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Comment by dominotw | Hacker News Reader

I've been seeing a version of this every month for past 10 years or so.

H1B in my view is new Ellis Island. Stopping H1B == Stopping all immigration to US. People often say they support legal immigration but don't support H1B. What are the other alternatives to H1B to immigrate to America?(I am not talking about Nobel Laureates or Olympic athletes, I am talking about common folk who showed up at Ellis Island).

Immigration is one of those things where everyone who got in wants to shut the door behind them.( "I(or my ancestors) got a shot at a better life, fuck you the door is now closed.")

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H1B is the opposite of Ellis Island. Immigrants who came in via Ellis Island were generally legal to live in the United States, work for whoever would hire them, and eventually become citizens. H1B holders are legally tied to a sponsoring employer, which reduces their ability to bargain in the job market, thus keeping their salaries how.

The other alternatives to H1B would be allowing more people to move to the United States and get green cards.

And such an option does not exist.

> What are the other alternatives to H1B to immigrate to America?

Realistic alternatives for any common person? None. You could apply to the DV lottery if you're born/from an eligible country but if you're from an ineligible country, that door's closed.

There are only selective alternatives:

- the extraordinary ones

- marriage

- immediate family

- if you're rich

- if you're a victim of some hate crime/war

Ironic, I'd say.

These are largely true for most developed nations.

Australia's immigration policies appears to be lot more open than America's. As long as you have certifiable skills, and have stayed here the mandatory amount of time, you are almost guaranteed a permanent residency, after which point you are almost guaranteed a citizenship.

I guess I'm thinking of the EU nations, to which I thought about moving.

> and have stayed here the mandatory amount of time

No, you can get PR if you have the required points. (Education, Age, Work Ex). It does not matter if you have never been to Australia before.

I believe the gp is referring to the conversion of a 457 (temporary residence, sponsored by employee, much like a H1B), to PR. This can be requested at any time.

Prior to approx. 2010 (IIRC), this was a pretty standard way for people to gain PR. Rules changed in 2010 to make this route more complex/involved.

EDIT: Re-read of the gp, and you may be correct.

> and you may be correct.

I know I am correct because I have Australian PR :)

I went to Aus after I got the PR.

No, that is incorrect. The United States is the only G7 country that doesn't have straightforward, non-lottery ways to obtain permanent legal residency and work status. In most developed countries the idea of a non-immigrant work visa is extremely limited; once you are in the country you are accumulating time toward obtaining permanent residency.

The US immigration system is a series of exceptions and loopholes, if you investigate the process for immigrating to any other G7 country you will find that there is a general "skilled migrant" category with some basic requirements (such as education, language proficiency, good health) that more or less guarantees eventual citizenship once obtained.

This is true with almost anything that is scarce. Immigration just being one of them. Wealth for example, Wealthy don't like a lot of people get wealthy. I have a rich friend whose discomfort gets plain obvious whenever he sees some one poor make it big. Why? These kind of people feel only reason why anybody should get anything is by being born into it.

Getting something through hard work is taken as barging into their elite club though unnatural means.

In general people love the idea of getting lucky, benefiting things out of no effort of theirs. And don't like it when others get the same benefits. Immigration is something similar. Once you get lucky, you like it that you are now ahead of the crowd and like you newly acquired status, you want it kept premium and limited to you.

Its like watching your cousin become a millionaire while you and he both had access to same resources.

> What are the other alternatives to H1B to immigrate to America?

You can enter the lottery: http://www.usagc.org/USA-immigration.aspx

not if you're from one of those popular countries (China, India, Brazil, etc) that are ineligible

Bangladesh has been recently added to the ineligible list.

Even your neighbors cannot enter the lottery. Canadians are pretty dang close to Americans, lots of us have family on both sides of the border, we speak the same language, have very similar media, similar education systems etc. etc.

And yet we're not allowed to come to your country for much more than a few months at a time.

Oddly we _are_ allowed to get a TN visa, in some circumstances, build up some wealth over a 3 yrs span and then we're promptly booted _out_ of the country with bags of money instead of being allowed to stay and spend it. strange strategy.

Local media tends to send accusations of just that towards tech workers: "They're coming here with a gold-rush mentality, making the big bucks, and then leaving to somewhere else, leaving all the gentrification problems behind".

Wellp, I'm not going to deny my intention. But the big "VALID UNTIL AUGUST 2016" sticker in my passport kind of decided this for me

Also, you cannot get a visa if you intend to stay permanently. They make you recite it at the border "I am not coming to the US permanently"

Which gets really hard to be convincing about when you have an application for a green card waiting to be processed.

Does the TN really expire after 3 years? My (American) boss has been working here in Canada for at least 5, and he is cheerfully uninterested in becoming a permanent resident. I guess he had to renew once or twice, but it doesn't seem like it was much of a hassle for him.

It's renewable.

But you can't get a green card with it, have to switch to H1B for that.

You can get TNs good for 1 year or 3, but you can technically renew your TN status as many times as you want. The downside is that TN status is strictly for people with "non-immigrant intent" and if a border agent believes you have immigrant intent when requesting a TN or entering America with one, they can revoke it/deny you entry at their discretion. So a 3-year TN is fine, maybe even a second one, but if you've been in the US on a TN after 8 or 9 years you're probably going to get some trouble.

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