The Day I Got My Green Card
wsj.com
wsj.com
For me a green card was a convenience rather than a necessity. It wasn't anything life changing as it was for the article's author. As a software engineer that qualified for a non-supply capped visa I could live in the US almost whenever I felt a need (I only needed to find an employer willing to fill out some extra paperwork for me).
That said I'm really grateful to have my green card, I'm much less stressed about my future. I no longer worry about having to leave the US if I lose my job. Now, maybe I'll buy a house, maybe I'll start a business? Exciting new possibilities.
The H1-B has a lengthy application process, there is a maximum number of consecutive years you can be on one, there are more applications than availability, there's a transfer process, it is dual intent, and what else?
None of which are characteristics of the E-3, which is practically instant and infinitely renewable and expressly not dual intent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-3_visa
Source: I've had one.
Also, I don't know why you guys would be giving us thank you privileges for ww2. We were at a lot more risk from Japan and you put in far more work to stop them. If anything it'd be the other way around!
As for the thank you, it was probably compensation for whatever damage was caused to the MCG. ;)
Either way, us Australians are certainly lucky to have this visa.
I had good immigration lawyers (McCown & Evans) and the process really had only a few main steps.
1. My employer describes to the Department of Labor a position that they would like to fill and demonstrating that they are unable to fill the position with a permanent resident or citizen.
2. A process where my employer submits my resume and reference letters to the Department of Labor to show that I am an alien that could fill the position.
3. I submit an application for permanent residence and and application to adjust my immigration status (from E-3 to PERM). Because there isn't a queue in my category (for my nationality) these can be filed simultaneously.
The first two steps took about 6 months and the final step about a year.
That's quite lengthy (by the book): the LCA usually has a two-week turnaround. A nice perk is that it's also 'free' for the employer (there is no filing fee), although many have immigration lawyers on retainer to handle supporting paperwork and shepherd you through the process.
Excluding the interview process at the employer, LCA -> visa interview -> issued E3 for me was about ~3 weeks.
The six month process for the labor requirements for a green card was longer in processing but also longer due to non-processing time spent getting letters attesting to my skills from previous employers and my current employer running job adverts to try and find local candidates that met the skill requirement.
I recommend getting citizenship if you want to establish a meaningful foundation in the US...INS cannot decline re-entry of a US Passport
There's a rate limiting approach so that countries can not use more than a certain amount of USCIS's application processing bandwidth. Currently China, Mexico, India, Honduras, The Philippines, El Salvador and Guatemala are being "rate limited".
Here are some tables about the backlog for each country in each category: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bul...
I was on an L1-A visa, which gets you into the EB-1C green card preference category, couple that with coming from a non-capped country, and that's pretty much as fast as you can get one.
Meanwhile, I was forced to fire one of my direct reports, because she didn't win the H1-B lottery that year, and couldn't get her student visa renewed, so she lost her work permit. And even if she had won the lottery, she would have been years away from a green card.
It was quite the eye-opener for me to experience the vast differences depending on where you're from and what you do. Especially since getting a green card wasn't a goal for me. The company paid for it, and the weather is nice here, so whatever. And then having colleagues who desperately want one and need one, and have to suffer for years and the whims of luck.
Ugh. :-/
For anyone born in India, it would be another 11~12 years(and 6 years for China-mainland born) or so before anyone would even accept a last-step document, even if approved for green card with I-140 approved today.
It is unbelievable and clearly discrimanatory that legal immigrants from India (and China) are expected to stick with the same employer for more than a decade.
https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bul...
There have been numerous meetings to solve this mess which affects the USCIS and DHS too. But the Corporate-Legal/lawyers lobby tends to win over USCIS every time justifying to keep the dates as is, and not to use the un-used visa numbers from other countries, after-all they make more money when the legal immigrants are kept in limbo, and applying for various applications and are bound to stick to a single employer.
For Indians in the EB-2 category the priority date is July 2009, so assuming that the demand remains constant it would be roughly 6 years until my hypothetical priority date would be current.
"India, one of the most diverse countries in the world with a population of 1.3 billion, experiences severe caste and tribal discrimination, and in recent decades has seen a notable increase in sectarian violence."
Bettye Miller's piece on Ajay Verghese, author of The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India (2016) [0]
For quite a lot of the sectarian violence, I blame the government and the political parties for having policies that favour some castes over others, and for being soft on sectarian violence. Moreover we, in the middle class, who lead lives far away from politics, are largely isolated from these shenanigans.
India is light-years behind the rest of the developing world in part because it subjugates hundreds of millions of its own citizens.
The Indian identity, luckily till now, isn't based on religious lines. Though I have to agree, Pakistan-hate is strong in India and any remote Pakistan-love (even cheering for the Pakistan cricket team) can be seen as anti-nationalism and could lead to a sedition charge. This is, of course, due to the 3 wars fought since independence.
Since 1951, there has been equal vote for every Indian citizen.
Equal voting rights for all citizens was not true even in the US until its voting rights act of 1965.
Not True. There is a trend happening. An actress who never went to college (and tried to fake her certificates) was made 'Higher Education Minister'. The actress who knows drama very well is turning every university into a theater. Why are there so many disturbing incidents in Indian universities in last 2 years?
Corruption in India begins at the school level. The recent topper scam in Bihar (which led to the fraudulent topper being jailed) exposed how deeply-rooted corruption in education system is: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/biha...
Or Laloo Prasad Yadav being Railway Minister?
(4) To any of you who have been to the countries of Indian subcontinent, I am sure you can see the difference.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriation_tax#United_States
I've just added a calendar entry for 6 years time to consider whether or not I am willing to be subject to an exit tax (and give myself two years to plan alternatives if I'm not).
Logan immigration has been very friendly to me in the past.
These days I'm not in Boston and usually come in through Newark Liberty. Half the time I get a nice friendly/chitchatty immigration officer who welcomes me back.
Nowadays most airports do that electronic thing, so they don't even need to ask you questions since its all on that slip of paper. So a couple of times I've had them glance at the slip, and then just welcome me back with a smile.
If you have a great run in the US on a visa, great. But it's not like that for everyone.
Aatish's father was a true light for Punjab. It's a shame what happened to him.
I feel truly blessed and I have always felt home in the US. Now next step is dual citizenship (Denmark and the US have an agreement)
This is an incorrect interpretation. Aatish means a cracker and possible the office was being humorous. The sense of humor is a bit different in India and a little more crude (though harmless).
Do you have any advice on which path would maximize my chance of getting a visa? Or possibly your personal success story?
So far, I will be doing an internship at one of the Big 4 and will be trying to get a job at the Big 4 in Europe or some other company in London (provided I can still migrate there post-Brexit) after my graduation. But I'd be glad to get other (possibly better) suggestions.
EDIT: Added Paragraphs.
Although it is hard to complain and I feel I have gotten more out of life here than given back, I often wonder what it has done to my psyche of not being at "home".
Disclaimer: Indian, IT consultant.
I can say that I know others who have been through similar experiences.
I've been living in India for nearly a decade now. Casteism and religion-ism are very non-obvious to those unaffected (or positivrly affected) by it, but spend enough time outside your bubble and you start realizing that it exists often in an undercurrent and start recognizing situations like the one he talks of for what they really are. I've seen far more overt versions of his anecdote play out; I have no trouble believing him there.
Moreover to state that the immigration officer inferred him speaking English as a sign of class is in itself racist; English is one of the official languages of the country, plenty of Indians speak very fluent English.
Never seen anything like that in India which moderates societal differences to a very high degree.
Given recent history of blasts in India from uninvited visitors, why should Indians not want their consulate services to inquire about people's backgrounds and intentions ?
Most likely it was just from his British passport.
It is possible that the reasons are not what the author thought they were. But it is pretty likely that they were, and I'm suggesting we give the author the benefit of the doubt in that he had valid reasons and prior similar experiences to feel that way.
It is very easy to discount an experience when your bubble makes you think it is impossible. For many years I didn't think casteism was a thing anymore in cities, since I never saw it happening. Over time I realized that it is still very much there, just that those not negatively affected by it tend to not notice it.
And from my position, Muslims in India have it pretty fucking good. In what world can people like this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asaduddin_Owaisi
get away with being spewing divisive bullshit, and then call for action against Muslim discrimination and for reservations for Muslims? Muslims have their own penal code! Up until the BJP rule, legislation was in favour of Muslims, at the expense of togetherness of society.
In India Muslims have a pretty powerful political position given the fact that they are a minority. I somehow am disinclined to believe that the author suffered any actual discrimination given the political clime in India.
No.
All Indians follow the same Criminal, Contract, Labor, Company, Tort, Property and Tax laws.
The only exception is Personal law (marriage, inheritance, adoption etc) where for historical reasons there were separate laws for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists etc. These laws were codified in British India when the British came to control directly or by proxy a diverse population with diverse religions, languages and culture.
When India became an independent country, the framers of the constitution had many issues decide on in a short time and decided to punt on some contentious issues for later generations to resolve. One of them was personal law where they agreed that a uniform personal code would be desirable but left it to future generations to resolve. The other was a common national language.
Both have not been resolved. There is no uniform personal law and Hindi is not the national language.
I don't have a degree.
Is my only option to marry an American citizen?
Have you lived in the US before? It is not as great as it seems from the outside. (My dream once was to get a greencard, but I came to the US through a student visa and after some years I can say that that dream surely has gone away)
I moved here a few years ago and have had my Green Card for a while. The US is every bit as I expected and even more. I love this country more than I've ever loved my home country.
Everything is better in the US. Better companies, better cities, better salaries, better healthcare, better prices, better services, better schools, lower taxes, etc.
99% of the content I read online seems to be aimed at american people. All the advice, tips, tricks, guides and news assume that the reader lives in the US. You would be surprised how often (online) american people assume that they're talking to other american people. Sorry, but the service, loophole, employer, store, offer or product doesn't exist here in Canada.
And when you look at the tech salaries in the US. How can you NOT feel envious?
Because to me money is not everything.
Shitty public schools are an issue. Everyone has money, but no one pays taxes.
The shrinking middle class is an issue and so is the wealth gap that you can see almost everywhere in the US. For someone from a country that has less rich, but also less poor, this is standing out quite a lot.
Healthcare is not that great in the US, I am not sure why you are saying that. If you do not go to the doctor because you feel it is too expensive, then there is certainly something wrong.
The American Society is an issue. Political Correctness everywhere is harming this country a lot.
>99% of the content I read online seems to be aimed at american people.
Well, if you are browsing American websites, why does it surprise you?
Now, I do not hate everything about the US. I like certain things here and if immigration would be easier, I would probably decide to stay, especially, since I feel very American after all these years being here. All I am saying is that the US is not as awesome as I thought it would be, especially not if one is from a wealthy European country.
Is it the same in the US?
It seems to be about an hour.
20 hours seems to be extreme.
Quotes from other threads:
From USCIS:
* Receipt of nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in the field of endeavor
* Membership in associations in the field for which classification is sought which require outstanding achievements, as judged by recognized national or international experts in the field
* Published material in professional or major trade publications, newspapers or other major media about the beneficiary and the beneficiary’s work in the field for which classification is sought
* Original scientific, scholarly, or business-related contributions of major significance in the field * Authorship of scholarly articles in professional journals or other major media in the field for which classification is sought
* A high salary or other remuneration for services as evidenced by contracts or other reliable evidence
* Participation on a panel, or individually, as a judge of the work of others in the same or in a field of specialization allied to that field for which classification is sought
* Employment in a critical or essential capacity for organizations and establishments that have a distinguished reputation
For science:
- publications
- recommendation letters (preferably a blend from business, research and politicians)
- awards (even things like "the best paper" of a small conference with only 30 papers from local researchers)
- interviews
- be a member of an association only open to certain persons (for example with a Ph.D. you qualify for IEEE membership, and they will deliver a good-looking membership certificate)
So having a Ph.D is not enough, but if are a decently successful researcher and have a good network for the recommendation letters (or your future employer), you can get it without being of Turing award level.