I was thinking. Isn’t it easiest if you are Indian, to get a job in Europe for a regional eng office in london or Amsterdam, stay for 5 years and get your citizenship and then apply to relocate to the US HQ and apply as a European citizen? Or is this shit all based on birth country and not citizenship? If I’m wrong (which is possible) why would any Indian person come to the US knowing it is virtually impossible to settle here and put down roots? Asking as recently had a good friend go home to India as they wanted to settle and GC process was insane.
Its based on country of birth. Also things weren't the same as it is today
People still come today
With PhD you can get a green card within a year regardless of country of birth
One has to survive PhD. Stats indicate that lot of candidates drop out
Nope, not with any PhD. You have to prove to have extraordinary abilities to be eligible for EB-1 green card. So if you didn't publish a lot and got cited a lot there's no benefit.
That's changing now, with the recent visa bulletin
Well, the question still remains why people would necessarily want to stay in the US but not in EU/Canada/Australia?
Well, only the individual can answer for themselves
Many go to Canada. Although if one is patient, I suppose things might work out. 15 year wait seems unsustainable and I think something might change..
Country of birth
It’s the country of birth, not citizenship. This system is adapted from 1925 national quota formula system which ranks races and ethnicities according to how desirable they are. Since there was no genetic test and birthplace is a better indicator for race and ethnicity, USCIS uses birthplace instead of citizenship for national quota since 1925.
I thought it was 1965 and it was their way of being fair
1965 is the immigration overhaul. But there are still things from 1925 stay until today. National quota is one of them, unfortunately.
‘Why ppl come here then’: 1. Ppl who come here as students first and then get a job won’t think all that before coming. Lack of visibility and ignorance is bliss phenomenon plays a role there. It’s like everyone who goes there kinda does well impression. 2. Point 1 was kind of right till around 2010 as the wait times for Indians was not so bad then. In fact in 2013 priority date had come till 2009 and I know ppl who have got greencard with only 5 yrs wait. 3. Nowadays smarter ppl think why US and some ppl stay away and do well in India. I have also known some ppl come here as students and gain a few yrs of experience and plan the exit from US well. 4. there are some super dumb ppl who are here until they have a job and don’t care. These ppl would generally never care for career or anything and be like whatever happens to many will happen to me. 5. Then, there are ppl who are between the ones mentioned in point 3 and point 4, who have realized that mistake they made as mentioned in point 1. These ppl generally crib, try to lobby for a change, stay unhappy or finally move out of US when they realize enough is enough. And note, 90% of US immigration (greencard) is non-employment based immigration. There are soooooo many more who are ready to come here even without a job, typically with an economic status not as good as someone who comes here on job. So however bad is US immigration policy, there will be ppl coming. But the quality of ppl coming into US reduces with bad immigration policy.
Do you think it's futile to lobby for change or just not the right thing to do since they are aliens, not citizens?
You missed a group who just don't care about green card. They keep on extending their H1B as long as they could and are ready to go back if things go bad. I know H1B is not super convenient but it's not that bad if you are actually good at what you do and confident of finding another job if you lose the current one.
You can always accept American culture and marry an American or someone that has a different country of origin that’s on a visa that is adjustment of status eligible and can take advantage of the “cross chargeability.”
True! Why don't more people do that? I guess it's a cultural thing though.
Not easy for most people to find people who will understand their background and share similar likes and dislikes.
May be it’s easy to manage in USA then non English speaking countries
It's based on country of birth, not citizenship
Well that’s the answer to that part. So why come then? I just don’t see why put entire life on hold without possibility to stay.
I have wondered the same thing.