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Ask HN: Is it possible to get asylum for developers?

• ahp 13y ago
  Wow. I hope that you and your family are all right. I would doubt that there is a asylum process specific for developers, at least for asylum in the U.S. (in that I would doubt that the USFG discriminates between developer and non-developer applicants.) It does seem like, again, in the U.S., the process still faces some kinks [1]. However, I know that there is a plethora of nation-states which recognize the universal right of asylum. I would suggest that, should you or your family ever be in a position in which you feel that you will face prosecution (even persecution, maybe?), you should actively research the possibility of attaining asylum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_asylum#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_asylum#United_States
• justizin 13y ago
  Consider Poland?
  • strangeworks 13y ago
    What about jobs in Poland, do they have Ruby or RoR projects that hiring?
  • a-saleh 13y ago
    I am not sure about long-stay-working visa permits for Ukrainians in Poland, but I know that for Czech republic, it can take up to several months to have all the burocracy in order. I know this, because I work for a large multi-national, and my boss always complains when he has to deal with relocating people from non EU countries to Czech republic. On the other hand, it happens reasonably often, in two years we hired several people from Armenia, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine ...
• untitaker_ 13y ago
  By making every problem sound specific to developers, its presence on Hacker News can be justified. Developers are also people, so yes, you can get asylum.
• whatevsbro 13y ago
  Getting out of harm's way is a wise choice. Don't count on getting asylum though. Your destination would depend on how much money you've got saved up, of course. But if you want to live cheaply, Vietnam might be a good option. It's supposedly easy to get a long-term visa there (I got six months in 2011), and cost of living is low. I believe applying for a visa through an agent is the typical (or only?) way, but it shouldn't take more than a week or two. You can find these agents on the Internet. Mine wanted the money transferred through Western Union, I believe. Ho Chi Minh City would probably be a good choice, there's some startup culture going on, and you could even find a Westerner there who could employ you. Just go for it, and good luck!
• avar 13y ago
  I work at a company in Amsterdam that employs a lot of non-natives (myself included) including several Russians & Ukrainians. I don't think it would be appropriate to name-drop the company given the topic, but contact me if you're interested. Anyway, given my admittedly somewhat limited knowledge of immigration law I don't think what you want to be looking at at all is getting asylum somewhere. That's going to be a process that's a giant pain in the ass anywhere in the world. There's also lots of major caveats with getting asylum, generally to do with you or your ethnic/social group being specifically discriminated against or otherwise in danger. You're generally not going to get asylum just because you don't like the general security situation in your country of residence. If that was the case the first world would pretty much grant blanked asylum to millions to billions of people living in the failed states of the world. If you have a specialist skill such as being a developer a much better and quicker path to emigrating is to get a work visa somewhere, and go from there to potentially getting a permanent residence permit or even citizenship
  • strangeworks 13y ago
    Thank you for the comment, could you tell please, what kind of projects do you have in your company? Do they have ruby or rails positions, or frontend-based positions open?
    • avar 13y ago
      I work at Booking.com. We don't use RoR but yeah, we have plenty of frontend positions open: https://workingatbooking.com https://workingatbooking.com I'm also happy to answer any of your questions, my E-Mail contact is in my profile. But aside from where I work more generally there's lots of companies in more stable countries in Europe (or elsewhere) that would be willing to hire a competent developer of whatever skills you might have. I just wanted to point out to you that you'd have a much easier time if you could get a work visa and work your way towards permanent residence or citizenship than starting out trying to request asylum.
      • dkuntz2 13y ago
        > I don't think it would be appropriate to name-drop the company given the topic Next response: > I work at Booking.com Wat? Sorry, things like this really stick out to me, and I thought it was odd. I have no opinion you choosing to, or not to, reveal your employer.
• falsestprophet 13y ago
  Many other-than-rich countries have permissive visa programs for people who have job offers: Brazil, India, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and others. I've heard the market for developers in Brazil is pretty hot right now. Getting a work permit will almost certainly be easier than being granted asylum. That said, most civilized countries won't deport people to a war zone [1]. So, if you happen to be in such a country when a shooting war breaks out then you may be able to stay for the duration. [1] for example: http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status-deferred-enforced-departure/temporary-protected-status http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status...
• strangeworks 13y ago
  Thank you, guys, for the feedback, maybe asylum isn't suitable solution for me. I have no experience in these issues, I just wan't to securely write code and having fun. I have a pretty nice job here in Ukraine but I'm afraid that soon that it is possible to lost everything. So just looking for some variants to save myself and family from this possible hell.