Agreed, It's also worth remembering the recipients of work visas can't vote either, nor can green card holders, so not a constituency that rewards a political party at the ballot box for policy change, which also likely contributes to the inertia.

The earliest (generally speaking) an H1B holder could likely become a voter is often 10 years in the best cases, and decades in the worst. GC quota queue for countries like India is measured in decades, and you need a GC for something like 5 years before you can apply for citizenship and finally get a vote.

> recipients of work visas can't vote either, nor can green card holders

Exactly this - I worked on the Hill during the time period when immigration was the hot buzzword and this was a persistent undercurrent in all the convos going on back then. The RoI was questionable for a number of Congressional members, so we ended up in this weird equilibrium.

> The earliest an H1B holder could likely become a voter is 10 years in the best cases.

Not really, the earliest you can become a citizen is (1) get your H-1B and arrive in the US (2) get a green card, roughly 1.5-2 years if you're going employment route (3) wait 5 years for citizenship - 3 if you marry someone.

The fastest by the employment route is 6.5 years-ish, the fastest by marriage is probably 4.

Its generally approximately a decade in my experience, and your advice is not applicable to Indian citizens (of which there are many, many waiting in the quota line). Your fast example is possible but not the norm outside of marriage.

His example is true for Singaporean nationals and some other countries as well, but big picture Indian+Chinese+Mexican+Filipino born (H1B bucket is based on place of birth not citizenship, so I've had Indian citizen friends born in Singapore who got green cards in 2 years after their F1) people are screwed.

The point I was responding to is "the earliest an H1B holder could likely become a voter" - which I agree, the average is probably 10 years, but the earliest is much shorter if you and your employer are motivated. And of course, the shortest time it takes definitely doesn't apply to Indians. Even during COVID and having two RFEs (and not being super diligent at a few points) the GC process took me 3 years. That puts me on the 8 year clock should I pursue citizenship.

Hence my use of the word "likely" - it was never stated as fact. Your own personal example is 80 percent of the way there!

And besides voting and being able to leave the country for more than six months, there are no advantages to citizenship. A lot of people just stop at their green cards, especially if their origin country doesn’t support dual citizenship.