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Comment by arkem | Hacker News Reader

I got my green card yesterday. It took me eighteen months, which is a ridiculously short amount of time, if I had been from India instead of Australia it'd be another 6 years or so before anyone even looked at my application.

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.

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It took me and my husband about 10 months to get ours, but a colleague in the same situation as us got his in 6 months or so, using the expedited parallell process.

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. :-/

Just remember, technically a green card is not a residency visa...INS can actually bar you from re-entry, although in practice this is unlikely. INS has the jurisdiction to also confiscate green cards. As a non-citizen, you have little recourse.

I recommend getting citizenship if you want to establish a meaningful foundation in the US...INS cannot decline re-entry of a US Passport

"if I had been from India instead of Australia it'd be another 6 years or so before anyone even looked at my application."

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...

After I-140 is approved you will be able to apply for I-485 to get EAD which will allow you to change employers. Obama's executive order is making it so. You will now see two sets of date for adjustment of status filing in the visa bulliten. Execution of the order is still catching up.

President Obama announced the executive order in November 2014(https://www.uscis.gov/immigrationaction) Since then, the USCIS has just complicated the process by adding one more application "Filling for Employment Application" which is actually 5 years apart form the Final Action date(when the visa number is actually made available).

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.

I was basing it on the priority date for my category (EB-2) when I first considered getting my green card.

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.

You are correct, it would be 6 years till someone would review the documents, but still 11~12 years till the visa number is made available towards the green card.

What kind of visa is that? I know L1 is a popular non-capped option, but that is for intra-company transfers.

E-3 which is like a H1-B but for Australians (from a free trade agreement). It is capped per year but has never reached the limit.

An E-3 is more like a TN.

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.

I didn't know it was easier for people from Australia. I have many Indian and Chinese co workers who have worked for years in the US and still sweat visa issues. It also limits their ability to job hop because immigration status chips away at stability and confidence.

The green card process wasn't specifically helped by being Australian but more by being from a country that does not submit a lot of green card applications.

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...

Thank you. I think a lot of people believe the system is intentionally racist, but if there was a sudden large influx of applications from Australia those folks would face the same issues as Indians and Chinese do right now.

The decision to set a 7% limit per country regardless of the country's population was intentionally meant by the drafters of the 1965 legislation to limit immigration from India and China (the most populous countries then and now).

If I may ask, which visa category did you have and how did you get it?

It's probably an E-3, which was created as part of a free-trade deal between Australia and the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-3_visa

Source: I've had one.

Is that the "thanks for all the help in WWII" program that I hear Australians refer to? Many Australians I've met have mentioned that it's really easy for them to come and work in the US because of "this program", but I've never been able to figure out the official name of "this program." TIA!

It's only been around since 2004ish. Our PM back then was really chummy with Bush. Dunno if it was a thanks for military help but we've been war buddies plenty of times since ww2. We rarely invade people on our own initiate and mostly use our military to help you guys out.

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!

Yeah this was around before 2004.

As for the thank you, it was probably compensation for whatever damage was caused to the MCG. ;)

More like "thanks for going to Iraq with us".

Either way, us Australians are certainly lucky to have this visa.

I had been on an E-3 visa (similar to a H1-B but for Australians and without dual-intent), I applied for a PERM via the EB-2 category (employment based advanced degree / extraordinary ability).

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.

> 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.

My E-3 process was always about 2 or 3 weeks (including interview) except for the one time the US Government shutdown while I was trying to get a LCA.

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.

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