manja
04-21 09:48 AM
Friends,
I will be relocating to Houston soon. I am new to the area. I would really appreciate if you can give your inputs on good neighborhoods, cost of living, etc.
Thanks,
nmdial
Welcome to H city! SugarLand and Katy have very good neighborhoods with lots of desis. A lot depends upon where your office located. Cost of living is in Houston is low compared to LA, NY. Homes are "affordable". But property taxes are high (average is above 3%). Food, gas and misc. services are cheap. Insurance and utility costs are high though. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
I will be relocating to Houston soon. I am new to the area. I would really appreciate if you can give your inputs on good neighborhoods, cost of living, etc.
Thanks,
nmdial
Welcome to H city! SugarLand and Katy have very good neighborhoods with lots of desis. A lot depends upon where your office located. Cost of living is in Houston is low compared to LA, NY. Homes are "affordable". But property taxes are high (average is above 3%). Food, gas and misc. services are cheap. Insurance and utility costs are high though. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
nayekal
08-18 05:12 PM
Guys,
I faced this problem myself. My wife was on H1 earlier and she never worked for a period of 1 year. At the beginning of the H1 period, we are expecting a baby and we took easy about her doing any job (its my fault). Later, market turned worse, it became to hard for her and her employer look for projects for her.
So, I contacted a lawyer (he is great). He told me that her status is H1 even though she is not working and she has to get back to H4. He assured me that they will for my documents more than her's and we filed as such and we don't even have her pay stubs or W2 forms.
She got in 45 days period and last week she went for H4 stamping, showing my documents. Yesterday, she got her passport back with H4 stamp.
I faced this problem myself. My wife was on H1 earlier and she never worked for a period of 1 year. At the beginning of the H1 period, we are expecting a baby and we took easy about her doing any job (its my fault). Later, market turned worse, it became to hard for her and her employer look for projects for her.
So, I contacted a lawyer (he is great). He told me that her status is H1 even though she is not working and she has to get back to H4. He assured me that they will for my documents more than her's and we filed as such and we don't even have her pay stubs or W2 forms.
She got in 45 days period and last week she went for H4 stamping, showing my documents. Yesterday, she got her passport back with H4 stamp.
myeb2gc
02-24 02:38 PM
Hi , My 140 is cleared. But my consulting company is smaller. I am in search of job, some marketing companys were asking me to change employer..... confused whether to stick with my employer OR change to a new employer.
innervoice
12-15 01:25 PM
^Many SriLankan husband .......
more...
jasmin45
02-26 10:53 AM
Hi one question,,,if I go home to my country to study using H4 while my GC is pending,then suddenly the GC was sent to my sister here in US,can my sister just mail my GC to me in my country so that if i go back here in the US,i can present my GC to the US immigration???uh!im confussed!thanks!
First of all you have an "If" in your question. So I belive this is for future plan.
Now, when you say "suddenly GC was sent to your sister here in US" I am comfused as to whether your sister has already got the GC in mail and you are outside US?
I would request you to provide some more information on your status and info such as Whether you have had/will have approved "AP" etc before you left/plan to leave this country for studies.
First of all you have an "If" in your question. So I belive this is for future plan.
Now, when you say "suddenly GC was sent to your sister here in US" I am comfused as to whether your sister has already got the GC in mail and you are outside US?
I would request you to provide some more information on your status and info such as Whether you have had/will have approved "AP" etc before you left/plan to leave this country for studies.
uma001
08-18 05:19 PM
Guys,
I faced this problem myself. My wife was on H1 earlier and she never worked for a period of 1 year. At the beginning of the H1 period, we are expecting a baby and we took easy about her doing any job (its my fault). Later, market turned worse, it became to hard for her and her employer look for projects for her.
So, I contacted a lawyer (he is great). He told me that her status is H1 even though she is not working and she has to get back to H4. He assured me that they will for my documents more than her's and we filed as such and we don't even have her pay stubs or W2 forms.
She got in 45 days period and last week she went for H4 stamping, showing my documents. Yesterday, she got her passport back with H4 stamp.
What Nayekal says is correct. Even though technically your wife is out of status but she may gey H1 to H4 transfer approved without paystubs. Now she has to file immediately for H11 to H4
I faced this problem myself. My wife was on H1 earlier and she never worked for a period of 1 year. At the beginning of the H1 period, we are expecting a baby and we took easy about her doing any job (its my fault). Later, market turned worse, it became to hard for her and her employer look for projects for her.
So, I contacted a lawyer (he is great). He told me that her status is H1 even though she is not working and she has to get back to H4. He assured me that they will for my documents more than her's and we filed as such and we don't even have her pay stubs or W2 forms.
She got in 45 days period and last week she went for H4 stamping, showing my documents. Yesterday, she got her passport back with H4 stamp.
What Nayekal says is correct. Even though technically your wife is out of status but she may gey H1 to H4 transfer approved without paystubs. Now she has to file immediately for H11 to H4
more...
nousername
07-22 07:44 PM
No, not at all.. It is just a safety net, which one can use if they switch to EAD i.e. use AC21.
Humhongekamyab
11-10 03:04 PM
By volunteering she is taking away a job of a US worker so the answer is no.
more...
ArkBird
07-09 04:22 PM
I think your asylum status is triggering red light. VO has all the reasons to believe that your family may also apply for asylum once they are in USA because you did even with strong family ties in home country.
Hope this helps.
ArkBird
My parents went to request for visitor visa for a second time. They got rejected again. This time only my parents applied, without my brothers. They showed the VO a letter stating reasons why they won't immigrate to the US (have 3 sons in Indonesia, taking care of elderly parent and have business & properties in Indonesia). The letter also stated that parents only want a short duration visa just to attend my wedding. All questions VO asked was about me, that I got asylum and didn't come back. Now I really don't know what to do. Should I include a notarized letter from me stating that I will make sure my parents go back to Indonesia within the allowed time? My parents don't have the intention to immigrate but I don't know how they can convince the VO.
I would really appreciate your advice. Thank you so much!
Hope this helps.
ArkBird
My parents went to request for visitor visa for a second time. They got rejected again. This time only my parents applied, without my brothers. They showed the VO a letter stating reasons why they won't immigrate to the US (have 3 sons in Indonesia, taking care of elderly parent and have business & properties in Indonesia). The letter also stated that parents only want a short duration visa just to attend my wedding. All questions VO asked was about me, that I got asylum and didn't come back. Now I really don't know what to do. Should I include a notarized letter from me stating that I will make sure my parents go back to Indonesia within the allowed time? My parents don't have the intention to immigrate but I don't know how they can convince the VO.
I would really appreciate your advice. Thank you so much!
GCard_Dream
07-13 04:42 PM
That means you have no reputation at all :D :D :D .. kidding.
I think all that means is that no one has given you any reputation point yet.
Wow!. I did not realise that. I an unknown quantity. What does that mean?
I think all that means is that no one has given you any reputation point yet.
Wow!. I did not realise that. I an unknown quantity. What does that mean?
more...
ek_akela
06-15 09:20 AM
I think if you can file extension before July 1st( when you are not current) you should be able to get 3 year extension..Experts! correct me if I am wrong!
:confused: My H1B is about to expire in Oct 2007 and I haven't yet filed for 7th year extension. I have approved I-140 with April 2006 PD. Should I file for 7th year ext. of H1B or I-485 or both? If I file for H1B extension, will I get 1 year ext. or 3 year ext? :confused:
:confused: My H1B is about to expire in Oct 2007 and I haven't yet filed for 7th year extension. I have approved I-140 with April 2006 PD. Should I file for 7th year ext. of H1B or I-485 or both? If I file for H1B extension, will I get 1 year ext. or 3 year ext? :confused:
keerthi
04-04 03:10 PM
Thanks for that reply. The company's business line is very niche and it started developing a technology for that niche market in India some 5 years back. I have been involved in the design and implementation of that technology right from its inception. In fact I am one of the core persons who designed and implemented the solution.
Our customer base is increasing in the US. This is one of the reasons why I need to be transferred to the US. Several of our customers are coming up with unique requirements and it requires me to analyze them before providing them a solution. Also, some features of the technology are governed by a large set of exacting standards put forth by a consortium in the US. I am one of the members of that consortium and my presence cum contribution for my company in this regard is very much required.
I possess extensive knowledge of my company's specific technology and software skills which are very rare (we do low level software development - not the ones that large software companies do). Also, there are only a handful of companies who deal with this market. I believe this should ideally classify me as a person having "specialized knowledge".
Am I right?
Our customer base is increasing in the US. This is one of the reasons why I need to be transferred to the US. Several of our customers are coming up with unique requirements and it requires me to analyze them before providing them a solution. Also, some features of the technology are governed by a large set of exacting standards put forth by a consortium in the US. I am one of the members of that consortium and my presence cum contribution for my company in this regard is very much required.
I possess extensive knowledge of my company's specific technology and software skills which are very rare (we do low level software development - not the ones that large software companies do). Also, there are only a handful of companies who deal with this market. I believe this should ideally classify me as a person having "specialized knowledge".
Am I right?
more...
shishya
09-27 01:12 AM
y not ask SEC or NASDAQ to file for your h1..... that should take care of things..... if u r making 10 trades in a day ..... during day time..... then u r actually not working in u'r real job..... y not have h1 for the job that u r really doing...... just trying to help by suggesting a way out.....
Helping by suggesting a way out? Wow, thanks! With all due respect, I'd request you to keep your opinion about who should file my H1B to yourself. I had a straightforward simple question, if you do not want to answer, so be it. And please mind your own business rather than judging if I am doing my job or not just coz I seem to be day trading. Think before you post crap. Thank you.
Helping by suggesting a way out? Wow, thanks! With all due respect, I'd request you to keep your opinion about who should file my H1B to yourself. I had a straightforward simple question, if you do not want to answer, so be it. And please mind your own business rather than judging if I am doing my job or not just coz I seem to be day trading. Think before you post crap. Thank you.
kirupa
01-06 12:57 PM
"Conflict of Interest" is my middle name...s.
:P
:P
more...
abhijitp
07-08 01:53 PM
07/08/2007: Massive Flower Send-In Campaign by Indian Community in Spirit of Mahatma Gandhi's Nonviolent Protest Against the Injustice Involving Visa Bulletin Fiasco
The East Indian community has been engaging in an interesting campaign sending a massive bouque of flowers with a message of protest to the leaders of the USCIS and the State Deparment, including Mr. Emilio Gonzalez, Director of USCIS and Dr. Rice, Secretary of Department of State relating to the ongoing Visa Bulletin commotion. Indians are the primary sources of foreign high-tech workers and the country's much needed sources of brains for the businesses and the employers, and it turns out that the current Visa Bulletin fiasco has hit most them and their U.S. employers. Considering the fact that the Congress sidelined foreign legal workers and brains as a backburner issue in the ill-fated CIR, the current Visa Bulletin fiasco appears to add the heat of outrage to the Congress' unfair and unjust treatment of the legal immigrants by leaders in this country. OUCH!
Thanks a lot for posting!
Please post the URL, always, if I may add.
The East Indian community has been engaging in an interesting campaign sending a massive bouque of flowers with a message of protest to the leaders of the USCIS and the State Deparment, including Mr. Emilio Gonzalez, Director of USCIS and Dr. Rice, Secretary of Department of State relating to the ongoing Visa Bulletin commotion. Indians are the primary sources of foreign high-tech workers and the country's much needed sources of brains for the businesses and the employers, and it turns out that the current Visa Bulletin fiasco has hit most them and their U.S. employers. Considering the fact that the Congress sidelined foreign legal workers and brains as a backburner issue in the ill-fated CIR, the current Visa Bulletin fiasco appears to add the heat of outrage to the Congress' unfair and unjust treatment of the legal immigrants by leaders in this country. OUCH!
Thanks a lot for posting!
Please post the URL, always, if I may add.
ps57002
10-10 05:42 AM
I'm working for nonprofit so am cap exempt...but I know my employer won't want to go through it all if it costs more $.
more...
chanduv23
01-21 05:56 PM
Concerning is most students do not know or care of these issues. All they want is to graduate find a job. Jobs are plenty thanks to 'Desi Consultants'.
The worst part many working pros who know of these issues hardly make an effort to work on a solution.
Either stay mum or fight for..IV members are the latter
True
All they care is catch a Desi Consultant and fake the resume So sad !!!!
This has become a trend now. Desi consultants prey on these fresh grads.
The worst part many working pros who know of these issues hardly make an effort to work on a solution.
Either stay mum or fight for..IV members are the latter
True
All they care is catch a Desi Consultant and fake the resume So sad !!!!
This has become a trend now. Desi consultants prey on these fresh grads.
Madhuri
07-18 11:21 AM
I also think that now at least we should think of making IV a paid site. Doubtful people always used to ask for results. IV has given a big answer to all these people. Why not at least make it paid for posting in the forums/starting a new thread?
Can you IM a core and ask them to put a link on main page...
Can you IM a core and ask them to put a link on main page...
alahiri
06-19 11:33 PM
In murthy.com website there is the following write up to explain how priority dates are significant after i485 has been filed:
From: http://www.murthy.com/news/UDpdhdtw.html
"If a person has already filed the I-485 application when the dates were current, but then the Visa Bulletin date retrogresses to a date before the priority date, the foreign national would still accrue the benefit of being able to remain in the U.S. with renewable EAD or work authorization and permission to travel, even after completing the six years on H1B status in the U.S. However, the I-485 could not be approved until the date again becomes "current.""
However my question is if priority dates really matter for i140 or i485 processing then what are the processing dates published by uscis all about?
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/ptimes.jsp
Can anyone please clarify wether priority dates really matter after i485 filing?
As I can see that in NSC i485 of Sept 2006 are being processed.
From: http://www.murthy.com/news/UDpdhdtw.html
"If a person has already filed the I-485 application when the dates were current, but then the Visa Bulletin date retrogresses to a date before the priority date, the foreign national would still accrue the benefit of being able to remain in the U.S. with renewable EAD or work authorization and permission to travel, even after completing the six years on H1B status in the U.S. However, the I-485 could not be approved until the date again becomes "current.""
However my question is if priority dates really matter for i140 or i485 processing then what are the processing dates published by uscis all about?
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/ptimes.jsp
Can anyone please clarify wether priority dates really matter after i485 filing?
As I can see that in NSC i485 of Sept 2006 are being processed.
wandmaker
11-16 11:38 AM
FYI - While I was talking to CSR regarding my AP. There was discussion about processing times, she told me that the new processing times will be posted this Friday.
waltz
08-24 02:05 PM
I'm sorry if this has been posted before, but the show is based on the following study:
************************************************
Kauffman Foundation Study Points to �Brain-Drain� of Skilled U.S. Immigrant Entrepreneurs to Home Country
Contacts:
Barbara Pruitt, 816-932-1288, bpruitt@kauffman.org, Kauffman Foundation
Tom Phillips, 212-935-4655, comptwp@aol.com, Communication Partners
More than a million skilled foreign nationals in the United States, including doctors and scientists, face mounting visa backlog
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Aug. 22, 2007 � More than one million skilled immigrant workers, including scientists, engineers, doctors and researchers and their families, are competing for 120,000 permanent U.S. resident visas each year, creating a sizeable imbalance likely to fuel a �reverse brain-drain� with skilled workers returning to their home country, according to a new report released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The situation is even bleaker as the number of employment visas issued to immigrants from any single country is less than 10,000 per year with a wait time of several years.
�The United States benefits from having foreign-born innovators create their ideas in this country,� said Vivek Wadhwa, Wertheim fellow with the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. �Their departures would be detrimental to U.S. economic well-being. And, when foreigners come to the United States, collaborate with Americans in developing and patenting new ideas, and employ those ideas in business in ways they could not readily do in their home countries, the world benefits.�
Conducted by researchers at Duke University, New York University and Harvard University, the study is the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants� contributions to the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Earlier research revealed a dramatic increase in the contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property over an eight-year period.
In this study, "Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain," researchers offer a more refined measure of this rise in contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property and seek to explain this increase with an analysis of the immigrant-visa backlog for skilled workers. The key finding from this research is that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the United States. This imbalance creates the potential for a sizeable reverse brain-drain from the United States to the skilled workers� home countries.
The earlier studies, �America�s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs� and �Entrepreneurship, Education and Immigration: America�s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part II,� documented that one in four engineering and technology companies founded between 1995 and 2005 had an immigrant founder. Researchers found that these companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in revenue in 2006. Indian immigrants founded more companies than the next four groups (from the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan and Japan) combined.
Furthermore, these companies� founders tended to be highly educated in science, technology, math and engineering-related disciplines, with 96 percent holding bachelor�s degrees and 75 percent holding master�s or PhD degrees.
Among key findings in the most recent report:
Foreign nationals residing in the United States were named as inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 percent of international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006. This represents an increase from 7.6 percent in 1998.
Foreign nationals contributed to more than half of the international patents filed by a number of large, multi-national companies, including Qualcomm (72 percent), Merck & Co. (65 percent), General Electric (64 percent), Siemens (63 percent) and Cisco (60 percent). Forty-one percent of the patents filed by the U.S. government had foreign nationals as inventors or co-inventors.
In 2006, 16.8 percent of international patent applications from the United States had an inventor or co-inventor with a Chinese-heritage name, representing an increase from 11.2 percent in 1998. The contribution of inventors with Indian-heritage names increased to 13.7 percent from 9.5 percent in the same period.
The total number of employment-based principals in the employment-based categories and their family members waiting for legal permanent residence in the United States in 2006 was estimated at 1,055,084. Additionally, there are an estimated 126,421 residents abroad also waiting for employment-based U.S. legal permanent residence, adding up to a worldwide total of 1,181,505.
Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, the authors find that, in 2003, approximately one in five new legal immigrants in the United States and about one in three employment-based new legal immigrants either planned to leave the United States or were uncertain about remaining. The authors had no data on how many foreign nationals have actually returned to their homelands.
�Given that the U.S. comparative advantage in the global economy is in creating knowledge and applying it to business, it behooves the country to consider how we might adjust policies to reduce the immigration backlog, encourage innovative foreign minds to remain in the country, and entice new innovators to come,� said Robert Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation.
About the research team
For more information about the Global Engineering and Entrepreneurship research at Duke University, visit http://www.globalizationresearch.com; visit http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/ to learn about Harvard Law�s Labor and Worklife Program; and visit http://www.nyu.edu/ for more information about New York University.
Read the report
************************************************
Kauffman Foundation Study Points to �Brain-Drain� of Skilled U.S. Immigrant Entrepreneurs to Home Country
Contacts:
Barbara Pruitt, 816-932-1288, bpruitt@kauffman.org, Kauffman Foundation
Tom Phillips, 212-935-4655, comptwp@aol.com, Communication Partners
More than a million skilled foreign nationals in the United States, including doctors and scientists, face mounting visa backlog
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Aug. 22, 2007 � More than one million skilled immigrant workers, including scientists, engineers, doctors and researchers and their families, are competing for 120,000 permanent U.S. resident visas each year, creating a sizeable imbalance likely to fuel a �reverse brain-drain� with skilled workers returning to their home country, according to a new report released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The situation is even bleaker as the number of employment visas issued to immigrants from any single country is less than 10,000 per year with a wait time of several years.
�The United States benefits from having foreign-born innovators create their ideas in this country,� said Vivek Wadhwa, Wertheim fellow with the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. �Their departures would be detrimental to U.S. economic well-being. And, when foreigners come to the United States, collaborate with Americans in developing and patenting new ideas, and employ those ideas in business in ways they could not readily do in their home countries, the world benefits.�
Conducted by researchers at Duke University, New York University and Harvard University, the study is the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants� contributions to the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Earlier research revealed a dramatic increase in the contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property over an eight-year period.
In this study, "Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain," researchers offer a more refined measure of this rise in contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property and seek to explain this increase with an analysis of the immigrant-visa backlog for skilled workers. The key finding from this research is that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the United States. This imbalance creates the potential for a sizeable reverse brain-drain from the United States to the skilled workers� home countries.
The earlier studies, �America�s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs� and �Entrepreneurship, Education and Immigration: America�s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part II,� documented that one in four engineering and technology companies founded between 1995 and 2005 had an immigrant founder. Researchers found that these companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in revenue in 2006. Indian immigrants founded more companies than the next four groups (from the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan and Japan) combined.
Furthermore, these companies� founders tended to be highly educated in science, technology, math and engineering-related disciplines, with 96 percent holding bachelor�s degrees and 75 percent holding master�s or PhD degrees.
Among key findings in the most recent report:
Foreign nationals residing in the United States were named as inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 percent of international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006. This represents an increase from 7.6 percent in 1998.
Foreign nationals contributed to more than half of the international patents filed by a number of large, multi-national companies, including Qualcomm (72 percent), Merck & Co. (65 percent), General Electric (64 percent), Siemens (63 percent) and Cisco (60 percent). Forty-one percent of the patents filed by the U.S. government had foreign nationals as inventors or co-inventors.
In 2006, 16.8 percent of international patent applications from the United States had an inventor or co-inventor with a Chinese-heritage name, representing an increase from 11.2 percent in 1998. The contribution of inventors with Indian-heritage names increased to 13.7 percent from 9.5 percent in the same period.
The total number of employment-based principals in the employment-based categories and their family members waiting for legal permanent residence in the United States in 2006 was estimated at 1,055,084. Additionally, there are an estimated 126,421 residents abroad also waiting for employment-based U.S. legal permanent residence, adding up to a worldwide total of 1,181,505.
Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, the authors find that, in 2003, approximately one in five new legal immigrants in the United States and about one in three employment-based new legal immigrants either planned to leave the United States or were uncertain about remaining. The authors had no data on how many foreign nationals have actually returned to their homelands.
�Given that the U.S. comparative advantage in the global economy is in creating knowledge and applying it to business, it behooves the country to consider how we might adjust policies to reduce the immigration backlog, encourage innovative foreign minds to remain in the country, and entice new innovators to come,� said Robert Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation.
About the research team
For more information about the Global Engineering and Entrepreneurship research at Duke University, visit http://www.globalizationresearch.com; visit http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/ to learn about Harvard Law�s Labor and Worklife Program; and visit http://www.nyu.edu/ for more information about New York University.
Read the report
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