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I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

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Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#361

Post by simplexion »

thiagoperes wrote: post #349
diego_moita wrote: post #272

Disclaimer: I am a Canadian permanent resident. > I like it here. This is the real problem, you have a severe case of non-reciprocal love. In that case the answer is obvious: move over, find another love, come to Canada or go to Northern Europe. U.S. immigration is an American problem,since they are the ones loosing talent and entrepreneurial people. It is not an immigrant's problem, since they don't have the powers…

That's exactly what I did. I spent a lot of time and money on immigration lawyers trying to find a way to immigrate to the U.S. only because I don't have a degree. After years of trying without any success I started looking into other options, only to find that it's significantly easier to immigrate into other countries (like Canada). Two months ago I got an offer from a Dutch company (even with them knowing about my…

Can I come to Netherlands with you? I am sick of Australia and I enjoy riding bicycles.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#362

Post by danielweber »

Daishiman wrote: post #307
danielweber wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason people want to move to the US is the US's culture. The people share a wide agreement for rule of law, want to resolve issues through the political process, can usually be shamed into supporting freedom of speech, and don't want to kill their neighbors for having the wrong religion. It's not something magical about the soil that makes people want to move to the US. It's the culture. The more people that can…

> The reason people want to move to the US is the US's culture. No dude, it's the money. I have at least a dozen friends who are on H1Bs working in SV for different large software companies. They're either going there because that's where the best-paying jobs are or they're staying for just a couple of years to save some money.

It's the culture than enables the money.

If you were to beam all the Americans into space and them beam all the Mexicans into their place, they wouldn't magically achieve US levels of income just because of their physical location.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#363

Post by sampo »

spiralpolitik wrote: post #306
peterayemi wrote: post #228

This strikes too close to home. I am packing my bags and heading out soon too. I have spent 5 years here and have a masters in computer science from a top ranked school. The H1B visa is essentially a lottery which locks out talent from American companies. I failed to get a visa through the lottery process and I have to head back home too.

The H1B is now primarily used by outsourcing companies to move jobs overseas. Previously 15 years ago it was largely used to bring talent to the US not to take the jobs outside. Changing the H1B so it a) it cannot be used to transfer jobs outside of the US and b) provides a path that after the first 3 years the employee can apply for a green card without sponsorship. Both those things would largely solve a lot of the…

> The H1B is now primarily used by outsourcing companies to move jobs overseas.

How do they do that?

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#364

Post by aikah »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #360
kingmanaz wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nation exists to serve the will of /its people/. With rampant illegal and legal immigration, a nation cannot know who /its people/ are. A nation serving no one people is a nation serving no one, it instead arbitrates in favor of whichever group screams the loudest. Diversity leads to division. Division leads to divestment. Divestment leads to dissolution and war. America is more than a place to make money, it is mo…

America hasn't bankrupted itself "raising the children of others". America has accepted others into its family, and grown stronger and wealthier because of it. Thomas Paine: immigrant Andrew Carnegie: immigrant Nikola Tesla: immigrant Igor Sikorsky: immigrant Albert Einstein: immigrant Cary Grant: immigrant William Shockley (co-inventor of the transistor): immigrant Wernher Von Braun: immigrant Eddie Van Halen: immig…

And you forgot the 19 9/11 hijackers who killed more than 3000 Americans : immigrants .

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#365

Post by bane »

lutorm wrote: post #240
bane wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you see, that's it. Those are the options. Option #4: treat people who want to immigrate with decency, isn't available. I think it's fair to complain that this option doesn't exist, I'd like it to exist. But it doesn't and options #1-3 are what the author had to work within, yet chose not to pursue any of them. If he still wants to get in, once he's back in New Zealand, he's free to continue pursuing permanent re…

It seems you're contradicting yourself. You say "I think it's fair to complain that this option doesn't exist, I'd like it to exist." But then you go on to disparage the author for doing just that. You can't simultaneously say that it's fair to complain and argue that people are "just complaining". Or is it only fair for people not affected by these laws, who have no incentive to complain, to do so?

It's fair to complain that a better option doesn't exist. It's not fair to take no action given the existing options and then complain the system was unfair and against you.

The author had choices available, but chose not to avail himself of any of them, then wants sympathy for not pursuing. Immigration was simply not as important to him as other things, and those are the choices he made. I don't feel any particular sympathy for him having to suffer from the consequence of those choices.

I wish he had better options available to him, but he didn't, so he didn't even bother trying.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#366

Post by sampo »

sampo wrote: post #363
spiralpolitik wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The H1B is now primarily used by outsourcing companies to move jobs overseas. Previously 15 years ago it was largely used to bring talent to the US not to take the jobs outside. Changing the H1B so it a) it cannot be used to transfer jobs outside of the US and b) provides a path that after the first 3 years the employee can apply for a green card without sponsorship. Both those things would largely solve a lot of the…

> The H1B is now primarily used by outsourcing companies to move jobs overseas. How do they do that?

Ok, maybe this is the mechanics:

"some of the most active users of visas for visiting workers are Indian outsourcing firms, which appear to be training workers in the U.S. and then sending them home"

http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/02/outs...

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#367

Post by yellowapple »

simplexion wrote: post #361
thiagoperes wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly what I did. I spent a lot of time and money on immigration lawyers trying to find a way to immigrate to the U.S. only because I don't have a degree. After years of trying without any success I started looking into other options, only to find that it's significantly easier to immigrate into other countries (like Canada). Two months ago I got an offer from a Dutch company (even with them knowing about my…

Can I come to Netherlands with you? I am sick of Australia and I enjoy riding bicycles.

Can I come to the Netherlands with the two of you? I am sick of America and I also enjoy riding bicycles.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#368

Post by jpatokal »

adenot wrote: post #345
smutticus wrote: post #265

As an American who immigrated to The Netherlands I would like to know of this mythical country in the world with a working immigration system. AFAICT they're all rather broken. US immigration might be broken in different ways than some other countries, but from the many stories I've heard of friends moving all over the world, they all pretty much suck.

Australia. I got my PR (green card equivalent) after working 3 years and applying for citizenship now (5 years since I arrived here). Spent less than AUD 10k total for immigration, including my partner visas. Processing times are reasonable and very transparent. It's not a perfect system but way better than most countries.

I'll admit it's less broken than most places, but it's still pretty nuts at times: http://gyrovague.com/2012/08/10/notarizing-your-fingerprints...

Singapore used to be ridiculously awesome (work visa approvals usually processed in under 24 hours), but they've really tightened the screws in the last few years, particularly on granting permanent residence, due to political reasons.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#369

Post by sampo »

pkaye wrote: post #41

Is it much easier in the EU? For example, can I go to Switzerland or France and easily get permanent residency?

> Is it much easier in the EU?

You still need a job offer to first enter the country, but changing jobs will involve less bureaucracy than in the USA, and after having been employed in the country for 5-10 years, and speaking a local language, you can apply for permanent residency or citizenship yourself, so the hassle of needing you employer to do it for you, does not exist.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#370

Post by yellowapple »

tlb wrote: post #44
murbard2 wrote: post #12

I personally consider that opening borders is a moral imperative, but I understand why it is controversial. I understand that the arguments against "letting everyone in" have some merit, though I ultimately disagree with them. What is a real head scratcher to me is the US policy on highly-skilled immigrants. There are certainly some political constituencies in favor of those, but I can't think of anyone against, at l…

There's no strong lobby against more high-skilled immigration. But as sometimes happens in US politics, the uncontroversial reform is held hostage to the controversial one. In particular, lobbying groups for and against having an official status for the millions of currently undocumented Mexicans in the US have opposed any immigration bill that doesn't include what they want. Lawmaking does not allow cherry-picking b…

> Lawmaking does not allow cherry-picking bugfixes.

It ought to.

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