So, I am from India and wanted to publish a balanced take on the S.386 / H.R.1044 Bill to remove country caps for employment-based green cards. Here are my thoughts: 1. Firstly, I think the bill is a tad bit aggressive with increasing the cap to 85% followed by 90%. And understandably, there is opposition from ROW who don’t have the backlog problem. Obviously anyone will oppose it if you are making life difficult for them, I don’t know what is so hard to see here? If Indians didn’t have the backlog problem, then I am pretty sure they would oppose the bill too if their wait time will increase from 0 to a decade. 2. Let’s not play the victim here by showing pictures of kids who are aging-out. You came here to get a good job and make money, and I am pretty sure you realized the problems with the GC backlog after coming here. You just chose to continue living here for money, weather, opportunities, intertia to move or whatever else it maybe. This situation is completely voluntary and you need to accept it as a high-risk-high-reward gamble. Nobody is forcing anybody to stay here and you can always compromise other factors and immigrate to another country like Canada, Australia, Singapore etc. if immigration status were so important to you. 3. Having said that - here’s my appeal to people from ROW countries (and China) for spewing all that hatred and blanket accusations of fraud to Indians (a.k.a ICC companies). Please understand that USA is a popular destination from most Indians and most study and work hard to come here. It is ambition and a hope for better future that is driving a lot of demand for Indians wanting to come to USA. I think from an ICC fraud standpoint, it is the responsibility of the appropriate agencies such as DOL and USCIS to investigate and stop such activities. Please do not blame all Indians and say that everyone should be penalised. ICC fraud is not the only reason there is a backlog for India. I think it’s just that a lot of (qualified) Indians do want to come to US and settle. There should be a solution to address these qualified Indians who are not treated on par with a qualified candidate from another country. 4. While I appreciate the efforts and activism shown by groups such as Immigration Voice, I have serious disagreement with some their recent communications, open negativity towards Senators (Mr. Durbin) and arguments against ROW countries. This will not help anybody and will only attract more negative attention from conservative anti-immigrant media outlets such as FOX, Breitbart etc. 5. If we want to make positive change happen, I think we need to be more tactful in addition to being active. I appreciate all the energy people have put in towards voicing support for S.386 and this is great! I think that a better version of S.386 is possible and here’s what I would add: a) Bring relief to people with approved i140 (May be make them eligible for EAD / AP) b) Make the country cap phase-out more gradual (May be start with 15% cap and move to no cap in 10 years) c) Prioritize people (Maybe STEM degrees from a list of top 100 US universities, high-paying jobs or critical occupational sectors) d) Of course detect and stop abuse in H1b issuance, which is already addressed in the current bill.
Can we stop talking about this any more?
Tldr
A good solution would be to stop considering junior engineers (lt 8 yoe) for GC (regardless of country of origin) and only allow truly skilled workers. Indians would still benefit because most FANGs have offices there and people could transfer once they become experienced enough. It’s hard to make a convincing argument that entry-level engineers with an MS are exceptionally skilled when there are so many of them. This will also eliminate a lot of the unskilled ICC employees.
^This is a weak argument. Nothing like what you are suggesting can ever pass and become a law so arguments like yours just enhance the problem and don't offer any actual solution.
Maybe but it’s a fair solution. Removing the country cap is not perceived as fair by ROW because they see India as having the unique and dominant position of controlling these huge consulting pipelines that pump in a lot of people in the US immigration system. That’s perceived as an unfair advantage in immigration that people from other countries don’t have.
How about you stay in your own country and work to make something better of it? Just an idea...
Go read the story about the inventor of emails!!
Try taking a time machine and telling that to Tesla, Von Neumann and Einstein. The best way to change the world is science and technology, and it doesn’t matter where you do it. Go find the best people in your field, learn from them and aim to become even better than them. All these immigrants that I mentioned, their work changed the entire world for better, including their home countries. Already in India you see that vast sections of society have access to cellphones and the internet, like never before. That alone will have greater impact on the future of India than anything you or I could do while living there.
If all Indians come to USA for work. Who’s gonna stay in India and make it a better country? No one. Nobody is gonna solve your country’s problems but yourself
No one gives up their privilege without a fight. No one wants a fairer system if they benefit from the status quo
Well said. A few modifications to make it fair for all does solve the problem and pass through the Senate. I'd highly recommend you reach out to Mike Lee or the Dick guy and discuss various ideas which works out for all. We definitely don't want to make silicon valley as another Indian state.
I feel so lucky we had country cap. Otherwise we already get screwed. So I m against anyway to remove it. (Phase out is only making bleeding slower)
How are you lucky? More and more Indians and Chinese come on H1B visa every year
That’s exactly the reason I feel lucky with country cap.
Good post OP. Agree with phasing out the problem slowly without pitting groups against each other. I am all for preference to stem degree holders, salary, experience . Again I am not optimistic anything will happen in the future. Half a million indians renewing visas from consulate and extending status through petitions every 3 years are good sources of revenue for US. And all the social security and Medicare taxes paid by Indians that will not be used by them in the future is also added benefit.
Yep. So much winning for America.
🙄