Employment Based Immigration is good for USA, UN please comment.

techy2468

Registered Users (C)
i just wanted to say that everything in this world is promoted based on a spin........not on its actual merit......and you spin good enough.....you can go to war (Iraq)......you can win presidential election of USA (swift boat veterans)...etc..

this question is specifically for UN:

so lets say we all understand that EB based immgration may not have enough merit that USA should give it #1 priority......

but lets say i get a membership base of 100k people......funds of around $50 million.......

dont you think we can run a media/lobby spin such that we will get a positive results within one year??

i think its possible.......but the problem is getting all that resources.....and getting the immigration community to get together....(i am sure we all spend more than $50 million in one year on attornies and uscis fees ...)
 
UN....you are missing the point...

i am totally with you that the current EB immigration is not much broken....and people who are affected is only because of demand and supply....

but i am talking about spin.....covering all the negatives and hyping the positives.....

and with a ton of money.....we will have enough seasoned brains to analyze and plan for every anti-spin..

the problem is all these people are themselves believing in the spin as though its a fact.....things like...tax paying, law abiding yadi-yadi.....
 
unitednations said:
Here is #1 problem:

What everyone thinks is skilled worker is not skilled worker in business definition.

At a high level: employment base immigration should attract the best and brightest of people around the world who bring their valuable education/experience to USA. That is; it should be used to "steal" other countries resources.

It should not be designed to circumvent family base immigration (that is instead of people sponsoring through family they go through employment to get people here faster).

All of the people who fit definition of what USA is looking for; are already accomodated in employment base immigration. The top actors, entertainers, athletes, scholars, media, top business people, executives, etc. are all accomodated within the system and can get here pretty easily and stay here pretty easily.

If system was broke and a top actor, NASA scientist, journalist, business leader could not get here then there would be considerable noise to "fix the system".

For people who have "less skills" in business sense there is less argument. People jumping between companies, getting laid off, wanting to jump companies, as soon as they can; want to design a system to facilitate themselves without any good reason then it is much more difficult to do.

Being the former CFO of mutual funds of two of the top five banks in the world; I have a lot of insight on how this stuff works. My whole professional career has been involved with US "system". I know how it is manipulated at high and low levels ("spin"). I'm actually pretty good at doing it myself.

I will take a page from what happened to the leader of the "crips" gang in Los Angeles.

Crips gang was brutal; killed a lot of people; had street wars, did a lot of damage through the drug trade. Their original founder had been in jail for over 20 years. He "reformed himself". He wrote children's books to stay away from gangs; nominated for Nobel Peace Prize. As his death sentence was coming up; there was a lot of sentiment to get Governor to commute it. All the publicity was one way; in favor of him (former journalists, actors, people from the community, etc.). As soon as the people from the other side realized that his sentence could get commuted then they went into action to destroy the people who were in his favor. They discussed how easy it is to get nominated with nobel peace prize; had family victims speak up; former police officers started discussing how he is still a gang member; damage to the community, etc, etc.

Bottom line was that he did die and governor didn't commute the sentence.

This one is a little touchy subject but; in presidential elections; there was drives in Ohio and Florida to get as many African Americans to register because they are traditionally Democrats and they wanted to vote out republicans. However, Republicans still won the election. Many of the European Americans have thought process that what is good for "african americans" is bad for them. They then ensured they came out and voted. (I know this sounds like a little stretch but start digging deep into european americans and this will come to the surface)

How, is this all relevant? You can make it all positive but then are you ready for the onslaught from the other side. The sad stories that everyone is giving or will be forced to give; don't have any merit to them and will hurt the process even more.

Two of the recent people who tried impeaching me, or going after my credibility; have shown their true colors. One of them came over from immigration voice and out of the blue starts posting nonsense. Reason could be that maybe people from these forums who are dual members were pointing to some of my postings of why some things may not be a good idea. He starts coming over and starts talking about my agenda when he had the real agenda.

Now; he shows his profile and was laid off and switched to a staffing company which saved his "a--" so he didn't have to leave. Note: I have saved many people like this myself; however, this is not the poster boy or stories you want as it will hurt you in that "immigration" is broken because a person in that situation should be forced to leave.

One thing that I personally don't like is when an actor/entertiner/athlete takes up some noble cause like breast cancer, or something similar. When you start digging in; you find that spouse was inflicted with breast cancer. It is easy to lobby when you have a vested interest in that you will get something out of it.

However; one has more credibility when one doesn't have a vested interest and is arguing why something is good idea.

So u pointing at me now. BTW, the best of the best get layed off or fired at some stage in their lives. Though I don't say I am the best or the brightest, let me tell u, if I was layed off because I was inefficient, and if thats happening to me always and if I am not earning good name or struggling for surviving, then, offocurse, ur point makes sense. But, let me tell u, I was not actually layed off, I was a "scapegoat" for a political reason at my company and did not have enough political support and was forced and fooled into accepting a fault that was done by a innefficient influential person. If the system had no options for me, I would have left. But, in my situation, I did what I best possibly could. Associating with a staffing company makes people look down on u, and always a fear that the company will have immigration issues. But, one I stepped into the market, I am able to improve my resume, learn new excellent technologies, please note that, when u r a consultant, the client expects a lot more from u, and in the process, u work harder and improve ur skill base. I am not those "low earning" consultants, who massage their h1b petitions, GC petitions with more skills than they have or provide wrong and fradulent data. And my staffing company is not one of those that do all sorts of things that u always keep saying about. A lot of people in similar situations, my friends who got layed off in 7th year, 8th year etc... did similar things, some joined perm jobs, some moved to consulting again because $$$, some moved to companies with the promise of sub labor (only if their billing would yield $$$ in minimum). Some people figure out that they are not getting any promotions, and want to expand their resume and also want a change from their routine jobs, they make use of these options.
Now, do you think, system must be in such a way that people must suffer and go away??? My dear friend, u r living in a dream world. When I got 6th + 7th year extension from a staffing company based on Labor filed by my layed off company, one thing I was worried about was stamping in Chennai. The consular officer looked at my records, everything was clean, he asked if this is a staffing company? I said yes, looked at all my w2s and current year paystubs, there was no fault, he then asked me, did I change jobs in 6th year of H1b, I said yes. Thats it, I got my stamping.
Your views about staffing companies and how people are using them or they are abusing the system, is well agreed on, but ur views about layed off people must go away etc.. are not right. When I joined the staffing company and started working for clients, after 3 months of working for a client, they would ask me to join them perm (H1b and GC), my current client also thinks that at some stage they can hire me perm, but I am "cautious" in general, I won't join a company fulltime unless, I feel safe. Getting a perm job and h1b + GC sponsership is not difficult, but sticking onto and increasing ur billing rate and ability to satisfy any job u do, is challenging and those who do that, are the real smart people.
While, staffing companies thrive over people who are efficient only because of this process, they seem to take good care of immigration issues in return. Like it is said, u lose somehing to gain something, life is not that easy as u all think it is. Ability to adapt to changes is what makes a person capable. It won't take a while for me to go back to a perm job, but I will definitely do it when "staffing companies are banned".
Once again- I don't have any issues with u, or don't undermine ur skills and helpful nature. But ur views are narrow and u don't look at the bigger picture.
 
unitednations said:
Here is #1 problem:

What everyone thinks is skilled worker is not skilled worker in business definition.

At a high level: employment base immigration should attract the best and brightest of people around the world who bring their valuable education/experience to USA. That is; it should be used to "steal" other countries resources.

It should not be designed to circumvent family base immigration (that is instead of people sponsoring through family they go through employment to get people here faster).

All of the people who fit definition of what USA is looking for; are already accomodated in employment base immigration. The top actors, entertainers, athletes, scholars, media, top business people, executives, etc. are all accomodated within the system and can get here pretty easily and stay here pretty easily.

If system was broke and a top actor, NASA scientist, journalist, business leader could not get here then there would be considerable noise to "fix the system".

For people who have "less skills" in business sense there is less argument. People jumping between companies, getting laid off, wanting to jump companies, as soon as they can; want to design a system to facilitate themselves without any good reason then it is much more difficult to do.

Being the former CFO of mutual funds of two of the top five banks in the world; I have a lot of insight on how this stuff works. My whole professional career has been involved with US "system". I know how it is manipulated at high and low levels ("spin"). I'm actually pretty good at doing it myself.

I will take a page from what happened to the leader of the "crips" gang in Los Angeles.

Crips gang was brutal; killed a lot of people; had street wars, did a lot of damage through the drug trade. Their original founder had been in jail for over 20 years. He "reformed himself". He wrote children's books to stay away from gangs; nominated for Nobel Peace Prize. As his death sentence was coming up; there was a lot of sentiment to get Governor to commute it. All the publicity was one way; in favor of him (former journalists, actors, people from the community, etc.). As soon as the people from the other side realized that his sentence could get commuted then they went into action to destroy the people who were in his favor. They discussed how easy it is to get nominated with nobel peace prize; had family victims speak up; former police officers started discussing how he is still a gang member; damage to the community, etc, etc.

Bottom line was that he did die and governor didn't commute the sentence.

This one is a little touchy subject but; in presidential elections; there was drives in Ohio and Florida to get as many African Americans to register because they are traditionally Democrats and they wanted to vote out republicans. However, Republicans still won the election. Many of the European Americans have thought process that what is good for "african americans" is bad for them. They then ensured they came out and voted. (I know this sounds like a little stretch but start digging deep into european americans and this will come to the surface)

How, is this all relevant? You can make it all positive but then are you ready for the onslaught from the other side. The sad stories that everyone is giving or will be forced to give; don't have any merit to them and will hurt the process even more.

Two of the recent people who tried impeaching me, or going after my credibility; have shown their true colors. One of them came over from immigration voice and out of the blue starts posting nonsense. Reason could be that maybe people from these forums who are dual members were pointing to some of my postings of why some things may not be a good idea. He starts coming over and starts talking about my agenda when he had the real agenda.

Now; he shows his profile and was laid off and switched to a staffing company which saved his "a--" so he didn't have to leave. Note: I have saved many people like this myself; however, this is not the poster boy or stories you want as it will hurt you in that "immigration" is broken because a person in that situation should be forced to leave.

One thing that I personally don't like is when an actor/entertiner/athlete takes up some noble cause like breast cancer, or something similar. When you start digging in; you find that spouse was inflicted with breast cancer. It is easy to lobby when you have a vested interest in that you will get something out of it.

However; one has more credibility when one doesn't have a vested interest and is arguing why something is good idea.

So, in general, u seem to have formed ur "personal opinion" about someone like me, u have never seen me or worked with me or don't know me. U seem to be under the impression, that I am here along with a lot of people wrongfully. I guess, you are gifted with everything in life, knowledge, power, good family, money, great indespensible job, and unmotivated to look at the other side of the wall. While, I approve and agree with you that people take up a issue and lobby because they have vested interest, which I personally think, is not a "great cause". Someone, who is motivated to do a good thing without any vested interest(people like u who use your skills to help others) is definitely, "a hero". While u look at things from ur view, a lot of people "when it comes to survival" or their lives or health or well being, seem to be more motivated for a cause. Someone in Iraq, may be thankful to the US troops for ousting Saddam, but when the same person sees bombs falling in their neighborhood and thinks the next bomb may fall on him, he will either "flee" from the place, and look for his survival. At that time, he will not thank the troops for ousting Saddam, but will prey for his safety and will wish and hope that something good will happen soon.
 
techy2468 said:
UN....you are missing the point...

i am totally with you that the current EB immigration is not much broken....and people who are affected is only because of demand and supply....

but i am talking about spin.....covering all the negatives and hyping the positives.....

and with a ton of money.....we will have enough seasoned brains to analyze and plan for every anti-spin..

the problem is all these people are themselves believing in the spin as though its a fact.....things like...tax paying, law abiding yadi-yadi.....

The current EB system is definitely broken and everyone from the top scientist to small time programmer is having trouble. You really don't need a spin to counter this, just two forceful arguments are enough:
1) Retrogression leads to loss of talent.
2) It increases offshoring
 
hipka said:
The current EB system is definitely broken and everyone from the top scientist to small time programmer is having trouble.
Just because applicants from some country have to wait longer due to large number of applicants from that country, does not mean that system is broken.
Top Scientist usually apply in EB-1 and that is current.

You really don't need a spin to counter this, just two forceful arguments are enough:
1) Retrogression leads to loss of talent.
Not true. Most of the programmer jobs are just simple jobs, these positions do not require any extraordinary talent. Some people believe that they are highly talented and they should be given preference. Why are so called "highly talented" are in eb3?
2) It increases offshoring
Outsoucing is determined by corporate people, and based on 3 factors -- Low cost, Low cost and Low cost. Outsourcing is not related to retrogression.

Another point: Since H1 can be extended beyound 6 years (even if person is ead status), most of the people stay in USA no matter how much time it takes for GC.
 
unitednations said:
Now, you seem to have a cooler head and want to talk merits.

First, the longer retrogression takes or the longer it takes to get a greencard; the easier it is to fall out of status and negative things happening to people. This is probably number one reason why people want to get greencard so fast.

You have been actively posting the last couple of days but there was an absence for a long time. Therefore, you may not be able to keep the postings in the chronological order or in the context of the discussions happening. It is usually new threads but an extension of previous arguments/points.

I am quite aware of how people can run afoul of the rules and none of it is their fault. Every person I deal with has an immigration issue; it could be job loss, h-1b denial, 140 denial, marriage issues, perm issues, employer withholding money, bond payments, visa stamping, etc. Behind the scenes I actually guide/navigate people to get them back on track. I know the nervousness of people; they throw around the word "tension" and "torture" too easy to explain their plight.

However, that being said; you cannot use these reasons to change the system. It is not a humanitarian system, like refugess, political asylum, etc. It is employer system. It has nothing to do with your hardships. If you want to increase the cap due to hardships then you are setting yourself up for big failure.

Getting out hardship stories does not prove your point. It only proves the point of people who want to curb immigration.

I also think you are off base with my criticisms of staffing companies. Everyone of my clients is a staffing company and just about everyone I talk to works for one of them. I know their issues quite intimately. One thing I have found is everyone shoots themselves in the foot who work in this industry. I will explain.

Programmersguild listed top 100 lowest paying companies on h-1b. They got their information from LCA's. Some of those LCA's had $40,000. IT Consultants are very well paid. Unfortunately, companies on purpose show low amounts on LCA for legal purposes. Consultants would rather show their w2's at $60,000 even though they may be generating billings of between $100K to $250K. They take the excess out in per diems or have the employer save it for them for when they are on the bench.

Most of the consultants make very, very good money but it just doesn't show on paper. On paper it looks like consultants are depressing wages for everyone.

When it comes to outsourcing; cost is the main factor. When you are working through four layers; your cost may be $200,000 whereas if you were a ful time employee it may be $90K. It is argueable whether the IT consultants and the layers are making it too expensive and hence the need for outsourcing.

Once again; the humanitarian situation is real but should not be used as a reason to increase the quota.

What u say is totally accepted and true. In fact, when I was talking to my parents in India, recently, my dad was a green card holder in the 70s, in those days, EB3 green card was given at the port of entry, my dad was in US in early 70s, he is a Charterd Accountant (Just like u CPA), and has seen this system in those days. He returned to India in 2 years because he accepted a dream job. Acc to them, the system has never changed. There have been adjustments based on demand and supply. A lot of people I know, have customized jobs, that are tailored to their and their employer. Like say, people use EB green cards as a java programmer, but actually they will be in a bakery, or weighing tables or in pharmacy store. People who are less skilled and cannot sustain jobs stick to staffing firms, and blame the firms for not paying them bench salary. Staffing firms also, want to extract as much as possible from every possible worker and misuse the system.
As we see this side, there is also big firms that bring thousands on h1b, l1, b1 etc... if u look at the PG LCA database, most of these companies are not small staffing firms, they are huge MNCs, U can find a Siebel programmer for 40K. Most of these companies do not pay per deims or pay extra hours. These companies are structured in that way.
U can see startups filing for H1bs because startups find it difficult to find locals for the salary they are willing to pay and startup companies cannot affored people moving out of their job. They want to lockup employees for less salary and make them immobile. They do this for their survival.
If u dig deeper, u can see even big companies, processing visas and green cards through big law firms and in big law firms, not every client is treated carefully, they hire interns who screw up the paperwork. This is just one issue among various issues.
In general, every employer looks for himself or itself. While a "qualified EB seeker" can be actually be really qualified and definitely contribute to the economy, it takes time and skill and hard work to work through all this.
No process is straight forward and it takes a while get the best.

If you personally think, retrogression is a process to filter out the weak - I also agree with you in certain ways. Those who have ability to resist such changes survive. But if retrogression leads to good people moving out to other developing economies because of hardships a leave the garbage back, who safely manipulated and worked around, which has always been happening (look at the 7/11, pharmacies, groceries, motels etc....) and skilled people find it diffucult, then I think some amount of correctness must be there to retain the talent.

Quota increase is lobbied by employers and their lobby and people like IV support for being a pro immigration group. IV's main objective is to get as much relief as possible, such things have happened in past and will happen and to make people aware of skilled workers issues and to fix a logjam. It is just one set of people that collectively represents a group of serious immigrant workers.
 
So, these are the two points.
1. retrogression leads to good people leaving.
2. EB immigration intent is to get the best employees being available to the employers.
If retro is negatively affecting this intent, then some correction is required.
Techy this is your argument. So, need to find data to prove point#1. I do not think anyone will argue with point#2.
It is quite a daunting task to prove point#1 though. Opponents will claim all the "comforts" available to h1b workers:
-ability to change employers
-ability to extend beyond 6 years
-ability to use EAD if i-485 is in the system for 6 months., etc.



chanduv23 said:
If you personally think, retrogression is a process to filter out the weak - I also agree with you in certain ways. Those who have ability to resist such changes survive. But if retrogression leads to good people moving out to other developing economies because of hardships a leave the garbage back, who safely manipulated and worked around, which has always been happening (look at the 7/11, pharmacies, groceries, motels etc....) and skilled people find it diffucult, then I think some amount of correctness must be there to retain the talent.

Quota increase is lobbied by employers and their lobby and people like IV support for being a pro immigration group. IV's main objective is to get as much relief as possible, such things have happened in past and will happen and to make people aware of skilled workers issues and to fix a logjam. It is just one set of people that collectively represents a group of serious immigrant workers.
 
tusharvk said:
So, these are the two points.
1. retrogression leads to good people leaving.
2. EB immigration intent is to get the best employees being available to the employers.
If retro is negatively affecting this intent, then some correction is required.
Techy this is your argument. So, need to find data to prove point#1. I do not think anyone will argue with point#2.
It is quite a daunting task to prove point#1 though. Opponents will claim all the "comforts" available to h1b workers:
-ability to change employers
-ability to extend beyond 6 years
-ability to use EAD if i-485 is in the system for 6 months., etc.


In addition, decoupling of H1 + H4 time, and giving eligibility for h1bs who have not utilised their 6 year limit and have maintained proper statuses, shows positive approach. This encourages spouses to get into professional jobs that are competitive and go through the h1b process rather than getting into direct competition with locals for admin and non professional jobs.

The above is definitely an attempt to retain talent.

#1 is definitely not very easy to prove.
 
UN - This is one of your sentence

It should not be designed to circumvent family base immigration (that is instead of people sponsoring through family they go through employment to get people here faster).

Actually - the opposite of what you quote is more prevailant. A doctor who wants to get into the US, marries a US citizen so that he can enter US and continue his/her residency. For a lot of foreign doctors, residency seems to be dream of their life. If you look at some matrimonial sites, u can find US citizens posting "we are looking for a smart young doctor for my daughter , who is a US citizen" .

I will explain why this matters. My friend (childhood friend from India), always wanted to become a big doctor.After schooling he went to Russia for his medicine, and then he went to Carribean for higher studies and then worked there for a while and while he was doing that, he prepared extremely hard for USMLE and got good scores, he made couple of visits on B1 for CSA and step 3 and interviews and went through the rigorous intervieww process where people needing visas must prove themselves to be the best. Because of all his hard work dedication and effort, he managed to get into a residency program with a j1 sponsership. So he went back to India to spend tme with his family and then went to Chennai consulate for his J1 stamping. They verified all his documents and then rejected his visa claiming "X years in Russia + Y years in Carribean + frequent visits to US" gives an impression that he does not have any ties to his home country and J1 visa cannot be given to him. After all that effort, and after getting admission into a top Univ, he is rejected for a diffrent reason. He goes to all immigration websites, approaches all consultants etc... no one can help him on this. He decides to go to the matrimonial websites. He finds a bride who is actively looking for a doctor from his community. Their parents talk to each other and they arrange to meet and decide to get married. He is now married and is here and is now not even competing wirth any more h1bs or does not have subject to cap or any visa issues or anything of that sort, he is looking into going to even better school because he is considered a local.

The reason I brought this up because, if the system was actually built to bring in the best, without competing with locals (which is the intent), in reality, it puts the talented directly into competition with locals. If he was offered a j1, he wont have competed with a local, and at the end of residency, he would have looked for a waiver job where he goes to places where others dont go ( which is an actual intent).

While I am happy for my friend that he can now get residency in the best of best without going through crap of h1 or j1 or all the crap and depression, he also got married and will soon become a father, I am looking at how the system works. While the system made him walk on a tight rope and though he did what he possibly could, he was finally let down by the system. The same person now gets something better though.

While seeking residency through marriage seems to be common pattern, this puts foreign doctors (who may be smart or not) into the system directly without going through the competition whereas you find very few talented people come in through a stringent process and are subjected to extreme hardships and uncertainity.

Any comments???
 
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unitednations said:
I think the most valid argument is that by increasing the quota "nothing changes". That is there is no negative to the economy. Someone needs to research how the asylees got the cap lifted. Before it was 10,000 greencards per year. However, they were granted asylum and could stay/work here but had to wait for the numbers to eventually get the greencard. They probably used the "nothing changes" by increasng the limits.

I haven't looked at the statistics in a while but other then Nurses, everyone else being sponsored is in USA and working. The only thing that changes is there is an add to the workforce for "non working dependents". However, if they change to increase the quota; we have to show how there is no "harm". The "no harm" would be in curbing people from applying for adjustment of status who are not in dual intent visa. That is no B-1, B-2, F-1, etc. They would have to go consular processing. If they increase the quota or allow everyone to file 485's then it just adds too much to the system and to the workforce.

From an employer's perspective, when he cannot fill his position with a deserving candidate because the candidate is subject to cap, the employer is going to lobby for increase in quota. While employers do not understand that caps numbers get depleted because of customized h1b filings by staffing firms, employers find it difficult to fill position where an available candidate is willing to work for 2 to 3 times the rate as a contractor so that staffing companies make money. Most of the employers hire candidates on a contract positions from staffing companies and after 3 to 6 months offer them to join fulltime because the employer's original intent was to seek a qualified candidate to fill the job whereas the candidate was available as a h1b contractor from the staffing company. Universities, employers etc.. fight for increade in quota and to remove cap only for free flow of talented individuals. This is a fact and is the main reason behind employer lobby. Staffing companies also form an integral part of the system where they bring in people by customized filings. These days, staffing companies are expanding too. A lot of consultants these staffing firms send to clients are performing well and the client feels this "individual" can take more work to his company and handle all that work. Thats how staffing companies are able to expand their business into software development companies with inhouse development and also start putting money into products in their specialisation so that they look as a product company and not consulting. These are how businesses developed. The system creates these situations. While big employers work around the system by hiring h1b workers as contractors and eventually transferring these employees into their own, small companies may not be able to afford the overhead costs of hiring h1b workers for a premium from staffing firms. This in turn forces small companies to hire few h1bs, and outsource most of the work.

All the above effects the quota which was otherwise supposed to be used for people from different professions, is being depleted by staffing companies who have the ability to prefile h1bs.

Don't u think this process is to be streamlined????

One more pattern I have seen is, a less qualified foreign student gets into a medeocre F1 Grad program without GRE or with just minimal effort (there are tons of people coming like this) these people complete their Master's with minimal competition and effort, and join staffing companies on OPT and get h1b filed exactly in time to maintain status and continues on contract jobs. While a well qualified student may go through trouble with quota depletion etc.....

Once again don't u think everything has a connection???? Quota increase, quota depletion, outsoucing, change in immigration policy, talent not being retained, talent not distributed, intent of employment based system, implementation mechanisms ????????

While it is proven that the best of the best systems has never been perfect, don't u think that every system must be looked into for improvements and changes and immigration system must definitely change for the betterment?
 
unitednations said:
I meant, people circumventing family base which are subject to quota.

Husband with greencard getting wife on h-1b

Father, mother here with greencard and getting kids on h-1b

US citizen brother getting siblings on h-1b.

All of the above situations can get people here through employment because it was faster. They don't even need to be here they can go through consular route.

I'll give you an example of a recent discussion I had:

Person who got greencard through religious worker. His brother has died in India. He is to marry his brothers wife who has a 25 year old son who is married and drives a taxi back in india.

Action plan was to get new spouse to usa; get citizenship for her and then sponsor son. However, this is complicated and could take 10+ years.

Finally settled on finding some restaurant who will sponsor perm, 140, etc. as specialty cook. Although it could still take many years; if there is relief person could be here in a couple of years. A lot of this goes on and slows down the process. Because of comingling of these types of cases with "EB" in general, it gives credence to gaming the system.

You would be surprised at how much of this happens. That's why I believe there should be some more enforcement which would satisfy the "extrememe right" in getting quota increased.

well before the issue of immigration came to limelight, these things were prevailing, for those who know how to get here, used to get here in one of the above ways. Thats how every visa kind has been utilized in the past. There was no concept of visa depletion or not much competition or job losses to look into these seriously and when people used to come in small numbers, any visa kind used to be a good way to come. There was no concept of showing w2 and paystubs and the consulates or visa offices used to rely on documentation.
Things have changed now. As I always get stamping in Chennai, I will describe what I see. A beneficiary of age 45 approaches the CO and presents his papers, his h1b is filed by a staffing company and filed as Java BO programmer. Consulate officer asks Java questions (basic), person is unable to answer. He is subject to AAO, 214b. Another person goes to the VO, staffing company, says client is "xxxxx xxxxx", VO thinks this person is not saying the truth and gives 221g. Another person goes to VO, is from IIT, worked for known companies, has been in b1 before and seems to have a good profile, but h1b through a staffing company, VO does not think he must get 214b or 221g, VO asks if he is aware of the company, he says "yes". VO says if the company creates any payment issues, contact DOL and gives visa. Though VO feels, he is not having a job in store for him, VO feels he wont be benched for long. I have not seen anyone in Chennai who come for revalidation without w2 and paystub. Due to the bulk Chennai handles, as 75% IT companies are from South India and go to Chennai, situation is a bit different there from other places. Some VOs have been extremely harsh, some are mild and some are tough/easy on a random basis.

So from the above, it all says that, though consulate is aware that a staffing company does not have job in hand first time, visa is given to folks who the VO thinks will be a good fit. When 221gs are issued, it is just a delay process, and visa is given after few weeks.

Thats why staffing companies try to fill up candidates from Grad schools in OPT and then sponser h1b in coming year quota. This is "official bench" for the staffing companies.
 
Back to core discussion

While we talk about negatives of immiogrants, I would like to shift further from our conversation and ask folks here, if many feel that the current politicians have not given enough focus on immigration, like techy's first post says.

Personally I feel, that the current administration has not given much focus on a lot of core issues. Like Global warming - today is the warmest Christmas in New York.

Is it really necessary for a country like the United States to have environmental lobbyists, immigration lobbyists, lobbyists fighting hard for some genuine cause raising funds from hard working, law abiding folks??? And most of the causes are ignored?

Has enough been done to fix a broken border? Why did the administration ignore the fact that there are 20 million illegal immigrants?? Now that crackdown is going on and is funded, do you all think it is effective ??? Who will do all the janitorial jobs and the oddest of jobs where American citizens won't do?
 
Desi

I understand you already received GC is that right? Maybe it was in EB-1 extra extra extrordinary case.

You seem to have a lot of grudge on EB-3 applicants or for that matter people working as "consultants". Can you explain why?


 
Thoughts

I think majority of the US think-tank understand the importance of retaining talent within US. Also, the latest changes that are being attempted within the immigration system is to bring in consistency (bi-specialization of service centers) and efficiency (PERM and I-140 premium). It is just a matter of time when we will start seeing the benefits of the changes.

There are 'bad apples' in the system, as is with any system. The challenge lies in eliminating those. There are ways to go around a system - I am sure that USCIS and the DOL are well aware of the loop-holes and are working towards correcting them.

I agree with UN that bringing up 'humanitarian' stories to the lime-light will hamper the chances of truly deserving applicants by possibly slowing things down but at the same time, leaving it under the carpet would not make any sense from the long-term perspective.

My personal thinking is - It is possible to correct the system and make the GC process faster simulaneously. And I am sure that is what the US immigration system is attempting behind the scenes, as we share our thoughts on this forum.
 
desi3933 said:
Originally Posted by hipka
The current EB system is definitely broken and everyone from the top scientist to small time programmer is having trouble.
Just because applicants from some country have to wait longer due to large number of applicants from that country, does not mean that system is broken.
Top Scientist usually apply in EB-1 and that is current.
You really don't need a spin to counter this, just two forceful arguments are enough:
1) Retrogression leads to loss of talent.
Not true. Most of the programmer jobs are just simple jobs, these positions do not require any extraordinary talent. Some people believe that they are highly talented and they should be given preference. Why are so called "highly talented" are in eb3?
2) It increases offshoring
Outsoucing is determined by corporate people, and based on 3 factors -- Low cost, Low cost and Low cost. Outsourcing is not related to retrogression.

Another point: Since H1 can be extended beyound 6 years (even if person is ead status), most of the people stay in USA no matter how much time it takes for GC.
Check out the other thread for arguments. Can't keep repeating to everyone who raises the same issues
 
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