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My journey through the American immigration system as a computer engineer

software.rajivprab.com

121–130 of 404 posts

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

#121
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, this tired talking point. In the tech labor market (as per the post) the labor simply isn't available. We don't generally see American software engineers languishing and unable to find jobs. I guarantee that the like of Microsystems, Google, and Amazon were not paying the poster a pittance.

Not sure who you hang out with, but black, hispanic, and latino US citizens have a very hard time getting jobs despite having software engineering degrees. They end up in GS-5 equivalent military tech "careers" or crappy geek squad jobs.

If you have friends in each of these categories who are skilled, I’ll interview them. Job is onsite in San Francisco. Interview is leetcode style plus software design.

Since it isn’t based primarily on past experience, it won’t matter that they haven’t had opportunity if they do have the skills.

I’m in HFT. Only hire people I’d consider capable and I’m comfortable with our interview process. If they knock the interview off the hook they’ll be in. Let me know.

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

#122
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And yet if you had $500k or $1M as a lump sum years ago, you could simply have bought your way into the US with an EB-5. $900k or $1.8M now: https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...

It got changed to $800K minimum in March 2022.

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

#123
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>>>> Let me flip your question too: why do you think it matters? Sure, it matters because there are tens of millions of black, hispanic, and latino US citizens -- numerous with CS/STEM degrees -- who cannot get into FAANGs. Many end up in retail or as best buy tech squad reps or tmobile store salespersons. Yet we're told that someone from a foreign country is a better candidate for these FAANG jobs. In my experience,…

Surely there must be something the profit driven FAANG companies are seeing that they prefer hiring broken English speaking Indians over American hispanics/blacks with tech degrees?

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

#124

That's why the real hack is to live in Canada and work remotely for an American company.

I have a pro-cons list about immigrating to Canada. Why Canada ? - Getting a masters level education is much cheaper. - Immigration has less hoops to jump through. Specially if you are willing to live in the Atlantic side. - Great government and social benefits - I heard people are generally nicer. Why not Canada - - TAXES! TAXES! TAXES! - Canada is essentially the money laundering heaven [0] of North America. So buy…

> - If you want to earn big bucks you have to open an LLC and start contracting, which I believe requires a Canadian citizenship. I don't think you can open an LLC with a PR. Doing contract or remote work often requires an LLC

I'm a citizen, but I work as a contractor without having to do anything to create a legal entity. I'm considered self-employed, and a de facto business of one.

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

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You keep claiming the system is “at capacity” with no evidence, and the psychological trauma it inflicts as inevitable. How does it strain the system differently to process an Indian applicant than an Australian one?

I went through the same process as this man, so I am speaking from experience. The actual impact to my life was negligible, as all of the actual work was done by immigration lawyers. The only thing I had to do was submitting some info to the attorneys, a biometrics appointment and a short interview. And paying fees, and presenting a vaccination record. And the system is at capacity because there are long waiting time…

Seems like a nonsensical system. I could then say “considering how saturated the system is, I see a working system” about an immigration system that has exactly one immigration agent working exactly once every 3 decades. That system would also be “working”. Which makes what you’re saying rather comedic.

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

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Benefit is greater diversity. Rather than have majority of immigrants from hugely populated countries like China or India, immigrants are more evenly distributed from all around the world. The system obviously has big downsides to individuals from India/China. If it can be proved to US citizens that it’s in their interests to get rid of the cap, I think it will be gone.

Diversity can be preserved for 86% of the green card quota. Why does need to be there for the other 14%? Already this is forcing companies to make investments in offshore centers as it is difficult to hire here. There is enough proof this is bad for Americans but the current political climate makes any change impossible.

Doesn't the country cap also apply for family sponsored greencards?

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

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a pro-cons list about immigrating to Canada. Why Canada ? - Getting a masters level education is much cheaper. - Immigration has less hoops to jump through. Specially if you are willing to live in the Atlantic side. - Great government and social benefits - I heard people are generally nicer. Why not Canada - - TAXES! TAXES! TAXES! - Canada is essentially the money laundering heaven [0] of North America. So buy…

> - If you want to earn big bucks you have to open an LLC and start contracting, which I believe requires a Canadian citizenship. I don't think you can open an LLC with a PR. Doing contract or remote work often requires an LLC I'm a citizen, but I work as a contractor without having to do anything to create a legal entity. I'm considered self-employed, and a de facto business of one.

Can you give me a bit more info or tell what to google? Like taxes, accounting and stuff? I am trying to do something like that for a while.

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

#128
Emma Lazarus posted a poem in 1903 and now the US has to bend over backwards to make everyone a citizen. The amount of people I hear living or working in the US that explain away bureaucracy as racist/xenophobic/etc while hailing from countries that literally won't allow you to become a citizen unless your genetic parents are from there is insane. It's obviously not a monolith of people but it does become tiresome hearing about how the US is a byzantine of immigration as if there is some obligation for US citizens to adopt every nation while the other side of the mouth explains how racist the US is and all the while the nations large swaths of immigrants are coming from won't let US citizens hold their passport unless they are multimillionaire investors.

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

#129
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

My theory: green cards only go to christian nations

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

#130
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?

Most of the people who are interested in moving to the US, as expat workers, are mostly from India. Let's break this down piece by piece:

1. Canadians have TN visas, so they prefer to use that since there is no lottery for that and it's a simple process of taking your offer letter and have CBP stamp a 3-year TN visa. Even though it is not dual intent, people can and do apply for green cards on TN status since for Canadians the wait times are current and they can get a green card before they need to renew their TN visa.

2. Australians have E-3, so that is what they will use.

3. The Chinese use H1B's but the numbers have dropped as more Chinese prefer to stay in China or return there after their foreign education since a lot of big Chinese tech companies have sprung up.

4. Europeans either do not want to move to the US, they sometimes don't try to have a prospective employer sponsor for H1b visas since a lot of them seem to believe that Indians have a monopoly on those visas.

You're left with mostly Indians, most of who study STEM subjects in college, overwhelmingly come to the US for studies and then hop on to work visas post-graduation. Most of the highest paying tech employers in India are American companies even then many Indians still want to move to the US since there are still a lot of socio-political and quality of life issues in India.

Take all these points and that's how so many H1B's go to Indians.

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