Kama Of Kingstone

Myself and Abhijit booked the flight in United from OAKLAND airport. As we are going to be in DC on Tuesday morning, this is the pretty decent flight with no-stop...We booked this thru www.kayak.com...
Mon, Sep 17, 2007 11:10 PM - OAK to IAD
Tue, Sep 18, 2007 6:52 PM - IAD to OAK

The price came ~$280

Venkey

I sent you a PM, can we team up? I need some more info!

A hearing today illustrates why tech groups are blocked on this issue

June 12, 2008 (Computerworld) WASHINGTON -- When U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) led a U.S. House hearing today on bills that would make it easier for highly educated foreign tech workers to stay in the U.S., she had almost everything she needed to make her case. Underscore the word almost.

At the hearing, Lofgren's legislative effort was backed by the leading professional engineering group, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE-USA); the Semiconductor Industry Association; and an academic group, the Association of International Educators.

What Lofgren didn't have was the support of everyone on her Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees, Border Security and International Law.

"I think we should give the high-tech industry the innovators they need," said fellow committee member Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). But what do lawmakers tell foreign workers who labor on farms and apply pesticides -- that "you're not really smart?"

Gutierrez called farm workers "just as critical and relevant to the innovation of that industry" as tech workers are to IT innovation. And he urged the committee to take a "holistic approach" to immigration so that the most vulnerable "are not stigmatized by actions of the Congress."

Gutierrez' argument encapsulated why efforts to raise the caps on H-1B visas and green cards face a difficult time in Congress. Last year's failed attempt at immigration reform has turned the issue into an all-or-nothing fight for many lawmakers, which has so far stymied efforts by tech groups to win support for expanding the H-1B cap. The outlook for Lofgren's effort is uncertain at best.
She recently introduced three bills intended to make it easier for U.S. firms to hire graduates of U.S. universities who earn a degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. One bill, HR 6039, would exclude these graduates from the annual 140,000 limit on skills-based employment visas. A companion bill was introduced earlier this month in the Senate by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).

In response to Gutierrez' argument, Edward Sweeney, who chairs the Semiconductor Industry Association's Semiconductor Workforce Strategy Committee and is vice president of worldwide human resources at National Semiconductor Corp., said his industry is dealing right now with the loss of "job creating talent."

Every day, said Sweeney, foreign graduates are returning home, where they create jobs "to compete against us." Gutierrez countered by describing the threat of deportation or the risk of jail facing an undocumented worker in a meatpacking plant.

Stating the case for the IEEE was Lee Colby, an electrical engineer and 36-year employee of Hewlett-Packard Co. who now runs his own circuit design consulting company. "At this point, it's difficult to get enough engineers in the United States to staff our research and development labs," said Colby, calling that situation "somewhat pitiful."

He continued: "We definitely need talent from overseas to correct this situation."

The only person on the panel called to testify in opposition was Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, who argued that highly skilled workers are not really that highly skilled.

"Contrary to the claims of the lobbyists, these workers aren't necessarily the best and brightest," said Krikorian, citing a study by Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis.

But Sweeney said the semiconductor industry applies for up to 4,000 green card workers a year and he said those workers, many with masters degrees and above, "are crucial" to product research. "They are making north of $100,000 a year," he said.

the pattern analysis is wrong.

the links to 13th & 27th are not working, only 06th & 20th are.

so, its every other friday, so it will be posted on Aug3rd.


btw, thats so funny about 'dead meat on finger... and concern about finger print...' great stuff i was LOL...

S

Can we start this action item to have this guy kicked out of CNN ?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fx--jNQYNgA

Let's send as many letters to CNN and get his ass fired.

agree with black tongue... at least we are much better than their scenario

Andy,

Did you mean September 2005 bulletin?
Now I assume there are 10,650 visas per country available from October 1, 2006; why the hell have priority dates for EB3 India moved by only 3 weeks? This is absolutely ridiculous.

I called the customer service # on 11/04 and the guy told me that he is sending email reguest for my FP and I got FP notice (my attorney's office also got one) on 11/13. Hope this helps.

gc4me can you please send me the phone number and combination of codes so that I can get them to send my FP notice, i am July 2nd filer as well.

If your COS application was approved and you didnt have to go out of US for H1B stamping I would assume your are in status.

I dont know if this would come up in RFE or at interview stage, but I wont worry about it unless the period was more than 180 days.
Thanks for the responses. How about this question ?
Is it out of status if one gets paid from 2 companies with
2 H1bs , like, If one is on bench but getting paid by that company, starts working with 2nd company on transferred H1b, so it is like double pay for about 2-3 weeks .

Eb3I may nudge forward a little bit. Sadly that won't be very helpful to most folks on this board. Visa recapture is the only thing that can help near term. In the interim, administrative fixes, rule clarifications, USCIS efficiencies in application processings, Data transparency, though not glamorous victories as say visa recapture. Nonetheless make the path somewhat more comfortable and predictable.
EB3ROW may move also.
The movement of EB2I will be quite revealing for me. If there is quarterly spillover(which under current rules should be the case) then we might see some forward movement or at the very minimum the dates should stay put. However if there is no quarterly spillover, then with the approvals in EB2 recently, they will be hard pressed not to move dates backward somewhat.

polygamy is not recognised under US immigration laws!
It's illegal to marry more than 1 person here..

I think, getting my visa re-stamped has become the most inhuman experience. I received my visa renewal I-797 in January 2008 and since I was visiting India in Feb 2008, I decided to get the remaining period (2 years) of my H1B visa stamped. I was not expecting any trouble since I had received my 2nd visa stamp just last year in March 2007. I thought it was impossible for the visa officer's to not have my information since I have been through the drill two times before. Unfortunately, on the Feb 11th, when I went to get my passport stamped, the Visa Officer started giving out blue handouts (this one is not even listed on the New Delhi embassy website) one after the other and sure enough to me too. She wanted to know what I did (Quality Engineer in a biotech company) and even while I was explaining she started chit chatting and laughing with her superior (I assume). Then she wanted to know about my experience of over 4 years in just three words. I was completely shocked. How could I sum up my experience in 3 words. I gave her my answer but was bluntly told to take the blue handout and send the questionnaire and resume as listed to a given email ID. I did that the next day, having no idea what I was getting into. It has been over 2 and a half months now and till date I have no idea what exactly is my fault and what is happening with my visa. The visa officer kept my and my wife's passports and I-797 form and around march 11th asked for my i-129 and other documents which I promptly gave at the embassy. Every time i have called the embassy or the DOS, I get the same response that the application is pending security check and no more details can be given. They refuse to understand that I have a life and home there and i have to pay my bills. I have lived in US for 8 years now and have also completed my master's there. Every month I have to call the utility companies, insurance company, post office and phone company to know what my bills are and have to pay them. Every two months I have to spend close to Rs 1800 to fedex checks to my friends so that they can pay my rent. I have had to cancel my flight tickets and suffered losses there. I have not even filed my tax returns for the year. My life is thrown completely out of gear and i have no idea how i will pay my rent and bills if my company decides to put me on unpaid leave or just terminates my employment. The consulates refuse to issue even a visitor visa so that we can go to US and dispose off our properties. How inhuman and arrogant can the get? How could we possibly become criminals overnight? How can they expect our employer's to retain us after such long delays (so guys have been stuck for 8 or more months)? Aren't they forcing unemployment unjustly on us without any reason if they cannot find anything wrong with our background later? What national security secrets act is preventing the phone visa specialists from disclosing exactly where we are in the process and what is stopping the progress? There are so many questions that need answers and all of us feel helpless as we continue to witness DOS destroy our credibility, careers, our credit history...almost everything that we have worked so hard to earn. How can they expect to build bridges with the world when they are hurting unjustly so many people (29 pages worth of numbers at delhi website and some 59 pages worth of numbers at the chennai website and God knows how many on other consulates worldwide. I have heard people spending some $5000 every month in Canada. This is horrible and some community organizations and law firms must talk to the DOS/Whitehouse about this issue. National Security is must but there must be better way than playing with the future of so many innocent people (99% most likely of which will have acceptable backgrounds).

Pls contact IV.

I worked for Everest Inc for the first six months in the US and I came through them. They were ok with me. Even though I left the company before 1 Year, they did not charge.

I am not sure whether we need to have a original 140. I never asked my employer and even they did not mention about that.

Both fax sent

I think I made a mistake by being sarcastic about the bill. Members assume that I have given up hope.

That is not true.

I am going to close this thread.

This was a joke on the bill and meant to point out the injustice. Please ignore this.

I have been to DC 4 times this year in 2007 and I or other core group members are not going to give up on amendments. And Aman has been there every 2 weeks. I am not kidding. He has been there either on Mon-Tue or Thu-Fri 2 times each month doing meetings in Senate offices and educating and finding sponsors. We are not going to give up now after all that hard work just because the bill is ridiculous.

Just because I am taunting the injustice of the bill doesnt mean that I or others have given up. WE ARE in position to put in amendments. How much, I dont know. But pretty sure that we will make a good amount of difference.

Guys, Could we concentrate on the developing situation, please?

Could you please call Senate offices expressing your opposition to Menendez amendment?
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5663

Negative testimony can be used by some to harp on issues or get some leverage. However let the truth be there. Not everyone will be happy with legal immigration reform. But in the end, support for these reform is good from business and the immigrants and they are the ones impacted. So I dont think whether republicans or democrats they will politicize the issue. CHC caucus members may considering its sour grapes for them.

For a moment, leave the IIT/merit/experience arguments aside...fact is US graduate schools get taxpayer funds...and one way or other students graduating in US get benefit from those taxes. Senators do not want their tax $$ investments to leave the country...that only is the reason they did something for US graduates in H1...this separate quota may or may not fly...as there is no direct benefit for US...stay on H1B and pay taxes good for usa :cool:

wrong.
Each MS student invests atleast 20k for his program [average]. He/She doesnot get any benefit from taxes. However, its the university benefits from foreign students. If you take CS/EE/science program atleast 50% of students would be foreigners [avg].

One of the main reasons why a Master's quota of 20k was added was to retain the "US educated" talent. I suppose we could argue on similar terms for GC quota for Masters students.

USCIS filing fees are a fraction of my attorney's fees. If this means faster processing, I am all for it.

- gs

Guys, Just wondering if I would need a copy of my Perm and I140 while invoking AC21. I do have a copy of the I140 but my desi employer would not support me in any way. Please let me know.

Count me in. I am in the same boat

Here are my details:
EB2 - India
PD:May 18,, 2004
I140 Approval: Jan 25, 2007
RD:July. 02, 2007
ND: Aug 02, 2007
Service Center: NSC

Guys, AC21 rule says "I-485 pending for more than 180 days". It doesn't require that you work for the petitioning employer for 180 days. Even if you work or not, as long as I-485 is pending for more than 180 days, you can invoke AC21.

USCIS will look if you still have "future" and valid offer of employment according to your LC. USCIS is not interested in the past but the future.

Yes, after 180 days of I-485 pending, such "future" offer for same/similiar job as in LC, should exist - from any employer.