4 ms·

This is my 10th year of employment in Bay area and by any reasonable estimates, I am not laying eyes on my Green Card for another half a decade. And no, i am no

This is my 10th year of employment in Bay area and by any reasonable estimates, I am not laying eyes on my Green Card for another half a decade. And no, i am not in the "slow lane". Makes me wonder if employers are lobbying Washington hard for things to be this complicated.

dominotw 11y ago
>employers are lobbying Washington hard for things to be this complicated. There is nothing complicated about the process itself. You just happen to be from India/China.
- hebdo 11y ago
  I'm quite sure that by writing "I'm not in the slow lane" he/she meant exactly that he/she is not from India or China.
  - dominotw 11y ago
    wrong. There are many "lanes" ( eb1, eb2,..) with different speeds even for people from India/China.
    - hebdo 11y ago
      Didn't know that, thanks for the information. I was rejected in the H1B random lottery step (sigh) after getting an offer from a grown startup in SF, and did not investigate the green card process deep enough.
      - dominotw 11y ago
        > I was rejected in the H1B random lottery step (sigh) after getting an offer from a grown startup in SF, Ah, sorry about that mate. The process is fucked up.
    - eitally 11y ago
      The irony is that for a lot of Indians/Chinese here, they could either wait 6-8 years, or they could leave the country for a year then transfer back in and have a GC in a year or less. It's particularly unpleasant for H1-Bs who start the PREM process as such. So much easier for internal transfers, especially EB1, O, an L1/L2... and easier still if you're not from a slow lane country (currently China & India, but Brazil was in this boat for a number of years, too).
      - Manishearth 11y ago
        A lot of companies (Microsoft is one example that I know of) are sidestepping H1-B entirely for college hires (and perhaps other channels of hiring?) for L1. Hire in Canada or the UK; apply for L1; transfer to the US in a year or two. Apparently it's much more straightforward (and less prone to chance) as compared to H1B.
        findjashua 11y ago
        only L1A is faster than H1B though, L1B seems to take the same amount of time http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-based-greencard.html http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-based-greencard.html
        pm90 11y ago
        Its not ideal for the employee though, since they are restricted to work for one employer. But otherwise, yes, it is a very good deal.
        therein 11y ago
        You should be able to transfer your H1-B to another employer, though. I didn't think it was that hard. I recently got married and filed for AOS.
        zb 11y ago
        You can, but the parent was talking about an L1, which cannot be transferred.
- jgh 11y ago
  I dunno, I'm from Canada and it's still a major clusterfuck from my perspective
  - douche 11y ago
    They screwed things up royally a few years back with the bonded Canadian workers in the timber industry in Maine. Some sort of snafu with immigration held up the paperwork, and a bunch of contractors on tight margins went tits up because they couldn't find replacements for those workers, some of whom had been working for them for 10, 15, 20 years under that system.
- nighthawk24 11y ago
  Isn't that discrimination?
  - enraged_camel 11y ago
    Not really. There are disproportionately more applicants from certain countries, and the US government wants to make sure they don't flood the system. There are a limited number of "slots" every year.
    - nighthawk24 11y ago
      When every 1 out of 7 people on this planet is either from India or China, makes me wonder what was the thought behind the limited number of "slots". Additionally, these "slots" seems to have been placed only in the last stage of green card, there are no country specific limits for H1B applications, Green Card Application(LCA), nor the I-140 Immigration petition for Alien Worker.

dominotw 11y ago

>employers are lobbying Washington hard for things to be this complicated. There is nothing complicated about the process itself. You just happen to be from India/China.

hebdo 11y ago
I'm quite sure that by writing "I'm not in the slow lane" he/she meant exactly that he/she is not from India or China.
- dominotw 11y ago
  wrong. There are many "lanes" ( eb1, eb2,..) with different speeds even for people from India/China.
  - hebdo 11y ago
    Didn't know that, thanks for the information. I was rejected in the H1B random lottery step (sigh) after getting an offer from a grown startup in SF, and did not investigate the green card process deep enough.
    - dominotw 11y ago
      > I was rejected in the H1B random lottery step (sigh) after getting an offer from a grown startup in SF, Ah, sorry about that mate. The process is fucked up.
  - eitally 11y ago
    The irony is that for a lot of Indians/Chinese here, they could either wait 6-8 years, or they could leave the country for a year then transfer back in and have a GC in a year or less. It's particularly unpleasant for H1-Bs who start the PREM process as such. So much easier for internal transfers, especially EB1, O, an L1/L2... and easier still if you're not from a slow lane country (currently China & India, but Brazil was in this boat for a number of years, too).
    - Manishearth 11y ago
      A lot of companies (Microsoft is one example that I know of) are sidestepping H1-B entirely for college hires (and perhaps other channels of hiring?) for L1. Hire in Canada or the UK; apply for L1; transfer to the US in a year or two. Apparently it's much more straightforward (and less prone to chance) as compared to H1B.
      - findjashua 11y ago
        only L1A is faster than H1B though, L1B seems to take the same amount of time http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-based-greencard.html http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-based-greencard.html
      - pm90 11y ago
        Its not ideal for the employee though, since they are restricted to work for one employer. But otherwise, yes, it is a very good deal.
        therein 11y ago
        You should be able to transfer your H1-B to another employer, though. I didn't think it was that hard. I recently got married and filed for AOS.
        zb 11y ago
        You can, but the parent was talking about an L1, which cannot be transferred.
jgh 11y ago
I dunno, I'm from Canada and it's still a major clusterfuck from my perspective
- douche 11y ago
  They screwed things up royally a few years back with the bonded Canadian workers in the timber industry in Maine. Some sort of snafu with immigration held up the paperwork, and a bunch of contractors on tight margins went tits up because they couldn't find replacements for those workers, some of whom had been working for them for 10, 15, 20 years under that system.
nighthawk24 11y ago
Isn't that discrimination?
- enraged_camel 11y ago
  Not really. There are disproportionately more applicants from certain countries, and the US government wants to make sure they don't flood the system. There are a limited number of "slots" every year.
  - nighthawk24 11y ago
    When every 1 out of 7 people on this planet is either from India or China, makes me wonder what was the thought behind the limited number of "slots". Additionally, these "slots" seems to have been placed only in the last stage of green card, there are no country specific limits for H1B applications, Green Card Application(LCA), nor the I-140 Immigration petition for Alien Worker.