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Comment by FreedomToCreate | Hacker News Reader

I have worked in the United States for 10 years on a non-immigrant visa (I have no other way to work in the United states and 7 years of H1-B lottery have yielded nothing). I have paid more than six figures in taxes to the Feds, as well as contributed to an American business and being an active community member. I have no path or way to immigrate to the United States nor can I use by past decade of contributions in any way. Its a slap in the face when I read about people literally buying there way in and corrupt politicians and businessman manipulating the system without consequence.

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This how you know things are broken when someone who's been here a decade, paying their way and contributing, gets tossed out as soon as the wind blows a different direction. We're just shooting ourselves in the foot and missing out on a lot of good people.

Its a mistake to assume that the American system is fair or corruption free. To a certain extent, corruption and shadiness exist everywhere.

America is a great country but you kinda have to assume the worst and live life accordingly. Which means hustling all the time, looking at alternative ways etc. I know a whole bunch of folks who have married specifically for immigration reasons (some of them admit it, most don't).

I'm not saying that you do any of those things and I empathize with you. I guess the only place where I fault you is in assuming the American system is fair and corruption free, which it totally is not.

>>I know a whole bunch of folks who have married specifically for immigration reasons (some of them admit it, most don't).

To be perfectly clear, this is immigration fraud and it’s extremely illegal.

I'd wager most marriages (by a large margin) that result in a green card happened at that specific time because of the green card. Otherwise they'd have waited longer. I guess it's technically illegal but so is jaywalking in NYC.

If you paid 10 years into social security, you are eligible for payments, wherever you are in the world.

https://www.ssa.gov/international/agreement_descriptions.htm...

The EB5 is still running if you can lend $500k for about six years.

>Its a slap in the face when I read about people literally buying there way in

Why? The US is a capitalistic society and more so than other countries such as those in Europe. Presumably you liked the US because it is such a capitalistic society with high pay, slightly lower taxes, etc. Paying to get in is pretty much the definition of capitalism.

So in your world view, bribery should be absolutely allowed than? You have a piece of land I want, but the law prevents me from stealing it from you and you won't sell. So I grease the hand of the local authorities and get them to take it via eminent domain, pay you some cash for compensation and just take it. I have more capital so its fair... We go to court, but since I have more money I'll just grease the hand of the judge.

I quoted a specific part of what you said for a reason. The only dubious thing they did was get the cap for investment lowered from $1m to $500k. The lower cap does not change the fundamental issue you stated which was paying for citizenship. Merely changes how much they had to pay.

So on that point, buying your way in is not bribery if the legal system allows it. It's merely paying for a service from the government. For example, I pay the government to register my car, to get permits for work I'm doing or get a concealed gun permit. In this case they're paying for citizenship. This is also merely one way to pay for citizenship, little different than the usual "pay $100+k for a US college degree so my child gets OTP and can apply for a H1B."

The US doesn't have lower taxes like you think it does.

I said slightly lower and overall it's true depending on the exact US state and European country being compared. For high income brackets which is presumably what an immigrant would be aiming for. Also some countries tax individuals while others tax employers for the same thing which makes comparisons difficult. Then there's VAT which is objectively larger than even the largest US sales tax.

> Paying to get in is pretty much the definition of capitalism

It's not. Paying to get in like this is depriving not only OP but more importantly, the intended beneficiaries of such schemes.

As the article points out, the total number of visas "may have easily claimed an entire year’s worth of visas issued under EB-5". Which leads to:

"The cap on visas also serves as a cap on available financing. If a project like Hudson Yards accounts for a whole year’s worth of EB-5 visas, it also consumes a year’s worth of financing meant for projects in low-opportunity places."

What about the 'payment' that generations of residents of Harlem made? If this was done fairly, neither the residents of low-opportunity places nor OP would feel slapped.

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