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Comment by olegious | Hacker News Reader

Have a friend- early 20s, speaks 5 languages, graduated from one of her country's top law schools, worked in corporate law, received a full scholarship to do a decent LLM program in the USA- she finished the program with a 4.0. She won a green card, but when it came time for her to interview for the green card she was told- "we filled the Eastern Europe quota." So now she's getting kicked out of the US, shouldn't the goal of an immigration system be to attract and retain the best and the brightest?

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True, but lawyers have the American bar associations, unlike programmers, that keep competition low. Doctors have the similar American Medical Association.

>> "She won a green card"

I'm guessing this was through the DV Lottery program? If so I agree that the goal of immigration should be to attract the best and the brightest but there are plenty of ways to do that. The DV program is the only avenue for people who haven't had a chance in life to become the best and brightest yet - it's their only way in. Your friend could presumably get in on a work visa which, considering her qualifications, shouldn't be difficult. The DV program is a lottery and the only way for people who don't meet the strict requirements of the other visas to get in. Even when you win your chance at acceptance is 50/50 as they issue 2x the number of winning entries as they have visas available to account for people who win and change their mind or get in via a spouse.

Right now, getting a GC through L1/H1 path is extremely painful (again, H1B lottery + huge delay in actually getting a GC + painful employment-based GC process). You can try EB1, but good luck proving "extraordinary abilities" in the tech sector.

DV is a nice 'instant jackpot' option. Some people I know were playing DV even when they had EB GC pending. Small percentage of those won the GC, and opted for DV (paid out of pocket) instead of waiting for company-sponsored EB.

I get it. They make immigration way to hard considering how much immigration has done for America in the last 200 years. I wish it was an instant jackpot though. I've tried for 6 years. It's 5 minute application in October - wait until May for the result - try again in October. And if you do win in May you likely won't get to America for another 18 months or so.

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