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Old 02-23-2017, 05:49 PM
 
Location: Sputnik Planitia
7,826 posts, read 11,730,321 times
Reputation: 9045

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I always thought it was pretty easy if you are qualified or have a family member in the US. I have heard of some workers in tech who applied for a Green Card and got one in about a year or so which does not appear to be that bad at all.

Also, I see hordes of tech people who I knew who came here a few years ago from India they are all still here years later having bought homes, cars and what not... so if it was that difficult such a large number of them would not have been able to stay.

I know some countries in Europe are extremely difficult to immigrate to or even work in. I wanted to work in Spain a few years ago and it's near impossible to get a EU work visa because the laws are so strict compared to the US.

So, I wonder why everyone thinks why immigration is so tight here? It's not, I think US is one of the easiest countries to immigrate either legal or not.
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Old 02-24-2017, 04:48 AM
 
747 posts, read 1,239,179 times
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I looked into moving to Grand Cayman Island. I am an American, worked here all my life but do not meet the minimum requirements to move there permanently.
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Old 02-24-2017, 06:34 AM
 
Location: Metro Washington DC
15,402 posts, read 25,672,841 times
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My understanding is that getting a green card is not very easy. If it were easy then illegal immigration would not be a big problem.
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Old 02-24-2017, 06:45 AM
 
27,206 posts, read 46,579,492 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by k374 View Post
I always thought it was pretty easy if you are qualified or have a family member in the US. I have heard of some workers in tech who applied for a Green Card and got one in about a year or so which does not appear to be that bad at all.

Also, I see hordes of tech people who I knew who came here a few years ago from India they are all still here years later having bought homes, cars and what not... so if it was that difficult such a large number of them would not have been able to stay.

I know some countries in Europe are extremely difficult to immigrate to or even work in. I wanted to work in Spain a few years ago and it's near impossible to get a EU work visa because the laws are so strict compared to the US.

So, I wonder why everyone thinks why immigration is so tight here? It's not, I think US is one of the easiest countries to immigrate either legal or not.
Not every visa over here gives a path to a green card. E2 visa holders are people who bring at least $100,000 or more into the country to start a business and they have to hire Americans to be able to renew their visa.

If they sell their business to retire after for example 25 years of doing business here and living here, then they have 2 weeks to leave the country.

How can that be fair?
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Old 02-24-2017, 09:07 AM
 
13,626 posts, read 20,687,747 times
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There are many avenues to LEGALLY come to the USA.

Years ago, I worked for a multinational in New York. They closed their small office in Venezuela and recalled the American expats. There was one Venezuelan national working as an accountant there. Instead of finding himself unemployed, they brought him to New York, found him housing, got him is Green Card, and put him to work at HQ. A nice guy who benefit from a nice gesture.

I also knew an immigration lawyer for a time. He used to tell me that he procured Green Cards for some clients by advocating their ethnic culinary skills.

Many, many avenues.
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Old 02-24-2017, 10:08 AM
 
46,836 posts, read 25,759,098 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by k374 View Post
I always thought it was pretty easy if you are qualified or have a family member in the US. I have heard of some workers in tech who applied for a Green Card and got one in about a year or so which does not appear to be that bad at all.
Conditions differ, but it's actually pretty hard.

Practically speaking, the definition of "family member" for US citizens sponsoring is "spouse, unmarried children under the age of 21, and parents". These are the only Green Cards that don't have an annual limit. Next there's a family preference category for unmarried sons or daughters over 21, married children of any age and even brothers/sisters - but those have annual limits and so the waiting list is typically decades long.

Also, the US citizen has to be 18 to sponsor anyone.

Then of course there's the background check (clean police record), the affidavits of support - easy, because it's defined as 125% of the poverty threshold and the poverty threshold is kept artificially low. Health checks, too.

Quote:
Also, I see hordes of tech people who I knew who came here a few years ago from India they are all still here years later having bought homes, cars and what not... so if it was that difficult such a large number of them would not have been able to stay.
Lots of overseas people come on H1Bs and stay for years, with a promise that their companies will eventually sponsor them for Green Cards. Some companies live up to that promise. (I have personally helped sell the stuff of an Indian contractor whose company messed it up for him.)

The H1B system is, in my opinion, being massively abused - but you need to be seriously motivated and in with the right companies to personally benefit from it. Lose your job, lose your visa - that puts you in a pretty bad negotiation position. And the companies know it and work you accordingly. It's a way to get the heck out of Bangalore (no offense to Bangalore) for many, but it's not easy.

Quote:
I know some countries in Europe are extremely difficult to immigrate to or even work in. I wanted to work in Spain a few years ago and it's near impossible to get a EU work visa because the laws are so strict compared to the US.
Unless you have a family connection, the difficulties are about the same. Spain, like most other first-world countries, have all the workers she needs. You have to bring something exceptional to the table to get in based on employment.

Quote:
So, I wonder why everyone thinks why immigration is so tight here? It's not, I think US is one of the easiest countries to immigrate either legal or not.
I think you may be misinformed. Things aren't always what they seem.
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Old 02-24-2017, 05:51 PM
 
3,770 posts, read 6,715,295 times
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It should be much harder. We have about 12% foreign born population, which is much higher than historical norms. Realistically, there are 7 billion people in the world. Americans are about 5% of that. I wouldn't be surprised of much of the third world population would like to move here. We could have our population easily double or triple if it were easy to get a green card. Do you think traffic is bad now?
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Old 02-24-2017, 05:55 PM
 
Location: Northern California
128,316 posts, read 11,845,016 times
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It is extremely difficult to immigrate legally. It is also expensive. If it was easy to enter legally, there would be no illegals.
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Old 02-24-2017, 06:02 PM
 
Location: Sputnik Planitia
7,826 posts, read 11,730,321 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by evening sun View Post
It is extremely difficult to immigrate legally. It is also expensive. If it was easy to enter legally, there would be no illegals.
so how do the 11 million illegals survive here without any documents? If it is extremely difficult to immigrate legally then it must be easy to live illegally? If not the illegals would not survive. Frankly I don't know who is hiring them and how they are able to do their normal activities without any documentation - rent, work, apply for credit, get a driver license, get insurance etc. etc. It would really be interesting to see how the illegals are managing to do it and obviously it must be better than living legally in their country of origin if they are not leaving?
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Old 02-24-2017, 06:39 PM
 
3,770 posts, read 6,715,295 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by k374 View Post
so how do the 11 million illegals survive here without any documents? If it is extremely difficult to immigrate legally then it must be easy to live illegally? If not the illegals would not survive. Frankly I don't know who is hiring them and how they are able to do their normal activities without any documentation - rent, work, apply for credit, get a driver license, get insurance etc. etc. It would really be interesting to see how the illegals are managing to do it and obviously it must be better than living legally in their country of origin if they are not leaving?

They steal Americans identities and make a fake card with the stolen social security number. Or they get paid in cash. Everify would make it a lot harder for illegals to live here. I'm still waiting for national Everify to be passed. And why are social security cards made out of plain card paper? Is it so they can be easily faked? We are still using technology from 50 years ago to make our social security cards easy to forge by illegals.
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