
How Are H-1B Holders Affected by the U.S. Green Card Application Flip Flop? - prostoalex
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/10/06/how-are-h1-b-holders-affected-by-the-u-s-green-card-application-flip-flop/
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kumarm
Country limits for Green Card really need to go.

Number of green cards offered to People born in China and India (With Billion+
Population) is same as to people born in Vatican City (Less than 1000
population).

~~~
shell0x
It's not America's fault that China and India have insane birth rates. More
than half of them live in poverty and many corrupt officials stole money from
the Chinese people and settled in the US, Australia or Canada. Allowing more
Chinese immigration would come with corruption.

~~~
ashwinaj
Of course by definition there is no corruption in western countries ;) On a
serious note, the country limits make sense since it was designed for
diversity (both lottery and employment based). It is unfair to give
preferential treatment to a particular group. Whether we like to admit it or
not diversity is important (I'm an Indian and I'm saying this)

~~~
zobzu
its quite a bit more complicated than that but yes. On the one hand one could
argue that the US is also stealing resources from india because the US has
more power.

On the other hand if 100% of india works in the US, you're back to the reason
why you left india, in another land. It's a bigger issue than an immigration
issue, and honestly I don't think it's solvable (til machines supersede humans
of course).

~~~
cubancigar11
I can only talk about India so here are my 2 cents:

1\. Almost all people who are trying to leave India are highly educated.

2\. Most of them don't plan to stay outside India for long time.

3\. Large percentage of them go back to India when they have a girl child
(contrary to popular western rhetoric about 'we are so great they are so bad',
women in India are several times safer than in USA).

4\. Another large group goes back to India once they have paid house loans,
earned enough money, have ailing parents that need help. (India doesn't have a
social security system.)

5\. A large group of Indians who end up staying 'abroad' are from very
specific areas of India (5 out of 29 states of India - Punjab and 4 states of
southern India).

6\. People from Punjab suffered a cultural shock during partition of India in
1947 and so they see little value in blind nationalism. Most of them are doing
business and are not necessarily highly educated (I mean _disproportionately_
). They accept westernization with open hearts.

7\. Southern states don't appreciate Hindi being promoted by a Delhi based
government - imagine Texas where everyone spoke 4 different languages but not
English). So they are prone to moving out for prosperity. They are mostly
highly educated. Most of the 'talent companies' like Infosys etc. are being
run by them because they generally keep good ties back home. In general no
love for westernization. Apu from Simpsons is their caricature.

In short - the degree of success for an Indian in America depends on his
support structure. Some communities have built it by being quite and bringing
over the family, others have embraced westernization. Both require sheer
perseverance. But for large number of Indians, it is simply easier to go back
rich and enjoy respect from peers back in India.

~~~
throwaway049
"Large percentage of them go back to India when they have a girl child"

Do you mean the birth of a girl child is a trigger to go back?

"women in India are several times safer than in USA"

What measure are you referring to?

~~~
cubancigar11
"Do you mean the birth of a girl child is a trigger to go back?" Yes. "What
measure are you referring to?" Rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment.

------
benevol
With every passing day I find myself asking "Who are these people still
falling for the 'American Dream' scheme?". I mean, it's just so obvious that
this country is slowly falling apart, there are so many huge problems that I
don't even know with which issue to start. I guess John Oliver's 'Last Week
Tonight' is quite honest and does a decent job at scratching the surface. But
for myself, following Edward Snowden's work and understanding it in the
general economic/political context was the final nail in the coffin.

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_this country is slowly falling apart_

People are _literally_ dying to leave some other countries and people are
_literally_ dying to come here. And I mean _literally_ as in _actually_ not as
in _figuratively_. People are voting with their feet.

Quite a few years ago Ken Hamblin[1] wrote a book titled _Pick a Better
Country_. That same sentiment still applies. What are the alternatives? Do
those alternatives allow as much immigration as the USA does?

To riff on the old Winston Churchill quip: America is the worst country there
is, except for all the others.

 _there are so many huge problems_

It's hard to disagree with that.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hamblin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hamblin)

~~~
grecy
> _What are the alternatives? Do those alternatives allow as much immigration
> as the USA does?_

America has ranks #40 on the list of net migration per capita [1]. So to
answer your question: Every developed country on the list before #40, like,
oh, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, etc. etc. etc.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_net_migra...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_net_migration_rate)

~~~
PhantomGremlin
It sounds good/bad (depending on your perspective) if you put the USA down at
country #40. However, data and statistics are tricky things. For example:

1) Many of the first 39 countries don't come anywhere close to the "pick a
better country" requirement. E.g. Lebanon at #1, Zimbabwe at #3, Libya at #6.

2) Many of the countries are tiny. E.g. British Virgin Islands has a
population under 29,000. So they might look good per capita, but they hardly
matter in absolute numbers.

3) There will, of course, be requirements for immigrants. But some might be
rather draconian. E.g. will the UAE even allow an immigrant unless he's
already a Sunni Muslim?

4) While it sounds impressive that 39 countries are "ahead" of the USA, I
totaled up the population of the first 10 on the list and it came to
51,533,343. (I was too lazy to cut/paste the rest out of Wikipedia). The point
is that even though the USA per capita is lower than those, we make up a lot
by having 321,605,012 "capita" already here.

5) I did a quick search for number of illegal immigrants per year into USA and
came up with 500,000. The estimates differ widely, so who knows the real
numbers. We probably (wild speculation!) have more illegal immigration than
the other developed countries on your list. E.g. it's hard to get into New
Zealand by sneaking across the border. Oh and BTW New Zealand is actually #45,
not "before" us.

------
rurban
Personally I had to leave the US as my H1-B was not even looked at in time to
be able to continue my work, which includes traveling. They had 6 months time
to process my application to no avail.

With an expired H1-B visa they don't let you in again. Premier processing fees
did nothing. My company is in Texas not California, maybe that's why.

But I'm happy to back in a democracy now (Germany), even if the US pays
better. Helping out developing countries is fine, but their state is not
working, and this affects business.

