Legal Alien's Guide

[TatianaS]

helping them by compiling the networking information in your (free) blog (and not the for-profit book). .

I wish I could do it for free, but I have to eat, don't I?...

On a side note: I think (and I stand to be corrected) that many of this forum members have spouses who tag along with them and who will most definitely need help after GC (if your GC is employment based YOU have an employer and other half is in a VERY disadvantageous position - I personally have been there) So I hope the information I provide will be passed along to those in need.

And if some people are not interested in this thread they can just skip it, I never said it was for everyone. And once again: I have been LIVING in US for 1,5 years, not collecting the info just for 1,5 years! I started long before I came over here to stay permamnently

 

[TheRealCanadian]

They have such a wealth of knowledge about the industry and most importnantly door openers for all major food giants in USA. They don't have a website, they communicate by e-mail distribution and if you are not brought to the group by the insider you will never find out about them.

If such a group is as exclusive and restrictive as you say, they're not going to give out their contact information to you to publish in a book for hundreds or thousands of brand new immigrants. Either the group isn't as exclusive and valuable as you claim, or you can't help at all in making that group available to a new immigrant.

I don't dispute that networking can be difficult, and that it's important. But a lot of new immigrants to the United States have hurdles far beyond simply not knowing what groups to get in contact with. Many have issues with language, and the general culture. A lot have an inaccurate understanding of how many employment-related matters work, with a linear notion of "if I do X, then Y will happen". It doesn't work that way, and for you to suggest that purchasing your book and joining certain groups is necessary preys upon that thinking - and also does nothing to eliminate it, which is the real solution.

The other problem with your concept is that as you point out, the best groups are usually local. There are going to be thousands of them all across the country, and they simply won't fit into your book. Even if they do, the inescapable truth about specialization is that 99.99% of them will be useless or irrelevant to the average reader. The only thing that will differ from reader to reader is the 0.01%.

I think this affects family-based and DV immigrants the most, because they are admitted without any consideration of their ability to integrate into the US workforce and get a productive job. To be honest, I think the best solution might be to reduce the FB numbers (and eliminate DV altogether) but expand EB numbers and allow for broader self-sponsorship in that area.

I am also at a loss as to why you think that my spouse (or others' spouses) would be so in need of your dubious services. You see a fair number of women who are the primary beneficiaries of EB petitions, and there are even more that are educated, independent and quite capable of networking on their own without a book.

But I will throw out a question for you. I'm a recent immigrant in Atlanta, who specializes in Java development of parallel systems. What groups do I need to join in order to get a job? Do you have any groups that aren't already publicly available?

 

[dima66a]

Tatiana,

My guess is that you didn't get employment based GC. You're saying: "There are some lucky people, like RealCanadian, who never needed that but they are exception from the rule, unfortunately." It is completely incorrect. Absolute majority of people who got GC through employer have no difficulty to find a new job. For me it took 3 days to find a job after my graduation (I had F1 at that time) and more than 5 years to get a GC.
Your book is probably good for people who got family based GC or won it in lottery. I suggest you to ask everyone who responded to you about your book which way they got the GC. I am sure that all those who said that your book was useful have family/lottery based GC, and all who said it was useless have EB GC.

From my observation, most people in this forum are in the second category, so you hardly can expect warm welcome here.

 

[TatianaS]

"I am also at a loss as to why you think that my spouse (or others' spouses) would be so in need of your dubious services. You see a fair number of women who are the primary beneficiaries of EB petitions, and there are even more that are educated, independent and quite capable of networking on their own without a book." - quote from realCanadian

You are not correct interpreting my words, I never said WIFE, I said SPOUSE and in the English language this word indicates both males and females

In terms of those unknown groups, they are not exclusive in terms of membership, they just don't bother having a website, they don't aim at publicity, they don't plan to attract paid ads on their site and hosting a site costs money, regestring a domain costs money, site design costs money. Who is going to pay for it? They help people for free, they have no fees and no website gurus among them. They have better things to do. How people learn about them? Through networking only. When you join a couple of groups and meet the first hundred of people you will start getting leads that relevant to you.

In terms the relevancy of the guide, it will be relevant for the majority of people: I have a chapter for women, a chapter for different nationalities, a chapter for minorities, a chapter for specific age groups, etc.

 

[mkung]

guys, why bother replying to her? we are basically giving this thread credibility by replying to some moron's junk website/spam.

 

[TatianaS]

One more insight on how "easy" it is to get information on any subject. Who is familiar with how search engines work will understand it anyway, but in brief:
1. for a website to pop-up higher on, say, Google serach results pages it has to be optimized for it, without going in too many details, basically a great webdesigner has to do an excellent job
2. or a company should pay Google to pop-up on the right hand side of your first page (AdWords program)
In both cases it meens that the company/organization/association has to have financial resources to do that.

So what happens (and you can easily check it yourself) the "easy to get" information that pops-up on first pages is actually the one that will turn out to be expensive, i.e. all networking groups that pop up first will require hundreds of dollars annual fees (usually 200-300 USD a year) for membership. Great organizations and associations with FREE membership and FREE services (the same services as the paid ones offer) also appear in this search results too, I don't argue, but somewhere on page 256 or so, you will never see them. So the dilema is: to pay several hundred dollars for an easy to find out membership or get information on dozenz of free networking groups for under 19 USD?

And this rings true for any search you perform on a search engine: whether you are looking for a recruiter, a lawyer or anything. The one who has more money (but not necessarily has the best service) will always appear first.

That was your FREE 5 minutes web marketing lesson (for those who say I am doing it all just for the money). Seriously, guys, if I did it just thinking of myself, I wouldn't have a blog, I would have a regular website that the publisher provides. I wouldn't continue digging for information and post it for everyone for FREE.

 

[pianoplayer]

One more insight on how "easy" it is to get information on any subject. Who is familiar with how search engines work will understand it anyway, but in brief:
1. for a website to pop-up higher on, say, Google serach results pages it has to be optimized for it, without going in too many details, basically a great webdesigner has to do an excellent job
2. or a company should pay Google to pop-up on the right hand side of your first page (AdWords program)
In both cases it meens that the company/organization/association has to have financial resources to do that.

So what happens (and you can easily check it yourself) the "easy to get" information that pops-up on first pages is actually the one that will turn out to be expensive, i.e. all networking groups that pop up first will require hundreds of dollars annual fees (usually 200-300 USD a year) for membership. Great organizations and associations with FREE membership and FREE services (the same services as the paid ones offer) also appear in this search results too, I don't argue, but somewhere on page 256 or so, you will never see them. So the dilema is: to pay several hundred dollars for an easy to find out membership or get information on dozenz of free networking groups for under 19 USD?

And this rings true for any search you perform on a search engine: whether you are looking for a recruiter, a lawyer or anything. The one who has more money (but not necessarily has the best service) will always appear first.

That was your FREE 5 minutes web marketing lesson (for those who say I am doing it all just for the money). Seriously, guys, if I did it just thinking of myself, I wouldn't have a blog, I would have a regular website that the publisher provides. I wouldn't continue digging for information and post it for everyone for FREE.

Congratulations - I am glad that you have figured out how websearching works. Excellent.

You are really a piece of work, you know. IMO, Not only are you not very smart, but you are sanctimonious as well. Keep your free lessons --- or should I say "trade secrets" ---- to yourself or sell them on your website. For heaven's sake just leave people on this forum alone, because you are annoying the heck out of almost everyone.

 

[rajmash]

eventhough it says "Life after green card" - you shouldnt take it literally - this is still a IMMIGRATION PORTAL. Please use your blog/"advice" somewhere else.

its got nothing to do with immirgration.
Moderator - I think this thread qualifies for the "Unrelated thread"

 

[TatianaS]

Here is important information for those who got/is getting employment based GC: according to recently published statistic in USA at this point in time about 30% of all jobs companies have are subcontracted. In 15 to 20 years this percentage will grow to 70%. Which means half of people who have the employment now will not have their jobs anymore, i.e. there will be only 2 choices: either to enter into an extrmely tough competition for those few positions that will remain or become and independent subcontractor, i.e. entrepreneur. In either case you have to be ready for what's ahead.

And it all will not happen out of the blue on a Monday exactly 15 years from now. Some people will be hit in 10 years, others in 10 months and some in 10 weeks regardless of their status and EB group. Then the information about employment support groups and networking meetings will not seem so out of place.

The only thing I am trying to make you think about is that the journey doesn't end with a GC it starts there.