I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed • Hacker News Board

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

#551

Post by semigroupoid » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 10:07 AM UTC

cosmolev wrote: post #270

semigroupoid wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU citizens have the right to move to and work in any country within the EU. See here: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=457

Switzerland is not in EU.

I thought he meant France. Anyway, the correct link to the Swiss page was already posted.

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

#552

Post by mikekchar » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 10:27 AM UTC

brady8 wrote: post #425

mikekchar wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here in Canada we have a much more open immigration policy "Much more open" is a relative term, I suppose. I am a Canadian citizen, born in Canada with all my family (save my wife) living in Canada. I live in Japan with my wife who is Japanese. A few years ago my wife wanted to move to an English speaking country so that she could improve her English and live abroad. I'll just be plain. It was easier for me to get…

I'm a Canadian citizen who just finished the process of sponsoring my Australian wife for permanent residency in Canada. What you've written isn't true unless there's some extenuating circumstances you're not disclosing. My wife was automatically eligible for PR, and in fact it was much easier than the reciprocal process (me applying for PR in Australia). It took about $2000 all up, and took about 8 months in total.…

Seriously??? My friend's wife even had to go back to the US to give birth because she couldn't get health care! I wonder if it has changed. That would be great news!

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

#553

Post by mikekchar » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 10:29 AM UTC

linkregister wrote: post #384

mikekchar wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here in Canada we have a much more open immigration policy "Much more open" is a relative term, I suppose. I am a Canadian citizen, born in Canada with all my family (save my wife) living in Canada. I live in Japan with my wife who is Japanese. A few years ago my wife wanted to move to an English speaking country so that she could improve her English and live abroad. I'll just be plain. It was easier for me to get…

Is there a reason why you are not eligible to sponsor your wife for an immigrant visa? In most Anglo countries, you'd have to wait for its approval (about 6-9 months) before your wife moved to that country. Is that what you're trying to avoid? http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse.asp

Aha! I should have checked. They have improved things. This came into place in 2014. I checked in 2012. Serves me right for not checking!

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

#554

Post by lagadu » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 10:30 AM UTC

speeder wrote: post #420

yellowapple wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Can I go with the three of you? I am from Brazil and want to go anywhere but here (or countries like here...) I even did some interviews for companies in Amsterdan but they didn't went well :(

I suspect the easiest way for you would be to get a job in Portugal. Once that's done live/work there for 6 years for the naturalization. At that point you can just use your Portuguese ID card to live and work anywhere within the EEA; visas, immigration laws and work permits will never be a concern again.

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

#555

Post by smil » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 10:38 AM UTC

bruceb wrote: post #471

SFjulie1 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually YOUR racist nation (that genocides the first nations) is bankrupting other countries: - brain drains is stilling public investment in education from other developed countries - cheap labor force that have kids is a transfer of the capacity to pay retirements in other countries to pay yours ... Actual immigrations are a pure theft that benefits only the wealthiests, local and immigrants alike. Immigration pro…

Our racist nation that has president who the son of an Kenyan, has present and fmr state govs that were born to immigrant parents, the head of one of the largest tech companies is from India. What other nations have this? very few. We have some shameful history no doubt but keep it in context to other nations. With your reasoning it is good the author can't get a visa and may return his brain to New Zealand.

Your president's ideology is American Exceptionalism which he uses to give grounds for the murder, rape and torture of all non-Americans, and daily acts of terrorism and genocide in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Pakistan. American Exceptionalists are racist regardless of the color of their skin.

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

#556

Post by temujin » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 10:44 AM UTC

ericdschmidt wrote: post #493

"I have two Ivy League degrees. And I am on the verge of deportation." So you obviously deserve to come here, while the people living on $1 a day in extreme poverty and under oppressive regimes, they should be kept out? No, you didn't say all that, but I'm passionate about the cause of open borders ( http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/08/the_efficient_e.... , http://www.openborders.info ), and I can tell you a…

The efficient, egalitarian solution to poverty is improvement of the home countries, not open borders. This is most obvious for China; that country has so many people that if one attempted to "solve Chinese poverty" via brute force importation of their people, the entire First World would have flipped to a Chinese majority. Instead, Chinese poverty is being solved more than an order of magnitude more efficiently and less disruptively--this is a thing that is actually happening, not spherical-cow theorizing--via trade, technology transfer, and related methods.

Open borders may still have merit (I'd certainly value the additional convenience), but your argument for it is obviously wrong.

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

#557

Post by rusabd » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 11:11 AM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #254

Jugurtha wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sound logic, but it is not an automatically enforced one. Take waste collectors, for example: Very few people want to do it, very few people actually do it. And it is necessary. By our sound logic, their salaries should be soaring, but they're not. On the other hand, take lawyers in the U.S. A huge number of people want to do it. A huge number of people ends up doing it (I think the number of lawyers tripled in 30 ye…

Interestingly waste collectors (garbos in Aussie slang) are well paid and it is quite a desirable job. They are also the hardest working government employees you see as they are given a route and when they have finished they can go home. Amazing how government can work when the structure is right.

and they are quite efficient - I compare garbage collection here in Seattle to Adelaide and in Australia it's only one person per truck doing most of the work without leaving a cabin.

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

#558

Post by blinkingled » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 12:18 PM UTC

qqg3 wrote: post #549

blinkingled wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The H1-B=>GC route to immigration does require a degree - 4 yr one is preferred but in some cases 3yr + ton of experience gets you buy. It's not guaranteed though.

Where I'm from pretty much all degrees are 3 years? Does that mean you need some form of post-grad (Masters?) on top?

Depends on the evaluation of your degree - if the degree is job relevant and evaluates to a 4yr equivalent then you might get through.

Where I come from most candidates have 4 year degrees and the ones with 3 years generally have trouble if it is not directly job related and if they don't have sufficient job experience to make up.

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

#559

Post by crusso » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 12:37 PM UTC

pvaldes wrote: post #303

crusso wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

assuming the culture of the host country is respected That's a huge and unfounded assumption, though.

Culture can not be respected in fact. Even if people wish to do so. The problem is that the thing is a moving target. When a lot of still alive people where born 'culture' was: ' a black woman was not supossed to sit in the best places of a bus ', ' the children roam free with their friends and dogs and can go everywhere ' and ' Is acceptable if I slap my wife in the face sometimes because I feel frustrated for the w…

That's cherry picking. I'm talking about cultural basics like learning the country's history, learning the laws and the Constitution, free market capitalism, etc.

Just having an immigration system that is followed legally would be a lesson in culture that we've currently abandoned for political purposes.

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

#560

Post by ashley » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 12:41 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #80

shas3 wrote: post #68

The US legal immigration system is perfectly described by the adjective, Kafkaesque. In terms of the arbitrariness of bureaucracy, it has more in common with what I saw in the socialist days of India and what one reads in books by Solzhenitsyn and Kafka. The iniquities have been discussed repeatedly in popular press, with almost no changes wrought in the process. Many years ago (yes, 2011 was 4 years ago) Newsweek ra…

Part of the problem with improving the system is that there's simply no incentive. Immigration reform almost entirely centers on managing undocumented/illegal immigrants. Law Makers don't have to listen to petitions from people outside of the country let alone their own jurisdictions. The other part is that people who've suffered through the process don't turn around and try to fix it, I remember when my wife was goi…

Part of the problem is identifying the actual abusers of the visa-system applicable to skilled workers, i.e. what makes someone "skilled" with "specialized knowledge". The public debate in elections may make the biggest noise about undocumented immigrants, but there is behind-the-scenes discussion about the H1-B and L-1 system. This August, the USCIS will announce its decision on expanding the L-1 definition of "specialized knowledge". The L-1 class, the lesser-known brother of the H1-B, is a 3-year non-immigrant visa that is extendable for up to 5 years (7 years for the L-1A) and can be reissued if the employee in question leaves the US and works for the sponsoring company for another year. People are eligible to apply for the L-1 if they have worked for a US company abroad or will be opening and running US-branch office for a foreign company (other cases apply, just not available off the top of my head. The L-1A is for execs and managers, the L1-B for specialized knowledge workers). No degree or education requirement is necessary for the L-1B by the way. No quota either, like with the H-1B. About a third of applications are rejected though, biased towards India. Abusers of the H1-B and L-1 system are the blue-chip, non-tech companies who use out-sourcing IT companies like Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro to cut costs in their tech departments. Talking about immigration reform is not so much about lack of incentive as it is about the emotions arising from the stories of Disney IT workers being fired and having to retrain their H1-B replacements who are getting paid lower wages. Another aspect not discussed is whether expanding the H1-B system perpetuates ageism in the Valley -- why not push out older workers at the expense of getting fresh foreign grads? No large change can happen when fear is present.