Lots of people from all over the world dream of coming to the United States of America - especially to Silicon Valley. No doubt, Silicon Valley has one of the vibrant and entrepreneurial environments I have seen among the many places I have stayed or visited. But coming to the USA through its broken immigration system poses multiple obstacles. Actually, immigration problems don't end when someone gets a visa to work in the USA instead it starts from there. This blog is intended to give some insights into the life in the USA for a non-immigrant who want to become an immigrant, based on the experiences I have had.
People come to the United States of America for work, mainly in 2 visa categories - L1 or H1. L1 is mainly for intra-company transfer, which means a person who is working in a US-based company in the foreign country(say India), gets transferred to USA office for a specific purpose. L1 visa is valid for 3 years with a one-time extension of 2 more years, so totally a person gets to stay for 5 years. A person who is on L1 visa can't change the employer as his visa is tied to the employer which sponsored it.
On the other hand, H1 allows any company in the US to hire someone from outside the country who has a specialized skillset. H1 is valid for 3 years and eligible for 3 more years of extension based on project needs. Once a person completes 6 years in H1, he/she can only get an extension of his visa if his/ her green card process is initiated. A green card is the first stage for a non-immigrant to seek immigrant status. Anyone who has cleared the 2nd step of green card filing process (I140 approval) can keep getting his/her H1 visa extended for 3 years term until his/her green card is approved. The date green card process is initiated is called "priority date" and green card is issued based on first come first serve manner. At the same time, USA wants to have a diverse culture among its immigrants and hence it gives a fixed number of immigrant visas per country irrespective of the number of people coming from a particular country.
As of today, there are more than 600,000 people from India waiting in queue to get their green card. But because of the per country quota, USCIS issues only 2800 immigrant visas per employment category per year. So if someone is coming from India and want to get an immigrant status in the USA, it's estimated that he/she has to wait for 70 years before he gets the green card based on the number of people in queue and number of immigrant visas granted. On the other hand, if someone is coming from small countries like Bhutan, Srilanka, Ireland etc., he/she can get their green card within one year because these countries never reach their per-country quota. This puts the lives of so many non-immigrants from population rich countries like India and China in jeopardy as they can't take any major decisions with an uncertainty of visa. If someone on H1B loses their job, he/she has to vacate the country within 60 days. If they have purchased a home in the USA either they have to sell it immediately (even if it's in a loss) or give it to property management firm to look for renting options but at the same time keep paying their mortgage.
H1B visa holder's spouse will get H4 dependent visa and currently, H4 visa holders don't have any work authorization. Obama administration passed an executive action which provided work authorization (EAD) to certain H4 visa holders whose spouse green card process is initiated and has cleared the I140 stage. But the current administration is planning to remove this executive order which makes the lives of these spouses miserable as they can't work in their whole lifetime because of current green card backlogs. Essentially if someone has to marry a H1B visa holder, he/she has to sacrifice their whole career. Also, if someone enters USA on H1B along with their complete family, then even the children who were born outside the USA comes on the same H4 visa. Once they reach age 21, they will not be dependent anymore which makes them to apply for an F1 visa for their further education and later on go in the same H1B lottery for jobs even though they spent their entire education in the USA. This is the state of legal immigrants who have paid their federal & state taxes sincerely, paid for the social security, Medicare over the period of 10-15 years; still their children and family are unsecured and they will be living in a constant fear of losing the job or need to go back to their own country.
Unfortunately, no party is interested to fix this broken immigration system as it's not going to benefit them in their elections. On the other hand, there is an overwhelming interest from the government to provide a path to citizenship for more than "11 million illegal" immigrants who never paid their taxes, never paid their social security or medicare but the sheer number makes it an attractive opportunity for political parties to gain vote base. A country which once attracted the best and brightest from all over the world, provided every possible opportunity for them to grow and make the economy grow, now taking steps to hurt its own economy. Even though there is a countless evidence where immigrants came and started their own companies and make this country prosper, this country has one of worst immigration policies for working population. As a result, people are looking at other countries like Australia and Canada which provides a much better path to citizenship and this will start pinching the US Job growth and economy. I hope people at Power realize the need to keep the people who are contributing to the economy and rectify this broken immigration system.
People come to the United States of America for work, mainly in 2 visa categories - L1 or H1. L1 is mainly for intra-company transfer, which means a person who is working in a US-based company in the foreign country(say India), gets transferred to USA office for a specific purpose. L1 visa is valid for 3 years with a one-time extension of 2 more years, so totally a person gets to stay for 5 years. A person who is on L1 visa can't change the employer as his visa is tied to the employer which sponsored it.
On the other hand, H1 allows any company in the US to hire someone from outside the country who has a specialized skillset. H1 is valid for 3 years and eligible for 3 more years of extension based on project needs. Once a person completes 6 years in H1, he/she can only get an extension of his visa if his/ her green card process is initiated. A green card is the first stage for a non-immigrant to seek immigrant status. Anyone who has cleared the 2nd step of green card filing process (I140 approval) can keep getting his/her H1 visa extended for 3 years term until his/her green card is approved. The date green card process is initiated is called "priority date" and green card is issued based on first come first serve manner. At the same time, USA wants to have a diverse culture among its immigrants and hence it gives a fixed number of immigrant visas per country irrespective of the number of people coming from a particular country.
As of today, there are more than 600,000 people from India waiting in queue to get their green card. But because of the per country quota, USCIS issues only 2800 immigrant visas per employment category per year. So if someone is coming from India and want to get an immigrant status in the USA, it's estimated that he/she has to wait for 70 years before he gets the green card based on the number of people in queue and number of immigrant visas granted. On the other hand, if someone is coming from small countries like Bhutan, Srilanka, Ireland etc., he/she can get their green card within one year because these countries never reach their per-country quota. This puts the lives of so many non-immigrants from population rich countries like India and China in jeopardy as they can't take any major decisions with an uncertainty of visa. If someone on H1B loses their job, he/she has to vacate the country within 60 days. If they have purchased a home in the USA either they have to sell it immediately (even if it's in a loss) or give it to property management firm to look for renting options but at the same time keep paying their mortgage.
H1B visa holder's spouse will get H4 dependent visa and currently, H4 visa holders don't have any work authorization. Obama administration passed an executive action which provided work authorization (EAD) to certain H4 visa holders whose spouse green card process is initiated and has cleared the I140 stage. But the current administration is planning to remove this executive order which makes the lives of these spouses miserable as they can't work in their whole lifetime because of current green card backlogs. Essentially if someone has to marry a H1B visa holder, he/she has to sacrifice their whole career. Also, if someone enters USA on H1B along with their complete family, then even the children who were born outside the USA comes on the same H4 visa. Once they reach age 21, they will not be dependent anymore which makes them to apply for an F1 visa for their further education and later on go in the same H1B lottery for jobs even though they spent their entire education in the USA. This is the state of legal immigrants who have paid their federal & state taxes sincerely, paid for the social security, Medicare over the period of 10-15 years; still their children and family are unsecured and they will be living in a constant fear of losing the job or need to go back to their own country.
Unfortunately, no party is interested to fix this broken immigration system as it's not going to benefit them in their elections. On the other hand, there is an overwhelming interest from the government to provide a path to citizenship for more than "11 million illegal" immigrants who never paid their taxes, never paid their social security or medicare but the sheer number makes it an attractive opportunity for political parties to gain vote base. A country which once attracted the best and brightest from all over the world, provided every possible opportunity for them to grow and make the economy grow, now taking steps to hurt its own economy. Even though there is a countless evidence where immigrants came and started their own companies and make this country prosper, this country has one of worst immigration policies for working population. As a result, people are looking at other countries like Australia and Canada which provides a much better path to citizenship and this will start pinching the US Job growth and economy. I hope people at Power realize the need to keep the people who are contributing to the economy and rectify this broken immigration system.
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