kakatiya Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 Six months ago I won the lottery — the H-1B visa processing lottery for skilled foreign workers. I called my thrilled parents and celebrated with friends. I’m from northeastern China and have an M.B.A. from Stanford, and was planning to stay in Silicon Valley to help start a company based on a promising new technology to improve the use of data. I was overjoyed because, historically, being selected in the lottery was a near guarantee that an applicant could remain in this country at least three more years. But at the end of July, I received the dreaded Request for Further Evidence from immigration authorities. I provided the extra information that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services asked for. In September, I got another request. I complied again. Finally, on Oct. 11, half a year after my celebration, I learned I had been denied a visa. After earning law degrees in China and at Oxford, after having worked in Hong Kong as a lawyer at a top international firm, after coming to United States three years ago for an M.B.A. and graduating and joining a start-up, I was given just 60 days to leave the country. I have 17 days left. In the past, it was fairly safe to assume that once you were selected in the lottery, your H-1B petition would be accepted by immigration officials. In 2016, this happened about 87 percent of the time. But things began to change in April when the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice announced measures to increase scrutiny of the highly skilled applicants who use the H-1B program, and President Trump signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to suggest reforms to the program. While it’s unclear exactly what percentage of petitions have been approved so far in 2017, requests for evidence like the ones I received have increased by 44 percent compared with last year, according to immigration statistics, strongly suggesting that more people are being denied than before Mr. Trump took office. Many of my fellow international students are in situations similar to mine. Some had job offers from companies like Google, Apple and PwC when they learned that their applications had been denied or did not even make it into the lottery. For those whose employers have only United States offices, losing the lottery meant losing jobs and going home, with no real way to use the skills they were on the verge of contributing to the American economy. And some classmates who, like me, were picked in the H-1B lottery last spring are still waiting for an answer. The Trump administration on April 3 announced that it would suspend the “premium processing” service that, for a fee, guaranteed applicants responses to their petitions within 15 days. This has caused problems for students who needed a quick decision because their work authorization expired over the summer or because they wanted to plan overseas trips that they couldn’t make while their status was in limbo. My mom had surgery for cancer in July, but I simply couldn’t go back to China to be with her and risk being denied at the border upon my return because I didn’t have H-1B approval. My two requests for evidence asked me to prove my job was a “specialty occupation” — that is, work that only someone with a bachelor’s degree or higher can do. My work involves artificial intelligence and big data, and my letters of support came from an authority in my industry and veteran start-up investor, and a Nobel Prize winner. But it wasn’t enough to convince the government that my job requires advanced skills. While I gave up my law job and used my savings and my parents’ to pay my Stanford graduate school tuition, in the grand scheme of things, I know my situation is much better than that of many immigrants who are forced to leave this country: Just this week, thousands of Haitians in the United States learned that they may have to return to Haiti as a result of the administration’s decision to strip them of the Temporary Protected Status they were granted while their country recovered from disasters. It’s true that I’m brokenhearted about missing the chance to return to China to care for my mother (she insisted that I stay and pursue the visa that was her dream for me), but I’m not looking for sympathy. As much as I hate to leave, I know I will be fine. Rather, I’m frustrated, because I know I’m part of a pattern: America is losing many very skilled workers because of its anti-immigrant sentiment, and while this is a disappointing blow to me and my classmates, it will also be a blow to the United States’ competitiveness in the global economy. Tech giants such as Google and Tesla were founded by immigrants. I can’t make sense of why an administration that claims to want this country to be strong would be so eager to get rid of us. We are losing our dreams, and America is losing the value we bring. As I make plans to go back to China, I find myself wondering: If I am not qualified to stay in the United States, then who is? Frida Yu is a lawyer and entrepreneur. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. 0LEAVE A COMMENT Most Popular on NYTimes.com A Split From Trump Indicates That Flynn Is Moving to Cooperate With Mueller OP-ED COLUMNIST Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring, at Last Joe Barton, Senior Republican, Caught in Storm Over Explicit Photo CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK Who We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Weinstein Why Celebrities Are Rallying Behind Cyntoia Brown, a Woman Spending Life in Prison Hopes Dashed, Relatives of Argentine Submarine Crew Turn to Grief and Anger The Other Woman Speaks Black Friday 2017: Your Best Bargain Bet Might Be a TV F.C.C. 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dasara_bullodu Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 This guy is too lenient... ilanti situations mana desi lu velallo chusi untaru Quote
holycow205 Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 9 minutes ago, dasara_bullodu said: This guy is too lenient... ilanti situations mana desi lu velallo chusi untaru stanford nundi baitaki ocha antunnadu kada bro....tution fee too much untadi...mana vallu ante..edo univ lo malli join ayyi paisal katti oche daka untaru... andaru ala cheyaru kada kani... Quote
Staysafebro Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 Harrrrrishburg University day 1 CPT course join avva manu ba. Lots of MBAs there Stanford la MBA chadivi IT la yem chesthannav ra bhai .. Veediki Mckinsey lo Management Consultant ga vachi vundadhu.. IT startup ani kathal 10ngthannadu H1 ye antha important ayunte vaadu global company lo fulltime join join ayye vadu ..waste fellow Quote
princeofheaven Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 56 minutes ago, Staysafebro said: Harrrrrishburg University day 1 CPT course join avva manu ba. Lots of MBAs there Stanford la MBA chadivi IT la yem chesthannav ra bhai .. Veediki Mckinsey lo Management Consultant ga vachi vundadhu.. IT startup ani kathal 10ngthannadu H1 ye antha important ayunte vaadu global company lo fulltime join join ayye vadu ..waste fellow Stan MBA man no need to join harrisburg and run around a desi consultancy their alumni network is there in 180 countries.Even Lokesh Babu is Stanford alumni. She can easily get a well paying job elsewhere. She already worked in HK and HK dollar is not weak so can go back there. She wanted to co found a tech startup nothing wrong in that. Sun microsystems was started by stanford students including Indian stan MBA vinod khosla. If the H1B was as strict as it is now back then Sun microsystems and Java would have been created in India or elsewhere. Quote
princeofheaven Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 https://www.linkedin.com/in/frida-tong-yu-49916a15 Quote
KalyanBabu Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 1 hour ago, Staysafebro said: Harrrrrishburg University day 1 CPT course join avva manu ba. Lots of MBAs there Stanford la MBA chadivi IT la yem chesthannav ra bhai .. Veediki Mckinsey lo Management Consultant ga vachi vundadhu.. IT startup ani kathal 10ngthannadu H1 ye antha important ayunte vaadu global company lo fulltime join join ayye vadu ..waste fellow GP ra stayfree Quote
KalyanBabu Posted November 24, 2017 Report Posted November 24, 2017 5 minutes ago, princeofheaven said: Stan MBA man no need to join harrisburg and run around a desi consultancy their alumni network is there in 180 countries.Even Lokesh Babu is Stanford alumni. She can easily get a well paying job elsewhere. She already worked in HK and HK dollar is not weak so can go back there. She wanted to co found a tech startup nothing wrong in that. Sun microsystems was started by stanford students including Indian stan MBA vinod khosla. If the H1B was as strict as it is now back then Sun microsystems and Java would have been created in India or elsewhere. GP Quote
Staysafebro Posted November 25, 2017 Report Posted November 25, 2017 2 hours ago, princeofheaven said: Stan MBA man no need to join harrisburg and run around a desi consultancy their alumni network is there in 180 countries.Even Lokesh Babu is Stanford alumni. She can easily get a well paying job elsewhere. She already worked in HK and HK dollar is not weak so can go back there. She wanted to co found a tech startup nothing wrong in that. Sun microsystems was started by stanford students including Indian stan MBA vinod khosla. If the H1B was as strict as it is now back then Sun microsystems and Java would have been created in India or elsewhere. If her options were so great she wouldn't be crying about it. If where she worked did not matter, she would have gone back to Hong Kong, and started her company there. Instead she plays the sympathy card about her receiving an RFE. The tone of her article clearly shows how desperate she was for H1. My lawyer friend had her H1 approved recently. Her job duties were related to her field. No questions asked. With her MBA she could have applied as a manager and quite a lot of MBAs do get approval when they apply as general managers/finance managers etc. Their job duties are related to their field of work and the process is much simpler. She quite clearly was trying to get through the back route in the IT field. Yes, many big companies were established by immigrants, but it has been taken advantage of too. May be a few of the highly talented guys make a difference, but a lot more people just use underhanded techniques to stay back. For every one Vinod Khosla there are thousands who have just misused the system. Did all these people complain when the system was being exploited? Nope. They are just throwing the toys out of the pram now that their cheese has moved. Quote
dakumangalsingh Posted November 25, 2017 Report Posted November 25, 2017 2 minutes ago, Staysafebro said: If her options were so great she wouldn't be crying about it. If where she worked did not matter, she would have gone back to Hong Kong, and started her company there. Instead she plays the sympathy card about her receiving an RFE. The tone of her article clearly shows how desperate she was for H1. My lawyer friend had her H1 approved recently. Her job duties were related to her field. No questions asked. With her MBA she could have applied as a manager and quite a lot of MBAs do get approval when they apply as general managers/finance managers etc. Their job duties are related to their field of work and the process is much simpler. She quite clearly was trying to get through the back route in the IT field. Yes, many big companies were established by immigrants, but quite clearly it has been taken advantage of. May be a few of the highly talented guys make a difference, but a lot more people just use underhanded techniques to stay back. For every one Vinod Khosla there are thousands who have just misused the system. Did all these people complain when the system was being exploited? Nope. They are just throwing the toys our of the pram now that their cheese has moved. Crying ani kaadu kaani let's put it this way after so much of effort and time ofcourse lots of money she had put into to make her American Dream didn't go well as planned kada ?? Ante kada vankul oddu datinaka emaina cheptharu Quote
Staysafebro Posted November 25, 2017 Report Posted November 25, 2017 8 minutes ago, dakumangalsingh said: Crying ani kaadu kaani let's put it this way after so much of effort and time ofcourse lots of money she had put into to make her American Dream didn't go well as planned kada ?? Ante kada vankul oddu datinaka emaina cheptharu Ade uncle. Adedo system antha kalisi thanaku anyayam chesinattu complaining akkada. Her RFE was related to her job and specialty occupation. Who made the decision to apply as something she was not qualified for? It was her right. Something wrong was working before, but it doesn't anymore so the system is incorrect? Quote
Batman_fan Posted November 25, 2017 Report Posted November 25, 2017 17 minutes ago, Staysafebro said: If her options were so great she wouldn't be crying about it. If where she worked did not matter, she would have gone back to Hong Kong, and started her company there. Instead she plays the sympathy card about her receiving an RFE. The tone of her article clearly shows how desperate she was for H1. My lawyer friend had her H1 approved recently. Her job duties were related to her field. No questions asked. With her MBA she could have applied as a manager and quite a lot of MBAs do get approval when they apply as general managers/finance managers etc. Their job duties are related to their field of work and the process is much simpler. She quite clearly was trying to get through the back route in the IT field. Yes, many big companies were established by immigrants, but it has been taken advantage of too. May be a few of the highly talented guys make a difference, but a lot more people just use underhanded techniques to stay back. For every one Vinod Khosla there are thousands who have just misused the system. Did all these people complain when the system was being exploited? Nope. They are just throwing the toys out of the pram now that their cheese has moved. She is not crying. It is the frustration and disappointment that people go through when their plans are interrupted for no reason, even after putting all the effort. Why would she need to suffer while the unethical people are living the american dream. An unethical person will never understand it because he/she never put any effort in an ethical way. Quote
Batman_fan Posted November 25, 2017 Report Posted November 25, 2017 18 minutes ago, Staysafebro said: Ade uncle. Adedo system antha kalisi thanaku anyayam chesinattu complaining akkada. Her RFE was related to her job and specialty occupation. Who made the decision to apply as something she was not qualified for? It was her right. Something wrong was working before, but it doesn't anymore so the system is incorrect? What are you talking? There were already hundred of threads with DB people crying on RFEs. Why didn't you care then and worried now just for this article. Because she does everything in right way. Are you telling she needs to follow what jobless desis do all their life? Quote
Batman_fan Posted November 25, 2017 Report Posted November 25, 2017 20 minutes ago, Staysafebro said: Ade uncle. Adedo system antha kalisi thanaku anyayam chesinattu complaining akkada. Her RFE was related to her job and specialty occupation. Who made the decision to apply as something she was not qualified for? It was her right. Something wrong was working before, but it doesn't anymore so the system is incorrect? lol...system incorrect ani question adugutunava? anduke ne thinking ila edchindi. Quote
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