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This is lousy advice. It's not as if just anyone can "apply for a green card". You need to have a sponsor who is either a relative and US citizen, or you are
by jbarham 16y ago
This is lousy advice. It's not as if just anyone can "apply for a green card". You need to have a sponsor who is either a relative and US citizen, or you are already employed by a US company on a work visa and they are willing to sponsor your green card application. (I am in the second category.)
Even if you have an employer willing to sponsor your green card application, the preliminary paperwork can take over a year before you're officially in the green card pipeline. How long you have to wait depends on your country of origin. Canadians can expect to wait at least two years, Indians and Chinese five years or more. But the kicker is that if you lose your job or change companies while you're in the pipeline, the whole process restarts! (Unless you're in the final stage, but that's comparatively short compared to the whole process.) That is, if you can find a new job. If you can't, you have to leave the US.
The US is unique among western countries in not have a way for skilled immigrants to get into the country unless they first have a sponsor. The US work visa program effectively creates a class of indentured laborers as their continued residency in the US is entirely dependent on their employers.
- neilk 16y agoTwo years for Canadians? Citation? The lawyers that I've talked to have told me the backlog is about six to seven years long and have not mentioned any special treatment for Canadians. I've heard that you can get through faster if you have advanced degrees, but nothing about nationality.
- jbarham 16y agoSource is the lawyer handling my paperwork. http://www.trackitt.com/ http://www.trackitt.com/ also has info by nationality.
- neilk 16y agoI may want to talk to your lawyer. My employer's lawyer and my own lawyer have different information. Nevertheless, if we can trust the stats on that website you are right. Can you send me his or her info? You can get my contact details from my HN profile page.
- lutorm 16y agoThe EB-1 does not require a sponsors, as far as I understand.
- mynegation 16y agoFor Canadians, there's also TN-1 visa, which is a simplified way to get a work permit for a year. It has limitations compared to H1-B in terms of occupations, but it is much simpler to get. You need to have a letter from the company stating that they intend to employ you. Now, how that relates to startups and whether your own corporation can sponsor you - I honestly do not know.
- jbarham 16y agoSure, TN is easy to get (I've had it) but there are two major restrictions: 1. You cannot apply for a green card on TN visa 2. It has to be renewed annually, and you have to demonstrate continued strong ties to Canada (bank accounts, family, etc.), so US immigration would no doubt get suspicious if you kept renewing
- kareemm 16y ago> You cannot apply for a green card on TN visa Actually, you can: http://www.naftatnlawyer.com/applying-for-green-card-tn-st/ http://www.naftatnlawyer.com/applying-for-green-card-tn-st/ > It has to be renewed annually There's a 3 year TN now: http://www.naftatnlawyer.com/nafta-tn-blog/2008/10/16/three-year-tn-rule-approved.html http://www.naftatnlawyer.com/nafta-tn-blog/2008/10/16/three-... If you're Canadian, I suggest subscribing to the Grasmick.com newsletter and poking around the site. Lots of good info there.
- jbarham 16y agoThanks for the info. Things have obviously changed since I had my TN in 2006. However, looking at the green card application process on the TN it doesn't look like it's any easier than it is on an H1B.
- dotBen 16y agoIf you're Canadian, I suggest subscribing to the Grasmick.com newsletter Not sure if the newsletter is up to date but I noticed that the most recent items on Grasmick.com's News section dates back to 2001! The world of immigration into the US has really changed quite a bit since 2001, post-9/11 especially. For a start the INS doesn't even exist anymore and was replaced with the DHS. So if the rest of his information is from this era and pre-DHS then it's pretty much worthless.