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My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

software.rajivprab.com

21–30 of 404 posts

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#21
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that?

The US government is supposed to first and foremost take care of US citizens, not just allow them to be pushed out of jobs because corporations would rather import cheap labor.

Yes but these people and their children could also be US citizens why should they not be prioritized?

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#22
post #20

US immigration is in the biggest crisis in decades - between rhetoric & admin burden from Trump, covid, and ossified bureaucracy, it is the worst time in history for a tech worker to migrate to the US. Each time a developer works for the US from abroad, the US economy loses up to 50% o salaries in taxes for gov funding, and up to 80% of the reminder in spending within the economy. An argentine developer making 150k f…

Doesn't the US have tax agreements with most countries? You still have to pay tax on US income.

Not if the employee is hired from a proxy company in the target country.

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#23
post #20

US immigration is in the biggest crisis in decades - between rhetoric & admin burden from Trump, covid, and ossified bureaucracy, it is the worst time in history for a tech worker to migrate to the US. Each time a developer works for the US from abroad, the US economy loses up to 50% o salaries in taxes for gov funding, and up to 80% of the reminder in spending within the economy. An argentine developer making 150k f…

Doesn't the US have tax agreements with most countries? You still have to pay tax on US income.

It's not US income if you don't live in the US. You pay income tax based on where you live, not where you employer lives

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#24
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that?

The US government is supposed to first and foremost take care of US citizens, not just allow them to be pushed out of jobs because corporations would rather import cheap labor.

I agree with that.

Do you agree that should be weighted by the need of the country to remain competitive, say in the hypothetically scenario where we came to the conclusion that the average american is lazy, and that that's the core reason why immigrants replace them?

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#25
The interesting part here is he finally got his green card after 18 years only because he married an Australian citizen and wasn’t blocked by the county quota anymore.

Imagine how frustrating it must be being qualified, living in the country for decades and still blocked from residency all because you were born somewhere, it’s something you have no control over

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#26
post #12
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's a demand for certain roles, which clearly seems to be the case, what difference does it make where the people filling those roles comes from?

I'll flip your question on its head: why are the people filling these roles so heavily skewed to one country?

Let me flip your question too: why do you think it matters?

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#27
post #5

Indians account for 73.9 percent out of the total number of H1B visa holders in the USA. Now i wouldn't want anyone to be discriminated but still it makes sense to limit green card based on nationality

Why though? If Google is hiring an engineer, it doesn't make a distinction and does so purely on skill. Why should it matter if said engineer is from Argentina (arbitrary example) instead of India?

The US issues roughly 1 million green cards each year. 86% of those go to family based immigration. The rest 14% are for employment based immigration. Even in there the dependents (spouse + kids) are counted against that quota. So net effect is close to 5% employment based immigration if we count only primary applicants. What purpose is discrimination by country of birth serving here?

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#28
post #4

I think it's really eye opening to me that he still only got a green card so far after 18 years. He's been going thru immigration hoops in the US for as long as it would take to raise an adult.

20 years here and no GC yet. The immigration system is a disaster. Upwards of$2 million in taxes to still be treated as a temporary worker.

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#29
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that?

The US government is supposed to first and foremost take care of US citizens, not just allow them to be pushed out of jobs because corporations would rather import cheap labor.

I agree with your first statement. I've never felt threatened by imported cheap labor in my role though. I think our immigration laws should protect US citizens but what they seem to be doing is allowing companies to hire people for cheap but not giving a very good path for those people to become US citizens even though they're contributing to US companies and the US economy as a whole.

If you're worried about losing your job to cheap labor that's an issue with our immigration system not a problem with immigration in general. You should be asking yourself why companies are allowed to pay non-US citizens less for the same jobs we're doing.

Re: My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

#30
post #12
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's a demand for certain roles, which clearly seems to be the case, what difference does it make where the people filling those roles comes from?

I'll flip your question on its head: why are the people filling these roles so heavily skewed to one country?

It's a combination of factors

1. India is poor but not too poor

2. It has a huge population

3. A lot of upper class Indians already have family in the US

Of course, it is not clear why any of this should matter. Why should it be capped by country (as opposed to continent, zipcode or planet?)

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