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Comment by throwaway1219 | Hacker News Reader

I am an Indian, living in US for the last 8 years, my I-140 was approved 7 years ago and I am at least another 10 years away from my green card. I don't to be working on H1B for the next 10 years worrying about my immigration status.

I want to start my own company, I thought H4EAD would work out for me to do my startup. But for the last 2 years I could not risk move into H4EAD because the administration keeps saying they will cancel it "soon".

I am looking to move to Canada in 2019 (scheduled my IELTS and getting educational credentials evaluated for applying for Canadian PR). I love living in the bay area, but unfortunately things are not working out for us.

Thanks to the economic boom, the money I saved up over these years should help our family settle down in Canada when we move.

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Another Indian with a similar mindset (not wanting to be on the h1b leash until I may or may not get the green card in another 10-20-30 years).

Lived in US for 6 years. Had my i140 approved a few months ago and got H1B approved for 3 more years. Was finally in the middle of getting a promotion to an architect role after 6-7 years working for the team. Literally threw away all of it and came back to India 2 months ago. Haven't even started looking for a job.

They gave me RFE for my H1B extension. I saw the RFE document and it was just a copy paste from some template. They didn't even have my employer name correct. And since I was in a state where they give driving license based on h1b, I couldn't drive for 3 months because of the RFE delay.

I am finally at peace after spending the last 6 years on the h1b leash, always living in uncertainty. There is no way I would have lasted while I wait for the green card. On some days, I used to cry while driving to work. I used to feel really strong emotional pain on most of the days. I haven't experienced any of that since I came back.

I think quality of life is not just a higher salary or a clean environment or better job opportunities. Part of my brain must have been seeing all this uncertainty as life threatening and pushed me away. I don't know how else to explain it. Sometimes I wonder if this is one way US is filtering out people because they want only the most mentally strong to be part of their society.

I welcome both of you to Canada. The technology company I worked for in Toronto had an incredible number of immigrants that were well on their way to getting full citizenship (I think it takes just 5 years?). It was a great work environment with an eclectic mix of east asians, eastern europeans, etc.

Do you know if there are good companies in Victoria BC as i am intrigued by that as a place to move to.

I'm in Victoria. There is a good, but small, tech scene here. Salaries are significantly lower than Vancouver in general, though.

As long as the cost of living is lower it works for someone like me

I can understand your situation and going through the RFE phase. Would like to have a conversation with you. Can't find your email since it is a throwaway account. My email is in the profile. Can you please reach out to me?

I assume you wanted to know about the RFE. Please see me other comments on what type of questions where in the RFE and what happened to other colleagues who got RFE. As for time line, my h1b was in premium. Got RFE within 10 days. They gave about 3 months to respond. My employer for some reason (seems to be the standard practice with my employer) waited till the last moment and filed it 5 days before the last date. Got it approved within 2 days of it reaching USCIS. This was in August 2018. Even though they asked why do I need 3 year extension, they still gave me 3 years, which is surprising and sad at the same time because I had already made up my mind to return and it made it even harder to leave.

Please feel free to ask me anything else though I am not sure I can answer. I don't really know the internals of the visa process. Everything is handled by the immigration team of my employer and their attorney, and we rarely have any idea or control over what's going on. I got to to see the RFE only because the delivery head of my unit escalated my case.

Thanks for your detailed response on RFE. I just wanted to have conversation on your post move on how you are getting adjusted. Good luck :-)

I have been thinking about our conversation here and wanted to add something more in case that's what you were wondering about.

Do I regret coming back?

Yes, I do on some days, especially when I go to Indian stores similar to BestBuy. I see all the big screen TVs and see them priced at 150k, 200k and above, and I suddenly feel poor. When I was in US, I couldn't buy them because of the uncertainty of being in US. Now, I cannot buy because I don't have a job. That makes me wish I shouldn't have come back. May be, my thinking would be different if I had a job in India.

Another issue is place of stay. I am staying at my in laws house, and I have to "act" to keep them happy. If they ask me to leave, I would be jobless and homeless also.

So, if all these RFEs are making you want to come back, I would say keep going. Things will most likely get better. If they deny your visa, come back. Otherwise stay. Save some money and retire early.

All the best.

Its been about 2 months since I came back. I haven't started looking for a job yet. I haven't even started preparing for interviews. Feeling very lazy. Weirdly, I am not even that worried.

As for money, I have a good savings in bank thanks to the 6 years in US. And my wife has a government job. We were in a dilemma on whether she should give up her job and come to US. All these talks about revoking h4 ead made that decision easier. Wife and I are staying at her parents house (they gave part of their house for us to stay). So, I dont have any immediate financial constraints. We don't have any kids either.

Other than driving in Indian traffic and the oocassional family drama involving my parents and in laws, things are going smooth so far.

  They gave me RFE for my H1B extension

Who is "they"?

As deanmoriarty mentioned, this "request for evidence" is issued by USCIS when we (employer) apply for a visa or an extension. In the last 1 year, RFE was more or less certain if one is working for an Indian employer. I had never even heard of that term before 2017.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/25/h-1b-visa-rfe-trump-admini...

RFEs are usually issued by USCIS (government) after sending some request in. In this case, likely the parent poster employer filed for an H1B extension, and got the RFE as a reply instead of an extension approval.

I really feel for you, you have all my empathy, I went through a very similar process.

Can I ask what was the RFE about? I mean there must have been a reason for them to question your extension?

The RFE had the below questions (don't remember exact wording):

Q1: H1B is for speciality occupation, for which a bachelors degree is a minimum requirement. Justify how your current position require a bachelors degree.

My comment: I asked the end customer manager. Bachelors degree was the minimum requirement for my position.

Q2. List out your daily roles at work. Justify how a bachelors degree is needed for each.

My comment: How many of us are actually doing anything that we learned in college?

Q3. The project duration is only for 1 year. Why did you ask for a 3 year extension?

My comment: We have been working with this customer for more than 8 years. They issue yearly project orders for that financial year. They don't issue PO for more than a year.

There were 2 more questions that were similar in nature to Q2. Even though my employer had a team of attorneys, they asked me prepare a response to these questions. I sent it to my employer, not sure if they modified it.

Got my visa approved 2 days after the RFE response reached USCIS (according to USCIS case status website).

Almost all my colleagues (I worked for an Indian company) received the same set of questions during their extension.

Best of luck brother/sister.

I was __very__ lucky to get to the end of the immigration journey successfully (got a green card after many years of H1B, I’m not Indian so my wait time was slightly less brutal), but those long years of uncertainty gave me PTSD and still to this day I live in fear of my permanent resident status being revoked for some irrelevant reason, even if I obviously legally followed the entire process, handheld by skilled attorneys. I have weekly/monthly nightmares in my sleep where I am abruptly sent back to my home country without recourse, which after so many years of living in the US is anything but home.

In perspective, these are very much first world problems, I constantly remind myself of that.

Any idea how frequently RFE results in rejection?

Between June 2017 and July 2018, 5 of my colleagues got RFE for extension. They all got approved. The denial stories I heard were all for people who had more than one employer under them (some people end up in situations like this where they have one employer who sub contracts them to another company who in turn has contract with the end customer). I heard 2 stories where these people went to stamping in India and were asked to wait until the consulate confirms that they are actually employed (one was asked to give end customer manager's contact details, another was asked to sent a photo of their office). I am not sure what happened to them.

Have you considered the UK?

Now is really not the time. The Home Office will have an extra ~3m permanent resident applicants over the next year, as all EU nationals are made to go through the process.

Which visa route would you use?

All European residents will file for an ILR?

Most (but not all) will go through the expedited "settled status" process. Those not eligible or rejected for dumb Home Office reasons will have to apply for ILR. https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families

Speaking to my immigrant colleagues it sounds like it's all fine unless you hit Home Office bureaucracy, in which case it can rapidly turn into an expensive nightmare.

I don't think the UK is the best place for immigrants these days. The government has adopted a "hostile environment" policy for immigrants and the number of crimes related to race is skyrocketing.

Personal Anecdote : Lived and worked in the UK for a little over an year as an Indian person. Enjoyed every bit of it.

Though I can see some data regarding race related crimes going up.

  living in US for the last 8 years

In other words, you came in on an H1B in 2010, right as the recession was peaking and there was lots of tech talent unemployed and underemployed (scrambling for contract role after contract role)... which exemplifies the problem.

Even in the teeth of the recession, the entire quota of new H1B visas was consumed every year.

2010 was the only year that the number of new applications provably didn't hit the cap - i.e. the entire quota was definitely not consumed. There were ~76k applications approved. The annual cap is 65k + 20k Masters + 5k (Singapore & Chile) + unlimited for non-profits[1]

I know people whose applications from the 2011 quota were made and approved well into 2012 - so 2011 almost certainly did not hit the 85k (65k + 20K Masters) quota either. I assume 2009 was similar.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa#H-1B_applications_ap...

The general/discretionary cap of 65K is the relevant one, and according to Rep. Zoe Lofgren's office (sponsor of the H1B bill), it hit 65K that year also.

Good to know. Thanks!

Could you clarify what problem you are pointing out. I'm just not reading the conclusion you are trying to make.

I think he's saying that H1B visa program is bad because it hires immigrants at the expense of local workers.

Even tho supply of local labor was high during recession, it should not have been possible for emmigrant to come to US during that time. There was no need to bring labor from outside, it demonstrates problem with this program.

I agree, that's the point he was trying to make. I don't agree it's a correct conclusion.

Have you read any of the almost-weekly tech interview threads here? Or been in a high growth startup where you are interviewing a lot?

Just because there are lots of people in the internal labor pool, doesn't mean there are lots of qualified people. When you can reach out to the ROW for your highly skilled talent, why would you limit yourself to less qualified local talent?

As an employer, it's [rhetorically] my job to hire the best talent I can find at the best price I can get. (Assuming that is maximally efficient; in some cases less good labor for better prices may be a better calculus. But let's ignore that.) It's the government's job to strike the balance between native employment and immigrant employment. If the H1B pool is consumed each year, I'd say they are doing a reasonably good job at it. If it's consumed, that means there are plenty of folks denied, for lack of quota. Those are jobs that end up filled by less qualified native talent.

"The problem" being that lots of tech talent would rather stay unemployed or underemployed than compete for the positions that H1Bs would otherwise fill? I don't think the average business would willingly choose to hire H1Bs if they could employ a US national as a realistic alternative...

>I don't think the average business would willingly choose to hire H1Bs if they could employ a US national as a realistic alternative...

The end of that sentence would be "...at the same low price and leash that an immigrant subject to an extremely opaque and unpredictable government agency (USCIS) who you don't have to worry about jumping ship so you can treat them worse.

> I don't think the average business would willingly choose to hire H1Bs if they could employ a US national

I'm absolutely positive you have that exactly backwards.

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