4 ms·

Personally, I think Matloff is rather biased in most of his studies. However, I will say this, I was on an H1B for 5 months or so of my life. I can agree with t

by eshvk 14y ago

Personally, I think Matloff is rather biased in most of his studies. However, I will say this, I was on an H1B for 5 months or so of my life. I can agree with the perception that one feels like a indentured servant. There is always that worry in your mind's eye that one can get fired and would be kicked out of the country. My company went through layoffs two weeks before my green card interview and that was an insanely stressful experience because I was in the situation where if I had gotten laid off, I would probably have to leave the country. If I left the country, my green card application would have been deemed abandoned which means I would have to start over. If you want real immigration reform, make the H1B visa a portable work visa for 5 years. Of course, this doesn't serve the owners of companies. They would rather have the current situation that probably depresses wages but certainly leads to a situation where the employee can be exploited by unscrupulous managers.

cema 14y ago
If you want real immigration reform, make the H1B visa a portable work visa for 5 years. Yes, it would be a good place to start the reform.
- zmitri 14y ago
  This would be absolutely wonderful! Literally a dream come true.
pmelendez 14y ago
Just curious... How long did it take to get the green card once you got the H1B visa?
- lewstherin 14y ago
  I think it depends on the country. For folks from India, it usually takes at least 5 years.
- jholman 14y ago
  IANAL. Asking someone else is not useful to you, because there are several buckets into which one can fall, that have different waiting times. As I understand it, there are two questions of timing: how long will an applicant have to wait until given an immigrant visa number, and how long will it take to turn the immigrant visa number into a permanent residency. The latter is, I believe, consistent across buckets but varies over time, depending on the wheels of bureaucracy. It's a year or two, I think? The former, however, depends on your level of training and country of birth. The wikipedia page is pretty good, in particular a few sections: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Application_process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Immigration_eligibility_and_quotas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... In the latter, note the difference between EB-3 and EB-2, and note the bolded footer (b). EDIT STARTING HERE: Oh, this helps too: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html Depending on country of birth, if you have a BSc you're looking at 5-11 years of backlog. If you have a higher degree or 5+ years of "progressive" experience you're looking at 0 years of backlog, except 5 years for Chinese and 9 years for Indians. If you are doing family-based immigration, some category/nationality combinations are only just getting around to applications created in 15OCT98 (Philipinos and Mexicans are worst off here).
- radicalbyte 14y ago
  Planet Money covered it recently (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-436-if-economists-controlled-the-borders http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-...). Time varies based on country of origin. Each country is allocated a fixed number of spots, and these spots of of similar size for all countries. So, if you're coming from a small country (i.e. Iceland) it's easy. Coming from India/Mexico, then you'll have to wait a while..
- eshvk 14y ago
  I got my green card in 2 months from application to interview. On the other hand, my green card was completely unrelated to the H1B visa. I switched from a student visa to the H1B visa for other reasons. I however did the math to see how long it would take for a company to sponsor me and it was roughly 2 years ( I don't fall into the Indian/Chinese bucket that has decades of waiting..)
codeme 14y ago
I have been in your shoes. It took 6 years to process my green card. And I know people who had to go to Canada after 6 years then come back again to US to continue processing GC. There are definitely disadvantages to be on H1B.

by eshvk 14y ago

cema 14y ago

If you want real immigration reform, make the H1B visa a portable work visa for 5 years. Yes, it would be a good place to start the reform.

zmitri 14y ago
This would be absolutely wonderful! Literally a dream come true.

pmelendez 14y ago

Just curious... How long did it take to get the green card once you got the H1B visa?

lewstherin 14y ago
I think it depends on the country. For folks from India, it usually takes at least 5 years.
jholman 14y ago
IANAL. Asking someone else is not useful to you, because there are several buckets into which one can fall, that have different waiting times. As I understand it, there are two questions of timing: how long will an applicant have to wait until given an immigrant visa number, and how long will it take to turn the immigrant visa number into a permanent residency. The latter is, I believe, consistent across buckets but varies over time, depending on the wheels of bureaucracy. It's a year or two, I think? The former, however, depends on your level of training and country of birth. The wikipedia page is pretty good, in particular a few sections: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Application_process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Immigration_eligibility_and_quotas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... In the latter, note the difference between EB-3 and EB-2, and note the bolded footer (b). EDIT STARTING HERE: Oh, this helps too: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html Depending on country of birth, if you have a BSc you're looking at 5-11 years of backlog. If you have a higher degree or 5+ years of "progressive" experience you're looking at 0 years of backlog, except 5 years for Chinese and 9 years for Indians. If you are doing family-based immigration, some category/nationality combinations are only just getting around to applications created in 15OCT98 (Philipinos and Mexicans are worst off here).
radicalbyte 14y ago
Planet Money covered it recently (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-436-if-economists-controlled-the-borders http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-...). Time varies based on country of origin. Each country is allocated a fixed number of spots, and these spots of of similar size for all countries. So, if you're coming from a small country (i.e. Iceland) it's easy. Coming from India/Mexico, then you'll have to wait a while..
eshvk 14y ago
I got my green card in 2 months from application to interview. On the other hand, my green card was completely unrelated to the H1B visa. I switched from a student visa to the H1B visa for other reasons. I however did the math to see how long it would take for a company to sponsor me and it was roughly 2 years ( I don't fall into the Indian/Chinese bucket that has decades of waiting..)

codeme 14y ago

I have been in your shoes. It took 6 years to process my green card. And I know people who had to go to Canada after 6 years then come back again to US to continue processing GC. There are definitely disadvantages to be on H1B.