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Itihasika | इतिहासिका

Apr 26 • 21 tweets • 6 min read Twitter logo

Story of Appu & his Green Card by. Will answer all questions in comments

Appu a 25 year average guy, 3 point someone with no special talent had managed to get into IT body shop either via coding or systems analysis & living a half decent life by relative standards in India

There were daily 3 hour commutes ,traffic jams, congested city with air quality of Hitler’s gas chambers, taxes of Nordic nations but infra of Congo, office politics & chaos but Appu never consciously realize it. He had not seen any better & was haopy with friends & family

One day Appu’s life changes for ever when his manager says the magic words “you go onsite”. Appu doesn’t know much about the US other than what he has seen via movies or popular culture but the immediate benefit $1 = INR 81 can transform his life & he happily goes

In the first 2-3 years there’s 2 conflicting emotions - 1) the new place is obviously way better than India but 2) it’s not “home” & Appu feels lonely. The culture is too different like relearning life. In navigating this he doesn’t realize that his H1b is severely constraining

In the 3rd year biological, peer & parental pressure ensures that “getting married” is priority. In a quick India trips he marries using “phoren return” leverage. also realizes his H1 won’t last long, applies for a green card assuming that it will come though soon & saga starts

Appu doesn’t realize that US laws are relaxed for temporary work visas. 85k H1 are granted each other & unlimited L1s. They LOVE your taxes & low wage labor. But when it comes to permanent residency & citizenship - aha laws are strange. Let me take a simple restaurant example

A village with 10 houses with 4 members each has a restaurant that makes idlis. Capacity is 40 idlis production daily distribution

10 idlis for highly talented
10 idlis for semi literate
10 idlis for illiterate
10 idlis for the rich that can pay regardless of talent

Restaurant owner makes a rule to keep it fair & serve all villagers that a single house cannot have more than 1/10th of the idlis (I.e 4) which seems perfectly fine for the present situation. Hence for a while each house does get 4 idlis & each person gets an idli & all are happy

Slowly the demographic mix changes. Some houses end up not having kids & other houses have many. Some houses learn how to make idlis themselves & don’t have demand while others are totally dependent on restaurant

But the rule of 1/10th per house & capacity of 40 DOES NOT CHANGE

Chaos starts. Houses with 8 members & full dependency get only 4. Each day backlog of 4 idlis. Restaurant owner says. If quota of 10 for talented is unused then I’ll give it to semiliterate & if semiliterate is unused give it to illiterate. But production is still 40 idlis

For a while this works. But alas they aren’t the best in population control so soon they become 12 members. Some members of that house have started faking themselves as “talented” to consume that quota. And backlog for semi literate & literate keeps growing. This is GREEN CARD

In simple words. Employment Green Cards are limited per year.

EB1 = Talented
EB2 = basic bachelors
EB3 = masses
EB5 = $1 million investors

A single country cannot get more than 7% of total & if visas are unused in one category they trickle down

Thus India with a abjectly poor population of 1.4 billions desperate for green card has the exact same quota of 2500 GC per year per category as let’s say Monaco with high per capita no GC demand & few thousand people. GC is given based on country of birth.

Indian body shops started using a legal loophole & pushed average underpaid Appus as “multinational executive” and started consuming highly talented EB1 category. For yearly quota of 2500 EB2 & EB3 we have 10k + Indians leading to 100+ year wait times for applicants post 2014

GC is an extremely arduous with 4 steps
1) Prevailing wage - 8 months
2) PERM - 10 months
3) I140 - 8 months
4) GC - indefinite

each step is super complex & expensive. But if you clear I140 you can extend H1 for life & keep waiting for GC till death

People ask stupid questions like - you work for Google or Tesla - can’t your company get green card faster than some Indian chop shop? NO! USCIS gives GC not the employer. The law is same even if you’re Elon Musks favorite employee or a coder in Reddy & sons 20 person body shop

So our Appu is now in 15th year of US residency.Assets, house & retirement funds are in US, India has become somewhat alien & kids are fully American. Culture shock is a thing of distant past so he sees how obviously life in US is way better & dreads going back - but no GC

Appu has also understood that the Indian body shops pay half of what American companies pay & offer no career mobility but is too scared to change jobs as he’ll have to restart GC from step 1. He’s also permanently stressed - any issue with H1 & he’ll land back in India

In India Appu is the “phoren $ wala” but it just needs one bad day to send him back. The only folks who get it is his limited circle of other boring pot luck Tesla buying Appus whose only conversation high point is GC. He’s paid $1M + in taxes but is has no rights

There are millions of Appus. US lawmakers won’t do anything as Appu not a votebank. Indian government could care less as it gets the “Appu remittance”. Hindutva wadi uncles lesser said the better - they don’t do much other than cheerleading Trump. Appu is on his own

But all is not lost - Appu can try the following as per current law (law can change in future)

1) US citizen child can sponsor GC once they are 21
2) marry US citizen
3) Buy $1M investment GC
4) find indian body shop & legally scam using EB1

Comments & questions?

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