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I don't mean to annoy you, but it sounds like it took you 6 years once you actually got a permanent job (although even 6 years is too much!). The years as a student don't really count.

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This reifies the view of the system. Particularly the time spent as a PhD would be spent doing meaningful work contributing to the country. This is if we accept that the time spent as a student living in America making connections with people as your life develops as a young adult deserve to be waived away. Yes the system doesn't count them but we shouldn't count the cruelty of a system just on its own terms.

Indeed, PhD students (at least in the sciences) are funded primarily by US taxpayer money, so it’s only in the interest of US taxpayers to keep that educated talent around post-graduation, yet the law doesn’t necessarily work that way at all.

Disclaimer: I didn't downvote you.

I guess you can say that it really took me 6 years to get a green card via employer sponsorship (although those 6 years were anxiety-filled to say the least). However, if the startup (my first employer out of college) sponsored me work visa and then green card, I would not have gone for the PhD either. I hope it makes sense.

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