90's dreamed of moving to US and even got a possibility. By the time I was ready to it the first dot com bubble bursted.
To be quite honest I only knew US from the movies. Following news and recent developments I'm quite hesitant to move over there. Cops shooting people, riots, NSA tracking,...
My romantic view when I just started working in the dot com boom of US that bubble bursted. This doesn't mean I don't like the US. There are many good things also. In any country there are good and bad things. But I think there are other places maybe as good as the US which are worth exploring.
I used to be the same but after spending 8 months there the food is better in Europe, your quality of life is generally higher, lower working hours and the government system is one that I wouldn't want to support.
Immigration reform for skilled workers will almost certainly not happen as long as Democrats continue to lump in amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants in the same immigration reform bill.
This might not be a popular opinion to spout, but I can't see it any other way. These illegals will almost certainly vote for Democrats. How do you expect Republicans to cooperate to welcome educated workers when you are expecting Republicans to commit political suicide?
US as a whole will hugely benefit from making the immigration process easier for educated workers like many other countries have done (Canada, UK, Germany, Australia etc), but this doesn't seem possible under current political climate.
I think by far, the worst affected group is the Indians (and a close second, Chinese, Mexicans, and Filipinos). For a politician, from a macroeconomic perspective, it doesn't make sense to put these arbitrary bureaucratic roadblocks. There was an excellent write-up in this week's Economist on one section of the skilled immigration: Indian immigrants. http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21651331-india-...
Quoth:
Indians in America are the most promising. They are increasingly prominent in tech companies, on Wall Street and in government, especially in the state department. Around 1% of America’s population, over 3.3m people, are “Asian Indians”. Perhaps 150,000 more arrive each year, and 90% of them stay permanently. Devesh Kapur, who has studied them, talks of a “flood”. He says over half of all Indian-born people in America arrived there after 2000.
From a macroeconomic value addition perspective, this is an enormous tax base which also skews social indicators upwards.
This is an "elite" vs common person fight. Bush 2 and Jeb Bush are for amnesty. That being said from a purely political decision supporting amnesty is generally a loser for Republicans. Their business donors want it but vote wise it seems dumb.
Is there much evidence that non citizens are participating in US elections? I'm sure there are a few people doing it illegally, I mean evidence of 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 or millions or whatever it might be.
Except for the fact that illegals don't vote, you are right. The problem is that is more politically profitable to keep "immigration as an issue" than to actually work in "The People's" best interests.
Democrats don't want to lose the image of being the welcoming mother, Republicans don't want to lose the image of being the strict but principled father. An immigration law that was based on qualification and possible economic boost by immigrant doesn't help any of them.
Basically this was why I left the US after almost 5 years.
I wouldn't give too much credit to the Republicans here. They aren't interested in immigration reform so much as they are interested in expanding the H1-B program limits as part of their corporate welfare agenda.
I agree with your last statement but I don't think there is any political group who is advocating for making the immigration process easier for educated workers.
Most immigration laws are "stupid" in a lot of ways. It's even stupider when you think about the fact, that specialized and highly skilled jobs are actually harder to work in for immigrants.
Yes, theoretically, the U.S. immigration law (and many other countries', too) favors highly skilled jobs. In practice however, it is far easier for low skilled workers to just overstay a visa. In 2012, the U.S. paid $18 billion to try and enforce immigration laws. Still, there are anywhere between 7 and 30 million illegal immigrants in the country, despite all the effort.
Billions for law enforcement, not a penny for social services...
agreed that most immigration laws are stupid and annoying, but yet US is particularly bad. They're thorough, picky and the requirements are really high. It's also quite expensive
I guess immigration laws are not in place because of that "fictional concept", but rather because those inside the country are so afraid that immigrants would take away from whatever they believe to be entitled to.
I also believe there will come a time, when all industrialized nations will open their borders, at least for honest immigrants. Preferably all those nations at the same time. Already, enforcement of immigration regulation is impossible in many countries. And the extent to which that regulation seems to be working might as well stem from the fact that most people, no matter how poor or desperate actually don't want to leave their home country.
What interesting timing - I'm organizing an Immigration-themed hackathon[1] this weekend in SF, and on Saturday morning we'll have a speaking panel called "Immigrant Founder Stories" where founders from 4 startups (big to small) will share about their struggles to gain permanent status in the US, and how it affected them as entrepreneurs.
- Laks Srini, Co-founder & CTO at Zenefits [2]
- Tri Tran, Co-founder & CEO at Munchery [3]
- Silver Keskküla, Co-founder at Teleport (ex-Skype) [4]
Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton favor amnesty that encourages illegal immigration while million of people are waiting to come to the US and high skilled immigrants jump through hoops.
as recently as 2012, 69 percent of those surveyed agree that "we should restrict and control people coming to live in our country more than we do now."
The MSM often only presents one side of the story.
There is NO evidence of US labor shortage.
In fact, with stagnant to down real labor prices, the only logical conclusion is that there is a glut.
Corporate and Academic control of more and more guest worker visas is not really a great idea.
Oh man. You really didn't give up, kudos to that. It is such a painful process. I've had a mixed bag of experiences too and just decided to focus on what I have in London and maybe it would work out later but wouldn't get my hopes up. Yahoo cancelled my last round interview because there wasn't enough time to submit for H1-B if I passed :/
For comparison, in the 80's when my father got a job at the FDA, it was signed, sealed, delivered and my family moved in just a few months in the mid of the year, well before all this became so complex. Kicker is I got a Greencard before we moved back, but unfortunately I was too young to realise what this meant or do anything about it...and it expired.
Kudos to Ilya, I love it when it ends successfully.
It is kind of ironic though that eventually he got the Green Card via the DV lottery. Had he been fired without that, it would have been a very difficult stretch to get a job within 30 days.
Through my wife (a Korean immigrant), I've learned about how hard immigration to the U.S. is. We have our own insane story and the short of it is that immigration is an absolute mess.
Considering how many smart and hard working people I've met who came here for college, and considering the outsized success the ones who managed to immigrate here have had, it seems kind of insane that we don't do more to keep them here. The lost tax revenue I can think of from personal connections alone is in the millions of dollars per year -- imagine how much economic activity that is!
It is technically possible for H-1Bs to start their own companies, but the barriers to this are very high, and it's still a very rare option. There was a memo released a couple years back that changed the rules: http://www.murthy.com/2012/12/17/entrepreneur-h1b-petitions-...
Great story. Very impressed by your persistence and creativity, and congratulations on your success.
I think the concept of employers applying for a green card for employees is fundamentally broken. It pits the interests of the employer directly against the employee, since it's in the employer's interest to drag out the process for as long as possible, and reduces job mobility (which brings down wages for everyone) because the green card process needs to be restarted if employees switch jobs midway, before the I-485 step.
A system where any legally employed foreign worker can file for a green card for themselves seems much more sane.
Anecdotally, it seems to me that wages for H-1B visa holders are only lower when the employer files for a visa for an employee who is outside of the country. In my experience as a student who went the F-1 -> H-1B route, salaries are the same whether or not you have an H-1B. The much wider set of employers that you can interview with when you are already in the country probably makes it infeasible for employers to pay their H-1B employees who were already in the US under a different visa less than employees who don't need a visa.
I think you got lucky. Most people that I knew who were on H-1b were getting much less than green card holders of US citizens. I don't have a substantial amount of data on this of course.
Ilya, great story that many of us can relate with. Stories like these (very similar to our personal stories) were the inspiration behind Unshackled. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs / startup teams who are held back from building great companies simply because of their visa. While we couldn’t help you (coz we didnt exist), Unshackled aims to make an impact for many other brilliant people like you. #innovate
I admire the consistency of Ilya's efforts. The US despite claiming the policy of sucking out best Russian brains in reality fails to provide the backing policy for that, and Ilya's story shows very good example. When it comes to software development, I believe the US as a framework, does not really want devs to come and wants to keep them remotely.
Interesting read. I have a somewhat provocative question currently roaming trough my mind - you said that you "really appreciate the opportunity this country gave" to you (which is nice, BTW, but that's from a patient frame), considering now all what you've paid and what you're giving (i.e. from an actor frame), do they deserve you?
Fantastic read, but the punchline is almost like that anecdote about how to make million dollars (you know the one about buying apple for 5 cents polishing it and selling it for 10 cents until the rich uncle dies).
The fastest way to green card in US is genius visa, but you need the credentials to pull it off. It has a ridiculously high acceptance rate I think about 90 %.
As a developer in the Bay Area, I find our lot to be pretty picky about where we work and what we work on. Acquihire "Golden Handcuffs" make us miserable. (What a terrible problem to have, right?) I admire Ilya's persistence in working for $8/hr because he had to. It lends a bit of perspective to hear his story. Thank you, Ilya!
[+] [-] DigitalSea|10 years ago|reply
I recently did some contracting work for a US based startup. I am based in Australia and the startup was in Seattle. I am in this weird area because I am self-taught and have no college/university degree and fall just under the 12 years required experience to substitute for a degree. The rule is 3 years of proven work experience for every year of a standard 4 year degree. So no visas applied to me I could apply for.
I eventually just took a remote contracting position with the company and flew over for the maximum 3 month stay and travelled around. During my time there I encountered a lot of taxi/Uber drivers who immigrated from various countries and nothing personally against them, but I have a unique skillset that this startup was looking for and was struggling to find themselves and yet it is impossible for me to travel and work in the USA? Once again no offence or ill-will, but how is it possible for someone to move to the USA to drive a cab, but a developer can't actually get a job in the US? Kind of perplexing.
Supposedly the US values highly skilled jobs, but it seems they only class professions like a lawyer, doctor or some other profession that requires an extended period of study as highly skilled. For software development maybe considered highly skilled, but not so much front-end development/Javascript.
Comparatively, Canada make it easy to obtain a work/stay visa for an initial period of 2 years and I believe you can keep extending it. You don't need any academic qualifications or jump through any massive hurdles. Why is the US like this, especially with a close ally country like Australia? It's the same story in the UK, if not, you get even more scrutiny trying to get into the UK for work. But as the author writes, the skilled immigration problem seems to be affect people from everywhere.
[+] [-] slowmotiony|10 years ago|reply
Meanwhile, if you're illiterate but from Chechnya, you get a free apartment and welfare checks here courtesy of the taxpayer, because apparently "the situation is political". It's ridiculous.
[+] [-] throwaway9324|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cylinder|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peachysanchez|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rglullis|10 years ago|reply
- If you already are done with your studies, look for jobs at educational institutions. Universities, research laboratories, think tanks. They are exempt from the quota and can hire at any time of the year and outside of the quota.
There a few downsides. First, most of the openings at these institutions will require some kind of grad school. Second, these institutions are not known for paying the same salaries as big name companies in Silicon Valley. Third, you can not transfer the visa to another company, so if you get an offer from another company that does not share the quota-exempt status, you are back in the position of waiting until April and hoping the new employer doesn't fuck up the application and that there aren't 10 gazillion other applicants from IBM, Google, Infosys, Tata and the like.
- One hack: consider first moving to Canada. Their immigration laws are much saner in the US and are more merit- and qualification-based than the US. With a simple job offer you can get a resident visa in Canada. After 2 years as a resident you can apply for citizenship. And Canadian citizens can work in the US, under the TN visa.
With this you avoid all the crap about the H1B lottery and have a stronger position to work in the US after ~3 years. If I ever plan to be in the US again in the next 3-5 years, I would actually move to Montreal first.
[+] [-] wooyi|10 years ago|reply
However, applying for a Work Permit is still rather cumbersome (which is typically the first step after the job offer and before Express Entry) I just went through this process with an employee. While there is no arbitrary quota, the process does take between 3-6 months.
But overall the path to citizenship is much shorter than in the US.
And Canada has public healthcare. So, no need to worry about healthcare while you're self employed.
[+] [-] TY|10 years ago|reply
I liked Canada so much that I decided to stay here (Toronto, Ontario) and have been happy about my decision ever since.
Yes, taxes are a little bit higher, but the place feels saner and safer. Various levels of government are supportive of new businesses (lots of incentives, grants, R&D support programs), especially in technology sector.
[+] [-] deskamess|10 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/become-eligibility....
[edit: to reflect express entry does not require 1 year of working in Canada]
[+] [-] smnrchrds|10 years ago|reply
With that said, the immigration laws are indeed saner and merit-based.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-ec.asp
http://citizenshipcounts.ca/citizenship-act-changes
[+] [-] shalmanese|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neverminder|10 years ago|reply
The irony is that you can get to US if you have a million to invest (if that hasn't changed yet), but if you have already made it this far, going to US kind of defeats the purpose - "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere".
[+] [-] kokey|10 years ago|reply
For those with good English and tech skills without an EU passport, Dublin is a fairly good option. The work permit system is reasonable and the demand for skills is quite strong. There are also a lot of US companies with operations in Dublin, which opens the possibility for an L1 visa to get to the US.
I think UK companies should also consider setting up offices in Dublin, so they can get access to talent they can transfer to the UK using the intra company transfer visa, similar to companies in the US having offices in Canada.
[+] [-] rb2k_|10 years ago|reply
They have to pay you at least the average wage for your position, experience and area.
At least from the other H1B folks I know, all of them get above average salary. There is a lot of indian body shops doing consulting (infosys, ...) that are super shady, but if you work at a 'regular' US company, you should be fine from what I've seen.
[+] [-] toadi|10 years ago|reply
To be quite honest I only knew US from the movies. Following news and recent developments I'm quite hesitant to move over there. Cops shooting people, riots, NSA tracking,...
My romantic view when I just started working in the dot com boom of US that bubble bursted. This doesn't mean I don't like the US. There are many good things also. In any country there are good and bad things. But I think there are other places maybe as good as the US which are worth exploring.
[+] [-] drcross|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] petea|10 years ago|reply
This might not be a popular opinion to spout, but I can't see it any other way. These illegals will almost certainly vote for Democrats. How do you expect Republicans to cooperate to welcome educated workers when you are expecting Republicans to commit political suicide?
US as a whole will hugely benefit from making the immigration process easier for educated workers like many other countries have done (Canada, UK, Germany, Australia etc), but this doesn't seem possible under current political climate.
[+] [-] shas3|10 years ago|reply
Quoth:
Indians in America are the most promising. They are increasingly prominent in tech companies, on Wall Street and in government, especially in the state department. Around 1% of America’s population, over 3.3m people, are “Asian Indians”. Perhaps 150,000 more arrive each year, and 90% of them stay permanently. Devesh Kapur, who has studied them, talks of a “flood”. He says over half of all Indian-born people in America arrived there after 2000.
From a macroeconomic value addition perspective, this is an enormous tax base which also skews social indicators upwards.
[+] [-] bruceb|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxerickson|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rglullis|10 years ago|reply
Democrats don't want to lose the image of being the welcoming mother, Republicans don't want to lose the image of being the strict but principled father. An immigration law that was based on qualification and possible economic boost by immigrant doesn't help any of them.
Basically this was why I left the US after almost 5 years.
[+] [-] djb_hackernews|10 years ago|reply
I agree with your last statement but I don't think there is any political group who is advocating for making the immigration process easier for educated workers.
[+] [-] bayesianhorse|10 years ago|reply
Yes, theoretically, the U.S. immigration law (and many other countries', too) favors highly skilled jobs. In practice however, it is far easier for low skilled workers to just overstay a visa. In 2012, the U.S. paid $18 billion to try and enforce immigration laws. Still, there are anywhere between 7 and 30 million illegal immigrants in the country, despite all the effort.
Billions for law enforcement, not a penny for social services...
[+] [-] fijal|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sneak|10 years ago|reply
This idea of being property of a state (other people) who is responsible for you and to whom you are indebted is madness.
Open the borders and stop this idiocy.
[+] [-] bayesianhorse|10 years ago|reply
I also believe there will come a time, when all industrialized nations will open their borders, at least for honest immigrants. Preferably all those nations at the same time. Already, enforcement of immigration regulation is impossible in many countries. And the extent to which that regulation seems to be working might as well stem from the fact that most people, no matter how poor or desperate actually don't want to leave their home country.
[+] [-] ommunist|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pshin45|10 years ago|reply
- Laks Srini, Co-founder & CTO at Zenefits [2]
- Tri Tran, Co-founder & CEO at Munchery [3]
- Silver Keskküla, Co-founder at Teleport (ex-Skype) [4]
- Nikhil Aitharaju, Co-founder at Tint [5]
[1] http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weeke... (Use promo code "hn" for 70% off)
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/technology/workers-in-sili...
[3] https://medium.com/@munchery/pitch-your-life-2f170eab933b
[4] https://medium.com/@keskkyla/good-luck-being-born-tomorrow-d...
[5] https://app.fwd.us/stories/259
[+] [-] bruceb|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tosseraccount|10 years ago|reply
Cost of employees as percentage of sales down : http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/2015/05/profit-margins... Specifically : http://i2.wp.com/www.philosophicaleconomics.com/wp-content/u...
labor bargaining power has weakened substantially amid globalization
US citizens not as enthusiastic about more immigration as are the US elite: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100593528
as recently as 2012, 69 percent of those surveyed agree that "we should restrict and control people coming to live in our country more than we do now."
The MSM often only presents one side of the story.
There is NO evidence of US labor shortage. In fact, with stagnant to down real labor prices, the only logical conclusion is that there is a glut.
Corporate and Academic control of more and more guest worker visas is not really a great idea.
[+] [-] akramhussein|10 years ago|reply
For comparison, in the 80's when my father got a job at the FDA, it was signed, sealed, delivered and my family moved in just a few months in the mid of the year, well before all this became so complex. Kicker is I got a Greencard before we moved back, but unfortunately I was too young to realise what this meant or do anything about it...and it expired.
[+] [-] aduitsis|10 years ago|reply
It is kind of ironic though that eventually he got the Green Card via the DV lottery. Had he been fired without that, it would have been a very difficult stretch to get a job within 30 days.
[+] [-] bane|10 years ago|reply
Considering how many smart and hard working people I've met who came here for college, and considering the outsized success the ones who managed to immigrate here have had, it seems kind of insane that we don't do more to keep them here. The lost tax revenue I can think of from personal connections alone is in the millions of dollars per year -- imagine how much economic activity that is!
[+] [-] htaway2577235|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abhiv|10 years ago|reply
I think the concept of employers applying for a green card for employees is fundamentally broken. It pits the interests of the employer directly against the employee, since it's in the employer's interest to drag out the process for as long as possible, and reduces job mobility (which brings down wages for everyone) because the green card process needs to be restarted if employees switch jobs midway, before the I-485 step.
A system where any legally employed foreign worker can file for a green card for themselves seems much more sane.
Anecdotally, it seems to me that wages for H-1B visa holders are only lower when the employer files for a visa for an employee who is outside of the country. In my experience as a student who went the F-1 -> H-1B route, salaries are the same whether or not you have an H-1B. The much wider set of employers that you can interview with when you are already in the country probably makes it infeasible for employers to pay their H-1B employees who were already in the US under a different visa less than employees who don't need a visa.
[+] [-] isalmon|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] npachisia|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ommunist|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] userulluipeste|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] isalmon|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sireat|10 years ago|reply
The fastest way to green card in US is genius visa, but you need the credentials to pull it off. It has a ridiculously high acceptance rate I think about 90 %.
[+] [-] phamilton|10 years ago|reply