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Comment by handbanana | Hacker News Reader

Why’s that?

People on the internet love to exaggerate how bad living in the US is.

The US is a big country and there's plenty of places that most people wouldn't like to live (every country has locations like this), but if you're a tech worker, there's no place better in the world to live than in the US. You don't have to live in the Bay Area, you can live in Seattle, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, or Atlanta. Don't like the city? Okay, there's plenty of affordable suburbs to live in all over the country.

Plus your cost of healthcare will either be free or heavily subsidized, taxes will be lower, you'll be making more money, and the opportunities for career advancement, VC funding (if you want to go the startup route), and opportunities to network will be much greater here.

America is an amazing place to live, whether the internet wants to believe it or not.

America is an amazing place to live if you do not have to be stuck in the same place for decades waiting for a green card.

This.

The visa scene is US is fickle and very unfriendly even for folks in high tech companies. For instance, the Green Card process is same for a software developer (no matter what company she is in) and a taxi driver. Of course, I don't have anything against taxi drivers, but I do believe education and professional qualifications should play some role in the Green Card process.

I think you have better chance getting a green card if you're an illegal immigrant than if you're on H1-B.

Lol, that's because H1-B is a temporary work visa, not an immigration visa.

H1B is a dual intent visa, explicitly allowing you immigrate.

H1-B is dual intent.

Yep, sneak in (or overstay), marry an US citizen. Alternatively, create a media sob story and you're golden.

My guess would be healthcare costs, bay area living costs or the dice you you have to pass every time you encounter a police offer.

"the dice you have to [roll] every time you encounter a police [officer]"? Are engineers recruited from Cambridge of the sort that particularly attract the attention of the police?

22% in the latest admissions cycle (though that's across undergraduates as a whole, not engineers specifically).

People are down voting because of the dice roll part. But it's not that far off reality when compared with other western nations

I'm not overly concerned, this forum is extremely USA-centric.

Across the entire UK there were only 4 police shootings in to 2016 and only 2 total in all of 2012-2014.

I'm willing to bet America has 4 yesterday (even adjusting for proportion populations)

Well, UK officers don't carry guns as much as US officers do. UK officers also don't have to worry about guns as much. However, the lack of centralization of the US system and culture/mindset of the US officers (as a whole) are the main problems IMO

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