Comment by HistoryInAction | Hacker News Reader

Comment by HistoryInAction | Hacker News Reader

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HistoryInAction

There's a 17 month extension, to 29 months, if you graduated in a technical/STEM field under Optional Practical Training (OPT) which I think you're referencing: http://www.nafsa.org/regulatory_information.sec/regulatory_d...

"But I disagree with author's suggestion that all US-educated graduates must be given green cards. A lot of them came to US to study because they could afford it (often via wealthy parents). I don't think it's fair to give green cards only because they graduated from a US university thanks to their rich parents." Very insightful!

However, the green card wait times are more due to scarcity, with many more people entering the green card pipeline than by law can exit each year, rather than slow bureaucracy.

I agree re: the future of immigration policy, but I think the talent war is even more important than you think. Right now, and since the 60s, US immigration policy has been aligned on a family-unification platform, and with strict numerical limits, a huge percentage of American immigration is taken up by family-based immigration. As liberal and pleasing as it is, it's going to have to go, as America will have to fully enter the competition for top talent.

Speaking from personal experience, my employment-based green card had been delayed by about two years because of so-called "FBI name check". Not because of the quotas. So bureaucracy plays a part (based on what I know, it has been reduced somewhat after Obama took office).

I am not so sure about the statements on family-based immigration. First, even close family members often spend many years waiting. More importantly, though: we all ideally want future Sergei Brins just to come and start next Google and hire thousands. But let's don't forget that he came to states as a young child (just as some other founders mentioned in the CNN article) with his well educated parents. By the time he started Google, he was 20-something and effectively an American. Would he be able to do this if he just came as a foreign student? Not so sure. So, we need to get families too, but those who have not just hopes, but also education. We need smart families, smart parents. We need to make America attractive to them.

P.S. I am stunned by all negative comments on CNN site saying immigrants take American jobs, and America educates foreigners, but not its own citizens. It seems to me many people don't realize that foreign students are in fact paying for Americans to get to schools by paying much higher tuition fees that make schools profitable and able to offer scholarships to locals.

Alright, I concede the point to your personal experience.

Agree about the need for "long-term investment" in smart families, but I think the political importance of strict immigration numbers and the short-term pressure over the talent war is going to shift US immigration policies away from families and towards talent.

Re: PS - ugh, completely agree. This is one of the better argued articles in terms of foreign immigrants = US jobs rather than purely abstract foreign immigrants = stronger US economy, so the comments are less rancid but still vile. Compare to Rey Ramsey's piece on HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rey-ramsey/open-americas-doors...

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