Tottally self serving statement, but if I had a green card, I probably would be doing something more inovative than what I am doing at my current job.
It is amazing the hoops that some people have to go thru, before being able to fully utilize their capabilities for this country (and themselves).
This is the only country where a foreign, after living for few decades, can get citizen ship AND can truly say they are "American". While a foreigner in an european country, will always remain a foreigner, even they get the citizenship, a second class citizen.
This simple but fundemental difference, is the one that will keep attracting young bright people to come to this country.
That is a huge competitive advantage against other really well developed countries.
Caveat: In the south, you will still remain and feel as a foreigner. But my fully american brother-in-law born in Iowa, said, he felt an foreigner himself when he travels to some part of USA
I agree...I feel quite shackled by the green card "process", which consists largely of incomprehensibly lengthy delays. It doesn't make me feel valued at all.
If I had it to do over, I would change this: get a PhD FIRST! If you educate in your own country and then come to the U.S., you are put into this magic bin that says you're better than everybody else, and 90% of the bull in the process is removed.
Really? Which magic bin is that? I've got a PhD from a foreign university and I'd like to get a green card at some point in the future. (Haven't started looking into it yet, still on a J1 visa.)
One example is Outstanding Researcher (highest preference category) EB1-OR, which can actually be filed in parallel with an application in a lower preference category.
Technically a PhD isn't necessary, but you're almost certain to have a PhD if you meet the actual requirements. If you have international recognition as being outstanding in a field, or significant experience in teaching or research, or you enter in a position of tenure at a university, you can accelerate your green card application with EB1-OR.
One reason I never even considered moving to Europe, but the US is getting really hard to get into. I am glad I moved here 12 years ago. Others are having a tough time and are often hostage to their companies since they can't change jobs easily.
The problem is how to quantify "smartness" in American immigration legal system.
For most young hackers like the ones in YC, the green card process becomes almost impossible for them because for new bachelor degree holders from a school outside U.S. without any significant working experience, they will be lumped as EB3 if they need a employer and 3 to 4 years in a queue and they need to work to make sure the employer won't go belly up during the process. Otherwise they have to walk a path like Auctomatic founders did to get E-1 or E-2 and they need some capital first to apply for E-1 or E-2 visas. If they apply for H-1B, they can not be the owners of their own company.
Current immigration system stresses heavily on academic achievements. But does a guy who finishes Ph.D. or master degree a good hacker? Not necessary. Is he/she a good innovators in product design or technology? Not necessary. Unfortunately, what U.S.A needs is potential stars like Robert Tappan Morris. But in current system, if RTM was convicted of a crime outside U.S., he will be denied of petition. (But I may be wrong because DVD Jon is in U.S. now)
If a smart kids can create a Google like company in Europe or China, it won't be his/her interest to immigrate to U.S. to pay big taxes here in coming years for social security deficiency and cost of Iraq war, right? But the current system puts too much stress on past achievements as a proof for "smartness". That may work before when pace of competition is not so fast as 1986, but it starts to be incompatible with current software/internet industry.
When green card process takes 4 to 5 years to finish, then only existing big companies can be reliable sponsors. while the real wealth creators are start ups and they are unable to get who they need. When a start up sponsors green card, immigration authority requires tax record (so the company has to exist for at least 1 calendar year), had some news paper reviews for product and blah blah blah so on. The authority will ask "what is techcrunch? the company is on techcrunch but did the company hit WSJ, USA today or NYT? Is this company a real company and not a sham? Oh, the company loses money, how do you guy can run this company for another 5 years to pay for this guy on petition?" Well, if we know the company will be in next 5 years, then it is not a start up just in Angel stage. It is already a serial A/B company.
I think the current system may be fixable, but if congress can not even figure out what went wrong (And believe me, I think they are clueness because they may never heard of YC :-) ) How can they fix the problem?
The USA definitely needs to make it easier for sharp foreign-born people to immigrate and work here. The public school system needs to be overhauled to provide better science and engineering education. However, these have been valid arguments for years - even before the 9/11 attacks and the rise of R&D in China and India.
I always wonder when the Economist leaves out basic economics. The locations in the USA where engineering, R&D and startup innovation are concentrated are also the most expensive places to live.
25 years ago, a research scientist or engineer could make $60K and buy a house in Livermore for $120K. Now, that same house is $1.2M but the salary for a research scientist is still $60K. The immigrant researchers and engineers who originally populated silicon valley now encourage their children to be doctors, lawyers, or increasingly to go into finance (Economics is now #1 major for Smart People).
This can be fixed one of two ways: pay engineers and researchers more, or build R&D centers in less expensive areas. Corporations are choosing the second option. Unfortunately (for americans), the less expensive areas they are moving R&D are located overseas.
America, at this point, only has an innovative edge. I believe this is the reason IP is such a hot debate. How can we tell other nations to keep worshiping us if they can simply take our ideas and manufacture their own copies? We need to OWN the ideas so any "leeching" off America's creativity can be monetized.
But as we know from HN. Idea is cheap and execution is most important part. So does IP really matter?
You can go to China to get a copied iPhone running on Linux with software written locally. But why do they copy iPhone instead of other phones? And why don't we copy "new things" from China, Germany? Wait, do they have new thing that we have not yet thought about?
What we dont need to innovation going is government involvement. What we do need is less regulation in areas affecting innovation. Immigration reform to let in highly skilled individuals (H1-B, etc), greater tax benefits for seeking science degrees and entrepreneurship, and ease costs on starting companies!
Tottally self serving statement, but if I had a green card, I probably would be doing something more inovative than what I am doing at my current job.
It is amazing the hoops that some people have to go thru, before being able to fully utilize their capabilities for this country (and themselves).
This is the only country where a foreign, after living for few decades, can get citizen ship AND can truly say they are "American". While a foreigner in an european country, will always remain a foreigner, even they get the citizenship, a second class citizen.
This simple but fundemental difference, is the one that will keep attracting young bright people to come to this country. That is a huge competitive advantage against other really well developed countries.
Caveat: In the south, you will still remain and feel as a foreigner. But my fully american brother-in-law born in Iowa, said, he felt an foreigner himself when he travels to some part of USA