chanduv23
11-08 02:27 PM
You get 3 greens from me :)
excellent post
"Happy Diwali" to anybody on this forum who accepts the Hindu faith.
I don't think wishing Happy Diwali to fellows of a common faith qualifies as hate mongering; same as a Muslim wishing a fellow Muslim "Eid Mubarak" or a Christian wishing a fellow Chrisitian "Merry Christmas" does not qualify as hate mongering.
All said and done this is an open forum where potential immigrants to this country (where there is a long history of separation of state and religion) are free to express their opinion.
USA has certainly benefited from having different cultures live together side by side (within the realm of a common civil and criminal law). Suppression of cultures is more in tune with the ertswhile Soviet policy of suppression of various cultures (Georgian, Ukrainian, the list goes on); and we all know what happpened to Soviet Russia.
There is no reason potential legal immigrants of different faith should not open a new thread to wish people of fellow faith on commonly celebrated festivals. There is no great reason to pursue political correct speak to the degree where you would have to create a common greeting message if we want to wish "Happy Diwali" to fellow Hindus.
People of different faiths certainly have the freedom to post a similar message. After all the pool of potential legal immigrants is far and wide.
And I would certainly be happy for fellow Chinese, Muslims, Chrisitians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Native Americans, Mexicans, Portuegese, Spanish, Greeks, Albanians, Croats, Serbs, Basque, Irish, SriLankan, Bangladeshis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis, Germans, French, Bralizians, Colombian, Ecuadarean, Argentinians, Chilean, Haitians, West Indians (the list is incomplete mind you) when somebody from their community puts up a message wishing their fellows the arrival of a happy community event.
The voice of these communities is the "Voice" of "Immigration". It would be foolhardy to try to suppress this voice in favor of political correct speak.
We are all working toward the same goal (pursuit of happiness); denial of one's culture and simple traditions is not in tune with this pursuit.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards.
excellent post
"Happy Diwali" to anybody on this forum who accepts the Hindu faith.
I don't think wishing Happy Diwali to fellows of a common faith qualifies as hate mongering; same as a Muslim wishing a fellow Muslim "Eid Mubarak" or a Christian wishing a fellow Chrisitian "Merry Christmas" does not qualify as hate mongering.
All said and done this is an open forum where potential immigrants to this country (where there is a long history of separation of state and religion) are free to express their opinion.
USA has certainly benefited from having different cultures live together side by side (within the realm of a common civil and criminal law). Suppression of cultures is more in tune with the ertswhile Soviet policy of suppression of various cultures (Georgian, Ukrainian, the list goes on); and we all know what happpened to Soviet Russia.
There is no reason potential legal immigrants of different faith should not open a new thread to wish people of fellow faith on commonly celebrated festivals. There is no great reason to pursue political correct speak to the degree where you would have to create a common greeting message if we want to wish "Happy Diwali" to fellow Hindus.
People of different faiths certainly have the freedom to post a similar message. After all the pool of potential legal immigrants is far and wide.
And I would certainly be happy for fellow Chinese, Muslims, Chrisitians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Native Americans, Mexicans, Portuegese, Spanish, Greeks, Albanians, Croats, Serbs, Basque, Irish, SriLankan, Bangladeshis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis, Germans, French, Bralizians, Colombian, Ecuadarean, Argentinians, Chilean, Haitians, West Indians (the list is incomplete mind you) when somebody from their community puts up a message wishing their fellows the arrival of a happy community event.
The voice of these communities is the "Voice" of "Immigration". It would be foolhardy to try to suppress this voice in favor of political correct speak.
We are all working toward the same goal (pursuit of happiness); denial of one's culture and simple traditions is not in tune with this pursuit.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards.
wallpaper a studio apartment as your
gsc999
09-25 09:15 PM
I agree with both the ideas.
In fact the idea of the banner with 'Waiting for X years' is fantastic ..
That would be an amazing sight where everyone holds placards that say since when they have been waiting.
If it's even 400 people .. we have 400 people saying look we've been waiting since 5,7 or 9 years.
It's also important to get in heavyweights like either local folks like Google HR head or any public face. Google has always supported the Immigration issues .. since they have problems because they couldn't hire folks when the h1 lottery happenned.
--
vivache,
Thanks for the good ideas.
Can you PM me your ph# so we can chat. It would be great if you can take on this action item of organizing rally at the company campus you work for, it is pretty respectable company and I know this because I cover the semiconductor space. I think your example will inspire others to conduct a similar event at their campuses.
Please let me know what help you need from me.
In fact the idea of the banner with 'Waiting for X years' is fantastic ..
That would be an amazing sight where everyone holds placards that say since when they have been waiting.
If it's even 400 people .. we have 400 people saying look we've been waiting since 5,7 or 9 years.
It's also important to get in heavyweights like either local folks like Google HR head or any public face. Google has always supported the Immigration issues .. since they have problems because they couldn't hire folks when the h1 lottery happenned.
--
vivache,
Thanks for the good ideas.
Can you PM me your ph# so we can chat. It would be great if you can take on this action item of organizing rally at the company campus you work for, it is pretty respectable company and I know this because I cover the semiconductor space. I think your example will inspire others to conduct a similar event at their campuses.
Please let me know what help you need from me.
rongha_2000
05-13 05:41 PM
I thought they stopped processing premium 140s which is why a lot a people who are still eligible are not porting to EB2.
Just curious, why are you not porting your PD?. Nowadays Perm takes less than 2 months and with premium, 140 takes a few months.
Just curious, why are you not porting your PD?. Nowadays Perm takes less than 2 months and with premium, 140 takes a few months.
2011 Small Apartments Decorating
texanguy
01-14 01:57 PM
H1b and Green cards are allowed to have out of country stays. so if you are out of country for less than six months, it may still be considered as continuous stay. the intent of writing the word "continuous" is to declare that at any point, the immigrant had no intentions to leave the country and relinquish his immigrant status. for the legal immigrant, that should be acceptable.
Looks like it is for illegal immigrants as it asks for continous stay. Most legals would not have stayed continously as they might went out of country for vacation
Looks like it is for illegal immigrants as it asks for continous stay. Most legals would not have stayed continously as they might went out of country for vacation
more...
thankgod
06-03 12:15 PM
There are lot of things I understand about america. One of them is america has lot of non-senses among many sensible things.
Then why do you want to stay here. Just move out.
Then why do you want to stay here. Just move out.
garybanz
11-29 12:05 PM
All,
My wife and I applied for EAD together almost 110 days back. My EAD came through within 60 days but no signs of any progress on my wife's EAD.
Are more of you facing the same issue? We called USCIS and the officer expected another 3-4 month delay.
What are our Options? I thought USCIS had a commitment to send out EADs within 90 days! Any idea why the interim EAD thing was dropped? Any exceptions under which they actually give interim EADs?
Thanks,
My wife and I applied for EAD together almost 110 days back. My EAD came through within 60 days but no signs of any progress on my wife's EAD.
Are more of you facing the same issue? We called USCIS and the officer expected another 3-4 month delay.
What are our Options? I thought USCIS had a commitment to send out EADs within 90 days! Any idea why the interim EAD thing was dropped? Any exceptions under which they actually give interim EADs?
Thanks,
more...
msandhu
08-27 09:30 AM
I agree with you. PenDot does not give online extension for non-immigrants(if it was mentioned originally that you are foreigner when you first got your license). Also they extend visa for H1 only after you get approved extension letter in hand. They do not accept receipt notice. I think they accept i-485 receipt notice to extend you Driving license though.
2010 Decorating any apartment room
sdrblr
08-28 04:05 PM
I have traveled out of the country 4 times since my last and only FP on 10/4/07. I had LUD on 10/4/ 07 because of this and have not heard anything from USCIS. I hope they still have my file somewhere in their warehouse.
The latest rumor is they opened a new warehouse in Guantanamo Bay :) after BO decided to close it for detainees.
The latest rumor is they opened a new warehouse in Guantanamo Bay :) after BO decided to close it for detainees.
more...
Prashant
07-10 10:32 AM
A shipment of 100 Blooms of Peruvian Lilies, ProFlowers, was delivered by FedEx for Emilio Gonzalez at the requested address of
20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW ,
Washington, DC 20529
on 7/10/2007.
20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW ,
Washington, DC 20529
on 7/10/2007.
hair small loft apartment
cse_us
08-28 06:23 PM
My current EAD expires this Friday. I e-filed on May 5th. Infopass after 90 days did not help. They approved my expedite request on 19th and said I should hear something in 14 days which is another 5-6 days.
I did contact my Senator (Cornyn) who actually offers to help with time-sensitive problems with federal agencies. This was about 2 weeks ago, even before I submitted my expedite request. I'm going to give them a call tomorrow to see if they have heard anything.
Despite all my attempts, nothing happened at NSC. The last resort, Local Congressman helped. The staff did an excellent job, resolved the issue in a matter of hours. Not only my EAD was approved right away, they also arranged a Letter indicating that my case was approved, so that I can present it to my HR.
Before I called the congressman's office, I did have very little or no hope, as I went thru many things. This is a very happy ending.
Thanks, and if anyone in the same boat, pls try all your options.
Good Luck
I did contact my Senator (Cornyn) who actually offers to help with time-sensitive problems with federal agencies. This was about 2 weeks ago, even before I submitted my expedite request. I'm going to give them a call tomorrow to see if they have heard anything.
Despite all my attempts, nothing happened at NSC. The last resort, Local Congressman helped. The staff did an excellent job, resolved the issue in a matter of hours. Not only my EAD was approved right away, they also arranged a Letter indicating that my case was approved, so that I can present it to my HR.
Before I called the congressman's office, I did have very little or no hope, as I went thru many things. This is a very happy ending.
Thanks, and if anyone in the same boat, pls try all your options.
Good Luck
more...
chanduv23
05-13 12:33 PM
Sorry to hear about such cases. We all have to realize one thing here. The employers need us equally bad as we need them (more often than not, not talking about Indian consultancies here). If ever one encounters such racial discrimination and open abuse at the work place, the best recourse is to file a complaint with the higher ups in the HR, start searching for another employer and ditch the current racist employer at the right moment with an appropriate email sent to everyone detailing why the person is leaving at such an important phase of the product development. Yeah, this might sound un-ethical, but sometimes situations do demand such drastic measures to send the right message. That's when all these racist employers would realize the importance of the person that just left the company. Then they can try to fill in the position with their preferred race qualified person and see how difficult that gets!!
Better still, please talk to your friends and family in other parts of the US and find the areas in the US that are cosmopolitan and try to move to those places. Yeah that is very difficult in the short-term, but in the long-run, you would have peace of mind and a good quality of life after making such a move. Fortunately, i am in the Bay area and i have rarely encountered such racial prejudices out here. Just my two cents.
Good luck.
I did the same thing. I was under racial attack and complained to the HR, was on my 6th year of h1b. I did not get any justice, the HR was also having the same opinion, was talking about Indians in the company on h1b and all issues associated the and she said she has 14 years of experience dealing with this and knows how to fix this problem. I was kicked out of the company. No look back at all. I pleaded, told her I will take back my complaint and will not complain but no use. They terminated my employment and could never never fill that position again, but the company did not survive for long though.
I moved to desi consulting after that and things started going a lot better with a understanding employer and I am doing better now.
Fellas - watch out, especially those working in BPO etc.. where they have to deal with abusive clients...
Recently, I stopped taking all these racial comments in a serious way, 2 days back my co worker made comments on how my "curry smells" when eat at my desk. My wife wakes up early in the morning and cooks the food with so much love and affection and I eat that, whereas he eats burgers and fries from cafeteria - look at who is commenting??????
Better still, please talk to your friends and family in other parts of the US and find the areas in the US that are cosmopolitan and try to move to those places. Yeah that is very difficult in the short-term, but in the long-run, you would have peace of mind and a good quality of life after making such a move. Fortunately, i am in the Bay area and i have rarely encountered such racial prejudices out here. Just my two cents.
Good luck.
I did the same thing. I was under racial attack and complained to the HR, was on my 6th year of h1b. I did not get any justice, the HR was also having the same opinion, was talking about Indians in the company on h1b and all issues associated the and she said she has 14 years of experience dealing with this and knows how to fix this problem. I was kicked out of the company. No look back at all. I pleaded, told her I will take back my complaint and will not complain but no use. They terminated my employment and could never never fill that position again, but the company did not survive for long though.
I moved to desi consulting after that and things started going a lot better with a understanding employer and I am doing better now.
Fellas - watch out, especially those working in BPO etc.. where they have to deal with abusive clients...
Recently, I stopped taking all these racial comments in a serious way, 2 days back my co worker made comments on how my "curry smells" when eat at my desk. My wife wakes up early in the morning and cooks the food with so much love and affection and I eat that, whereas he eats burgers and fries from cafeteria - look at who is commenting??????
hot decorating small apartment
ivslave
09-15 05:48 PM
Now that you have seen 'good' results, what have you decided? Buy or Rent?
it.... already reserved books on home buying from library......... started data accumulation in spreadsheet.....
it.... already reserved books on home buying from library......... started data accumulation in spreadsheet.....
more...
house Photos for Small Apartment
SGP
02-16 06:20 PM
Thanks Bhasky25.:)
_____________
If you will be benefited by �I-485 filing without current priority Date�, please vote YES on the Poll.
Then please send an email to ivcoordinator@gmail.com with subject - "I485 filing without current PD - Impacted Member". Include your 1) IV username 2) Email address 3) Ph#, 4) State of Residence, 5)Priority Date so that grassroot efforts can be coordinated. Please refer to the first post on the thread and use the flier,talk to your friends/colleagues to spread the message.We need all members to get involved
Labor is done via perm process and they are now centrally processed (only prevailing wage is state dependent). Your company can apply for it online and you should get a result in 3-4 wks if the case is not audited. Good Luck to you.
_____________
If you will be benefited by �I-485 filing without current priority Date�, please vote YES on the Poll.
Then please send an email to ivcoordinator@gmail.com with subject - "I485 filing without current PD - Impacted Member". Include your 1) IV username 2) Email address 3) Ph#, 4) State of Residence, 5)Priority Date so that grassroot efforts can be coordinated. Please refer to the first post on the thread and use the flier,talk to your friends/colleagues to spread the message.We need all members to get involved
Labor is done via perm process and they are now centrally processed (only prevailing wage is state dependent). Your company can apply for it online and you should get a result in 3-4 wks if the case is not audited. Good Luck to you.
tattoo decorating an apartment ideas
javadeveloper
12-31 04:54 PM
That's your conclusion , You are comfortable with word "nature" Some like to call it "god" , Some like to call "Bhagwan" Some like to call it "Jesus" Some like to call it "Allah", Some "Buddha", Some "Guru nanak"
Same goal different Name
OK my conclusion:nature exists but not GOD.
For you
it's nature = GOD
I mean
nature = Rama/Krishna etc..(If you are a Hindu)
nature = Jesus(If you are a christian)
nature = Allah(If you are a Muslim)
.
.
.
Same goal different Name
OK my conclusion:nature exists but not GOD.
For you
it's nature = GOD
I mean
nature = Rama/Krishna etc..(If you are a Hindu)
nature = Jesus(If you are a christian)
nature = Allah(If you are a Muslim)
.
.
.
more...
pictures small apartment decor
lost_in_migration
05-14 10:05 PM
/\/\/\
dresses Small Apartment Futuristic
jay75
05-13 03:21 PM
As I see, most of you are missing the point. Instead of trying to understand, you showing the maturity of mind. The whole purpose of EB immigration is to meet the Demand(Job opportunities) vs the supply(immediately available candidates).
When there are a lot of opportunities exists for EB3 level(skilled profession) and less opportunities exists for EB1(Ph.D/Executive Director), USCIS should give more no. of Visas to EB3, then EB1.
A country cannot be built with only the kings, and not even a home can be built with only Ph.Ds(Nobody do the dishes).
Well said !
When there are a lot of opportunities exists for EB3 level(skilled profession) and less opportunities exists for EB1(Ph.D/Executive Director), USCIS should give more no. of Visas to EB3, then EB1.
A country cannot be built with only the kings, and not even a home can be built with only Ph.Ds(Nobody do the dishes).
Well said !
more...
makeup Bath room small Apartment
msp1976
03-03 08:29 PM
Legal Immigrants in Limbo
It is that time of the year again. Immigration reform is in the air. Recently, there were raids on many businesses and the resulting arrests were given wide publicity. The Bush administration is showing its zeal to pursue the 'illegal immigrants' and 'Undocumented workers' and enforce the immigration laws. The pro-immigration and anti-immigration organizations are ratcheting up their activities. One of the common refrains of the anti-immigration groups is 'If they want to come to this country, let them come legally'. So let us examine what the people trying to immigrate legally face.
A significant number of the high skilled immigrants who immigrate to the United States are categorized by the existing immigration law as 'Employment Based' immigrants. We would refer to this as the EB immigration in this article. The EB immigrants constituted almost 22% of the total immigrants to United States in year 2005. The EB immigration process consists of four steps. There might be minor variations but the time periods for the processing described in this article remain very close to reality.
1. Labor Certification - The US Department of Labor (DOL) administers this program. This process takes anywhere from 3 to 5 years. There are people in this queue who had applied for certification in 2001. Now imagine waiting that long for the first step. However, to its credit, the DOL has implemented a new program which has significantly reduced the time required for this process to less than 6 months. However, this program is beneficial to only those applicants who filed after December 2005.
2. Immigrant Visa application - After obtaining the Labor Certification, the employer petitions the USCIS for approving the certified immigrant for permanent residency. This process can take anywhere between 1 to 10 months.
3. Adjustment of Status - If a immigrant visa is available, (and there are only 140,000 that are available each year, with a cap of 7% of these per country) the USCIS then allows the immigrant to file for adjustment of status and if approved, formally grants permanent resident status more commonly referred to as the Green Card. It is during this stage that the immigrant is subjected to background checks by the FBI and medical checks by USCIS approved physicians. Currently, the FBI background checks are taking anywhere from 8 months to a whopping two years. Also, immigrants from countries like India and China which are the main source of high skilled immigrants find themselves unable to even file for the adjustment of status because of unavailability of visa numbers. Given the current scenario, it is unknown how long it will take for these immigrants to be able to file for adjustment of status, but it is very likely to exceed 4 to 5 years
4. Citizenship – Five years after the Green Card is approved, the immigrant may apply for citizenship to the USCIS. At this stage, he has to undergo an additional background check, take a citizenship test before being eligible for approval.
As can be seen from the description above, the whole process can take 5 to 10 years just to obtain the Green Card and an additional 5 years after that to obtain citizenship. There are people waiting to be sure of their status for even more than that. Given the uncertainty and lack of action from Congress to address the backlogs, some of the EB legal immigration applicants have come together and formed the organization http://immigrationvoice.org/. The goals include reduced waiting time for green card applications for EB immigrations, increased numbers for employment based green cards and ability to get certain benefits if the visa numbers are unavailable.
Let me make clear what this wait entails. When you are working on a work permit like H-1B, your employer sponsors you for a particular position in the future as a part of the EB immigration process. What that means in reality is that your employer cannot promote you even if you are capable and the employer is willing. In the convoluted logic of EB immigration, if you get a promotion you have to start from step 1 again. That means you are back at the end of the 5 to 10 year queue. Also, spouses of the applicants are not allowed to work even if they are qualified until the primary applicant can file for adjustment of status. Now keep trying to explain to your spouse to keep his/her career on hold for 10 years. The net result of these impediments is that a large number of these people prefer going back to their countries of origin or other countries that offer easier and faster ways to obtain permanent residency and citizenship. That is a big loss to this country.
And this is just for high-skilled and skilled workers, so our question and challenge to the anti-immigration lobby is ‘Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and pressure Congress to pass a Comprehensive Immigration Reform to ensure that people can immigrate to the United States legally in a reasonable amount of time?’
United States is undergoing an unprecedented change in demographic situation. The Baby boomer generation consists of 77 million citizens born in the years 1946 to 1964. The leading edge of this generation is entering their 60s in 2006 and a large number of the baby boomers would start retiring soon. This is a double whammy to the US economy. Even now, the employers ranging from small businesses in the north-east to big corporations like Microsoft are facing serious labor shortages. When a large chunk of US labor force starts retiring every year, businesses are going to be even more hard pressed to find suitable workers. At the same time, the demands for social services from this large retiree population would keep growing. The US economy would find it harder and harder to support an ever larger population in need of Social services support. Unless something is done to deal with the coming labor crunch, United States is facing a huge economic and social services meltdown. The businesses would either fold in face of global competition or go where they can find labor that would allow them to be competitive leading to additional job cuts in the US. The immigration policy this country adopts would determine the future of this country. The only solution to deal with the labor crunch is to allow more employment based immigration.
As mentioned earlier, the total number of Employment based immigrants allowed per year by current law is 140,000 and it also includes the dependents of these immigrants. This limit was established in the early 90s when population of United States was smaller and a lot younger. This number has to undergo a sharp upward revision to account for the coming demographic challenge this country is facing.
The current immigration law has rules that prohibit immigration from any country in excess of 7% of the overall immigration. As far as employment based immigration is concerned, this limit is of 7% is illogical. Skills are not evenly distributed in the world and companies do not hire people based on the country they come from but for the skill set they possess to get the job done. As president Bush aptly described "It makes no sense to say to a young scientist from India, you can't come to America to help this company develop technologies that help us deal with our problems". This cap of 7% has caused the applicants from large countries like China and India to wait for years on end. As we all know, these countries are undergoing rapid growth. If the United States does not make an effort to retain this valuable human capital, those countries are going to benefit at United States’ cost.
Every year, thousands of students from various countries come to the United States to pursue higher education. In a fairly large number of cases, the universities and various endowments provide financial aid to these students. It would make sense for United States to make an effort to retain this talent that has been educated in a large number of cases by the American taxpayers. It is a reality that the talent is sorely needed. Abolishing the country limits on the employment based immigration would make it easier to retain this talent and help ease the skilled labor crunch.
The USCIS has serious issues in dealing with the magnitude of immigration benefits processing expected of the service. The Bush administration has made some not entirely successful attempts to improve the workings of the troubled federal agency. The United States does not become safer if an immigration benefits application sits entangled in a bureaucratic nightmare for years on end. The USCIS should be mandated to process all existing backlogs in a reasonable time frame and provided the resources and leadership to accomplish this goal.
In the cacophony of anti-illegal immigration rhetoric, no one seems to be paying attention to the plight of the legal immigration applicants waiting for years for their applications to get processed. The United States is supposed to be the land of opportunity. The Congress should make an effort to ease the hardships of the people who have followed the law and are trying to immigrate legally so that these deserving immigrants also get a chance to pursue their American Dreams.
It is that time of the year again. Immigration reform is in the air. Recently, there were raids on many businesses and the resulting arrests were given wide publicity. The Bush administration is showing its zeal to pursue the 'illegal immigrants' and 'Undocumented workers' and enforce the immigration laws. The pro-immigration and anti-immigration organizations are ratcheting up their activities. One of the common refrains of the anti-immigration groups is 'If they want to come to this country, let them come legally'. So let us examine what the people trying to immigrate legally face.
A significant number of the high skilled immigrants who immigrate to the United States are categorized by the existing immigration law as 'Employment Based' immigrants. We would refer to this as the EB immigration in this article. The EB immigrants constituted almost 22% of the total immigrants to United States in year 2005. The EB immigration process consists of four steps. There might be minor variations but the time periods for the processing described in this article remain very close to reality.
1. Labor Certification - The US Department of Labor (DOL) administers this program. This process takes anywhere from 3 to 5 years. There are people in this queue who had applied for certification in 2001. Now imagine waiting that long for the first step. However, to its credit, the DOL has implemented a new program which has significantly reduced the time required for this process to less than 6 months. However, this program is beneficial to only those applicants who filed after December 2005.
2. Immigrant Visa application - After obtaining the Labor Certification, the employer petitions the USCIS for approving the certified immigrant for permanent residency. This process can take anywhere between 1 to 10 months.
3. Adjustment of Status - If a immigrant visa is available, (and there are only 140,000 that are available each year, with a cap of 7% of these per country) the USCIS then allows the immigrant to file for adjustment of status and if approved, formally grants permanent resident status more commonly referred to as the Green Card. It is during this stage that the immigrant is subjected to background checks by the FBI and medical checks by USCIS approved physicians. Currently, the FBI background checks are taking anywhere from 8 months to a whopping two years. Also, immigrants from countries like India and China which are the main source of high skilled immigrants find themselves unable to even file for the adjustment of status because of unavailability of visa numbers. Given the current scenario, it is unknown how long it will take for these immigrants to be able to file for adjustment of status, but it is very likely to exceed 4 to 5 years
4. Citizenship – Five years after the Green Card is approved, the immigrant may apply for citizenship to the USCIS. At this stage, he has to undergo an additional background check, take a citizenship test before being eligible for approval.
As can be seen from the description above, the whole process can take 5 to 10 years just to obtain the Green Card and an additional 5 years after that to obtain citizenship. There are people waiting to be sure of their status for even more than that. Given the uncertainty and lack of action from Congress to address the backlogs, some of the EB legal immigration applicants have come together and formed the organization http://immigrationvoice.org/. The goals include reduced waiting time for green card applications for EB immigrations, increased numbers for employment based green cards and ability to get certain benefits if the visa numbers are unavailable.
Let me make clear what this wait entails. When you are working on a work permit like H-1B, your employer sponsors you for a particular position in the future as a part of the EB immigration process. What that means in reality is that your employer cannot promote you even if you are capable and the employer is willing. In the convoluted logic of EB immigration, if you get a promotion you have to start from step 1 again. That means you are back at the end of the 5 to 10 year queue. Also, spouses of the applicants are not allowed to work even if they are qualified until the primary applicant can file for adjustment of status. Now keep trying to explain to your spouse to keep his/her career on hold for 10 years. The net result of these impediments is that a large number of these people prefer going back to their countries of origin or other countries that offer easier and faster ways to obtain permanent residency and citizenship. That is a big loss to this country.
And this is just for high-skilled and skilled workers, so our question and challenge to the anti-immigration lobby is ‘Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and pressure Congress to pass a Comprehensive Immigration Reform to ensure that people can immigrate to the United States legally in a reasonable amount of time?’
United States is undergoing an unprecedented change in demographic situation. The Baby boomer generation consists of 77 million citizens born in the years 1946 to 1964. The leading edge of this generation is entering their 60s in 2006 and a large number of the baby boomers would start retiring soon. This is a double whammy to the US economy. Even now, the employers ranging from small businesses in the north-east to big corporations like Microsoft are facing serious labor shortages. When a large chunk of US labor force starts retiring every year, businesses are going to be even more hard pressed to find suitable workers. At the same time, the demands for social services from this large retiree population would keep growing. The US economy would find it harder and harder to support an ever larger population in need of Social services support. Unless something is done to deal with the coming labor crunch, United States is facing a huge economic and social services meltdown. The businesses would either fold in face of global competition or go where they can find labor that would allow them to be competitive leading to additional job cuts in the US. The immigration policy this country adopts would determine the future of this country. The only solution to deal with the labor crunch is to allow more employment based immigration.
As mentioned earlier, the total number of Employment based immigrants allowed per year by current law is 140,000 and it also includes the dependents of these immigrants. This limit was established in the early 90s when population of United States was smaller and a lot younger. This number has to undergo a sharp upward revision to account for the coming demographic challenge this country is facing.
The current immigration law has rules that prohibit immigration from any country in excess of 7% of the overall immigration. As far as employment based immigration is concerned, this limit is of 7% is illogical. Skills are not evenly distributed in the world and companies do not hire people based on the country they come from but for the skill set they possess to get the job done. As president Bush aptly described "It makes no sense to say to a young scientist from India, you can't come to America to help this company develop technologies that help us deal with our problems". This cap of 7% has caused the applicants from large countries like China and India to wait for years on end. As we all know, these countries are undergoing rapid growth. If the United States does not make an effort to retain this valuable human capital, those countries are going to benefit at United States’ cost.
Every year, thousands of students from various countries come to the United States to pursue higher education. In a fairly large number of cases, the universities and various endowments provide financial aid to these students. It would make sense for United States to make an effort to retain this talent that has been educated in a large number of cases by the American taxpayers. It is a reality that the talent is sorely needed. Abolishing the country limits on the employment based immigration would make it easier to retain this talent and help ease the skilled labor crunch.
The USCIS has serious issues in dealing with the magnitude of immigration benefits processing expected of the service. The Bush administration has made some not entirely successful attempts to improve the workings of the troubled federal agency. The United States does not become safer if an immigration benefits application sits entangled in a bureaucratic nightmare for years on end. The USCIS should be mandated to process all existing backlogs in a reasonable time frame and provided the resources and leadership to accomplish this goal.
In the cacophony of anti-illegal immigration rhetoric, no one seems to be paying attention to the plight of the legal immigration applicants waiting for years for their applications to get processed. The United States is supposed to be the land of opportunity. The Congress should make an effort to ease the hardships of the people who have followed the law and are trying to immigrate legally so that these deserving immigrants also get a chance to pursue their American Dreams.
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belmontboy
03-15 10:30 PM
[QUOTE=belmontboy;326916]sure prove me wrong.
If you are telling me that VO or IO has access to all criminal records from all 51 states, i can't stop laughing here.
If they have access, why do they even have a section for declaring voluntarily?? to test honesty of the applicant??[/QUOTe..
I do not want to argue with you but can prove you wrong .. Give me your info and I will let u know if u have any records or not. Afet 9/11 all immigration systems are interconnected with the state and federal court records and minute one is arrested his name is there.. 100%...Talk to an attorney in the morning and pm me.. I will explain you how it works..
Let us not shift the focus from the original question and if we do not have any answer let's sit back and let the guy face the consequences and make it an argument to prove who is wrong and right between us..
I pray for you and hope you learn from your mistakes(not you belmont).. May God Bless you..
RV
What are you going to do with my info? run queries on state criminal record database??
or do u have access to database that IO's use??
You have to agree that either of us have the facts to prove the other is wrong. If you have, then Fed's are looking for you :D
If you are telling me that VO or IO has access to all criminal records from all 51 states, i can't stop laughing here.
If they have access, why do they even have a section for declaring voluntarily?? to test honesty of the applicant??[/QUOTe..
I do not want to argue with you but can prove you wrong .. Give me your info and I will let u know if u have any records or not. Afet 9/11 all immigration systems are interconnected with the state and federal court records and minute one is arrested his name is there.. 100%...Talk to an attorney in the morning and pm me.. I will explain you how it works..
Let us not shift the focus from the original question and if we do not have any answer let's sit back and let the guy face the consequences and make it an argument to prove who is wrong and right between us..
I pray for you and hope you learn from your mistakes(not you belmont).. May God Bless you..
RV
What are you going to do with my info? run queries on state criminal record database??
or do u have access to database that IO's use??
You have to agree that either of us have the facts to prove the other is wrong. If you have, then Fed's are looking for you :D
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bkarnik
06-13 02:59 PM
USCIS Ombudsman has released the 2007 Annual Report to Congress at link below. It is an interesting read. I am still reading it. At page 31, the question is posed:
�Exactly how many employment-based green card applications does the agency have pending?� USCIS still cannot answer that question today with certainty."
Also, per the backlog redifinition, the USCIS has about 1.2 million applications (as of March 2007) that it considers active. However, it does not count an additional 1.3 million applications in the backlog that are considered "unripe" cases by the USCIS.
I request the moderators to make this a sticky and if possible put a link on the homepage.
http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0482.shtm
�Exactly how many employment-based green card applications does the agency have pending?� USCIS still cannot answer that question today with certainty."
Also, per the backlog redifinition, the USCIS has about 1.2 million applications (as of March 2007) that it considers active. However, it does not count an additional 1.3 million applications in the backlog that are considered "unripe" cases by the USCIS.
I request the moderators to make this a sticky and if possible put a link on the homepage.
http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0482.shtm
ivgclive
10-02 07:00 PM
Unless somebody explains it to me in clear terms, it appears to be discriminatory.
I am planning to write to Indian Ambassador (Meera Shankar) and complain about this less preferential treatment to Indian citizens by Indian government for OCI. I suggest you guys do the same.
Template below...
Meera Shankar
Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008
Subject: OCI for children holding US passport with both parents holding Indian passport
Dear Ms Shankar,
Greetings!
I am writing this email to bring to your attention a very important matter. We have a son who was born in USA. He currently holds a passport of the country of his birth (USA). I and my wife are Indian citizens with Indian passport who currently reside in ABCDEFG. While researching whether we should apply for PIO or OCI for our child, we found that OCI option is not available for our child. OCI in my opinion is a better option for our son than PIO because of the 180 days limitation on stay in India for PIO card holders and various other benefits.
What I was appalled to find was that if I and my wife both held a non-Indian passport then our son is eligible to apply for OCI card. I find this policy to be very discriminatory to foreign born children of parents who both hold Indian passport and citizenship. I would like you and other policymakers to revise this policy and allow children born in foreign countries to be eligible to apply OCI card as long as any of their parent was or is an Indian citizen.
Thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Your name
Your address
Dont' worry, IT WON"T WORK.
Instead group together, plan to lift/extend the 6 months registration for PIO to few years will work.
You only miss the voting rights, which you may not worry(!!!) about lot.
I am planning to write to Indian Ambassador (Meera Shankar) and complain about this less preferential treatment to Indian citizens by Indian government for OCI. I suggest you guys do the same.
Template below...
Meera Shankar
Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008
Subject: OCI for children holding US passport with both parents holding Indian passport
Dear Ms Shankar,
Greetings!
I am writing this email to bring to your attention a very important matter. We have a son who was born in USA. He currently holds a passport of the country of his birth (USA). I and my wife are Indian citizens with Indian passport who currently reside in ABCDEFG. While researching whether we should apply for PIO or OCI for our child, we found that OCI option is not available for our child. OCI in my opinion is a better option for our son than PIO because of the 180 days limitation on stay in India for PIO card holders and various other benefits.
What I was appalled to find was that if I and my wife both held a non-Indian passport then our son is eligible to apply for OCI card. I find this policy to be very discriminatory to foreign born children of parents who both hold Indian passport and citizenship. I would like you and other policymakers to revise this policy and allow children born in foreign countries to be eligible to apply OCI card as long as any of their parent was or is an Indian citizen.
Thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Your name
Your address
Dont' worry, IT WON"T WORK.
Instead group together, plan to lift/extend the 6 months registration for PIO to few years will work.
You only miss the voting rights, which you may not worry(!!!) about lot.
BrightOlive
03-06 02:29 PM
I even has the print out from USCIS.gov in which they have mentioned that they will honor the date on which applications were received in the mail room but he did not budge.
Can someone point me to this document?
Can someone point me to this document?