Comment by boundlessdreamz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by boundlessdreamz | Hacker News Reader

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boundlessdreamz

If you had actually bothered to read the article, you will find that the person featured has been educated in US from when he was 14. He went to Harvard. Now do you want such a person to be just sent back because he is an "immigrant" or that his skill and intelligence be recognized and make it such that it is easy for him to work in US, contributing to the US economy.

The US attracted the best and the brightest. If you insist on sending them back because they are "immigrants" then the loss is not just theirs.From the article "Many innovators in Silicon Valley come from overseas; 42 percent of engineers with master’s degrees and 60 percent of those with engineering Ph.D.’s in the United States are foreign-born."

Do you know why Chinese and Indians population in Universities are increasing? Because in those cultures being a geek is cool, unlike in US. In China and US, the topper in the school is the super star unlike in US where it will be the college football captain. The toppers from such places come to US because the US universities are far ahead in higher education. But if you send these people back, this lead in education will slowly evaporate as the best students go back to their country instead of staying on and becoming entrepreneurs and professors.

I came in 2001(18 yrs) for my BS in Comp Sc and I am currently in my H1-B. The Green Card process is long and far away, so I don't even think about it. However, I see a few drawbacks of being on H1:

i. It hampers my capability to jump jobs to risky startups, because if that startup goes bust, I need to find a job in 2 months to stay in the country. Especially with a recessionary season, it adds to the risk while your existing employer is pretty strong.

ii. I am always looking for avenues to work on Ideas, and I do that too. But, because I need to be employed to maintain my Visa Status, I can only devote my evenings and weekends.

iii. I am also worried about the Laws (Immigration and other) that may prevent me from having my own venture etc.

I have been in the US for close to 10 years(8 years now and 2 years when I was a Kid). So, I have lived most of my decision making, understanding the world, ups/downs of life here in the US and I feel really connected to this country and really love it. I even pay good amount of Tax dollars plus work for a US company that works towards the growth of the US economy even in this downturn. But my fate still lies on the Immigration Policy.

Another point I wanted to mention was about my experience in College. In my freshman year I realized hanging out with kids that went to Highschool here that being Smart in school equates to being a Geek, which is not considered Hip and Cool. On the contrary back home in India where I grew up, being smart(not necessarily Geek) was considered Cool and everyone wants to be friends with the Smart Kid. Luckily, it worked out good for me as I had a solid academic background from India and then had cool friends out here.

I'm Curious about where your Habit of Capitalizing so many Words come from?...

okay come on you have totally warped expectations of what a work visa provides. work visas are not created to allow you to wonder silicon valley looking for cool startups to join. nor should it. thats what residency visas are for. a work visa should be tied to an employer. you seem to think you need a work visa in order to get a residency visa...no. tens of thousands of people every year become US citizens simply because they want to.

Unless you know something the rest of us don't, I think you're grossly misinformed. There's no skilled labour immigration track in the USA, and the only way to live/work in the country for many people is on the H-1B and TN visas. The latter does not lead to permanent residence, while the former does (and chains to your sponsor company as a wage slave).

The point that the article (and other posters here) are making is that you should be allowing these people to wander Silicon Valley looking for jobs. Instead of treating them as temps who must leave the country shortly, they need to be welcomed and given the opportunity to become Americans.

To add to code_devils list, I don't think you are allowed to earn any money in the US other than from your employer. I am not cent percent sure on this, but I think this might even prevent you from something simple as putting advertisements on your blog.

Thinking about it, the founder visa idea that pg proposed is aimed at the kind of people like the guy featured in the article.

Actually, if you had bothered to read the article, you'd have seen that the person featured was totally legal in the United States. He wasn't "sent back."

He chose to move to Canada because his WIFE was not legal in the U.S. and she didn't have any skills to import.

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