It’s funny how people are criticizing USCIS here (not that it is not to be blamed for lacking) and not their fellow Indian men for running such consultancies in the first place and exploiting talent backhome and luring them here in hopes for green cards before they realize it’s close to impossible and by that time these consulatancies middle-men would have already milked them enough. Creating awareness among Indian backhome is first step in discouraging consultancies abusing them. US has always been an open market for anyone to come here, take advantage of it and make ones dreams come true. US educated Indians stuck in green card queue is not entirely because of USCIS ineptness but also Indian “consultants” clogging up the queue. It feels there should have been a separate visa category for these “consultants” altogether.

It's the system which is enabling people to take advantage, and only system can fix it through changes in law!

When the system allowed segregation, whom do you blame more - the system which allowed it or the general people who were taking advantage of it.

> When the system allowed segregation, whom do you blame more

That is easy - the people who were taking advantage of it.

E.g. I have the right to be a racist dirtbag - but if I act like a racist dirtbag that is on me and not on the system.

>I applied EB-1. They need 3 criteria. Accepted 2 criteria (extra ordinary contribution to my field and leading role in organizations). They rejected the media and press criteria because most of the press about my company's acquisition, while mentioned me by name, was about the company and not me. And BTW I was Founder of the company and built it from scratch.

That is such BS. I was gonna try (I have some publications and stuff) but that's about it. Now I feel like I am rotting away here.

Going for EB-1 has been one of the worst decisions of my life. I wasted 2 years collecting paper work, getting letters, wasting money and waiting!

It really a luck thing. And if you have to go premium. You will find out sooner!

Lawyer adviced the same. Told me it was almost impossible for me to do EB-1 and it was all about luck. I don't really want to do that. It's just frustrating seeing people I went to school with years ago from other countries become greencard holders so quickly without even doing grad school or STEM.

It's not luck as in buying a lottery ticket. If the case is not strong and not well prepared - it will definitely get rejected.

But if the case is really strong, and the petition is really strong - it's possible that you might get lucky and they might approve it.

It depends on which officer did you get, which side of the bed they woke up and did they have a fight with their spouse recently!

It really sucks!

>>Going for EB-1 has been one of the worst decisions of my life. I wasted 2 years collecting paper work, getting letters, wasting money and waiting!

Also depends on the company and the leverage you have with the manager in the company. Plenty of people from India have gotten GCs in that category in months after arriving to US.

So yeah, Its luck by most means. Life is unfair, if its any consolation, think about this aspect of luck. There are likely more merit people in India who haven't even gotten as far as you. Is it unfair for them and their lives to be compared to you.

> That is such BS. I was gonna try (I have some publications and stuff) but that's about it. Now I feel like I am rotting away here.

Don't get too disparaged by this example. It depends a lot on the individual reviewer. Yes, that sucks, but it also means that in many cases it's not as hard as the in the quoted case.

I'm not nearly as successful as you but have similar frustrations with the US immigration system. I'm a co-founder of a company that has employed a couple dozen Americans for a few years now and decided to leave the US when it became clear there was basically no path for me to get a green card. Oh well.

This sounds great! Congrats on cutting your losses!

If you paid millions in taxes personally, then you have sufficient funds to qualify for investor/job creator visa (which in turn leads to a green card as well). I have family that were able to accomplish this with as little as 500K and 2 years, but depending on the scenario it can take as much as a couple million dollars (depending on location and nature of business). I am sure this is stuff your attorney must have explained to you so probably there is context I am missing here.

The process is non-definitive. A few years after you invest the money, you get a provisional green card and if the 10 permanent jobs are created after 2 years from that point, you get a permanent Green Card. Too many ifs and buts.

I thought EB-1 was more definitive and I felt that I was the right fit for it.

However at this point I am kind of done!

Notably, people who do not come from India or China can apply under EB-2 NIW instead of EB-1, so the requirements are lower. The spirit of the Chinese Exclusion Act lives on!

EB-2 works under same priority order, whether NIW or not. Only benefit of NIW is that you don't need to do PERM (which is labor certification).

So, EB-2 NIW - doesn't help people from India - because it is really easy to get a EB-2. I have 2 approved ones which are useless!

It sounds like you might be in a position where EB-5 is an option. It does take a long time though (I just got my conditional green card and filed my I-526 3 years ago). It sucks that they wouldn't count your media mentions, sounds like you had bad luck with the reviewer.

Does it take so long! When were you able to file your I-485 - so that you have EAD and AP

Which country would you recommend a skilled immigrant go to in present day ?

>I applied for EB-1.

Did you use an immigration lawyer for that?

The comment you're replying to was arguably uncivil on a divisive topic, which breaks the site guidelines. But you replied by crossing into personal attack, which is much worse. We ban accounts that do that, so please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't do this again.

What part of my reply seems like a personal attack to you? Pointing out his unbecoming opinion of immigrants who follow the rules, or asking why he felt he needed to come here to begin with?

I tried unbanning you the other day, as we often do with banned accounts that seem like they may have stopped breaking the site guidelines. Usually this works out. In this case, unfortunately, it led straight to the kind of flamewar we precisely don't want here: nasty, brutish, and long. So I've rebanned the account.

If you (or anyone) don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email [email protected] and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

Not making it super difficult for high skilled, shouldn't mean restricting immigration to them. Your first line seems like an useless argument. I am not sure how you arrived at it.

I want to prioritize being in the place, where I can be most effective as a human being and contribute back to the humanity.

As a side effect of this I contribute back to the places, I care about. I donated to a school in my hometown (which as my as I love I can't move back to because it has power cuts for 22 hours a day in 120F summers). Send decent amount of USD to India and advise startup in Indian ecosystem.

If at some point I feel that I can be most effective being in India, I would definitely go back!

Ok so Canada makes it easy for high-skilled while US makes it easy for low skilled. What’s the problem? Should we deport and restrict immigration unless you’re high skilled?

The point is that the US is very forgiving and easy going with respect to immigration and everybody acts like we’re a bunch of Nazis. Newsflash, we have the most liberal immigration policy in the world. Try getting permanent residency in Japan, or Switzerland, or China and let me know how that goes. It’s only difficult because we have too many people that want to move here.

And while I trust that you think you’re “giving back” to India, it’s easy to say you are while enjoying a nice cushy life in Canada.

I don’t mean this to be personal but I’m really sick and tired of hearing people complain that the US is shitty wrt to immigration when we are not. Does any other country have Dreamers? Will Canada allow 11 million undocumented kids to become permanent citizens? Hell no. Would India? Japan? China? Korea? Germany? Brasil? Nope nope nope - you would be deported in a heartbeat. Why does Canada even make you fill out paperwork or have a point-based system if they are so liberal?

I agree US is great with immigration (if you are not from India).

Most people can get a Green Card within a year (even with moderate skills) and citizenship at 5 years without language test.

This is great! But doesn't work for Indians. Which is what Indians in this thread are complaining about!

Many times things have a lagging indicator. West Europeans don't have strong reasons to move to US. Neither do Chinese to a large extent - because of vibrant local opportunities in China now.

Till 2010, best from India wanted to move to US. Not anymore! The problem is self solving. If Hackernews would be around in 10 years, and US immigration stays the same - there wouldn't be Indians complaining here about this - because they wouldn't be in US

You don't need to restrict immigration for low skilled to remove crazy restrictions for high skilled immigrants. I don't know how and where you are making this connection!

> Most people can get a Green Card within a year (even with moderate skills) and citizenship at 5 years without language test.

You are hilariously misinformed. I am 3.5 years and waiting on an EB2 and I am British, I know Caltech professors who took 3 years to get on EB1.

Part of the issue isn't entirely the government but also the cottage industry of legal firms. These firms (at least in my experience) can take _longer_ than some of the government steps.

The system is designed to give a Green Card in around an year. You can file for an EB1-3 as soon as you move to US.

Process is:

PERM - 3-4 months (EB1 and EB2-NIW don't need it)

I-140 - premium - 14 days

I-485 - can be filed concurrently with I-140 - Takes around 5-6 months

Green Card - 1-2 months within approval of I-485.

Of course this is the best case scenario, which doesn't involve company delaying, bad law firm and RFEs from USCIS. But the system is designed to be done within an year!

I know colleagues who have gotten their Green Cards within an year.

And unfortunately, I know more about the immigration system that I should be knowing :(

You’re implying we should just welcome every Indian to the country. Sorry I’m more concerned with making sure Africans and Hispanics can make it here.

Maybe Canada should do the same? Instead of increasing brain-drain on the rest of the world by providing an easy avenue for immigration to highly skilled people (and increasing their interest in loving) Canada should allow millions of people from Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere without much education to immigrate to Canada? Why not?

> I’m more concerned with making sure Africans and Hispanics can make it here

Indians are an ethnicity. Africans are geographically-defined and Hispanics culturally. Did you mean to say “low income”?

No. I mean people who are African from Africa and Hispanics as colloquially defined. Should Indian engineers get precedence over them?

Ceteris paribus, no. From a utilitarian perspective, engineers are on average more valuable than non-engineers. Doesn’t matter what ethnicity or continent or culture they come from. Biasing that measure with an arbitrary ethno-socio-geographic filter feels like backing into a rationale over thinking from first principles.

So you’re advocating for the US to restrict immigration to only highly-skilled migrants? Would you be ok deporting non-engineer Dreamers?

Seriously, I don't know how do you draw such conclusions.

The main point was: It is really difficult for highly skilled people from India to immigrate from India. And because of this many highly skilled Indians want to leave.

First, you insinuated that letting highly skilled Indians in means not letting in low-skilled immigrations. No it doesn't!

Second, you insinuated that this means allowing every Indian. No it doesn't.

Seriously, which part of Highly skilled do you not understand!

The amount of flagging your post has seen, indicates that others agree with me.

Troll, Please go away and do not pollute HN!

Ok so stay in India and build businesses in India. What’s so difficult about this for you? You’re not entitled to move to another country nor am I. If we have too many people from one place how can we build a multicultural society? If you’re truly high-skilled then you should be advocating for the US to restrict immigration like Canada and others do to a points-based system. Do you advocate for this or do you prefer a liberal immigration system like the US now has? You can’t have both.

And if you spent any time in the West you would know that just because a few people (even many) hold a wrong opinion (I.e. downvoting) doesn’t make them right.

And next time instead of making a throwaway and calling people trolls I think you should post under your real username and spend more time discussing the merits of their arguments.

Yes. You can have both! You can have some Green Cards allocated to the points based and some allocated to the current system.

The current system was designed for situations which existed in the past. It wasn't perfect but served the job then. Times have changed and ground realities have changed - so time to tweak it!

As far as where I have to go - it's my prerogative! If US doesn't work, will find what works best for me!

Don't need your suggestions! Apart from not getting the birthplace lottery - am ahead on everything else!