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Comment by microarchitect | Hacker News Reader

This is the #1 reason why I won't stay in the US after my phd. I have no interest in being a random CEO whim away from either having to uproot my life and move back home or frantically try to land a new job all in the short period of 15 days.

For those curious the #2 reason is that H1Bs make it hard to do even simple extracurricular activities like writing books or do consulting on the side related to an open source project you contribute to let alone start a company.

The H1B is fundamentally broken and I'm amazed that so many people put up with it. Credit to the US for being such a desirable destination, I guess.

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There are fast tracks to permanent residence after a PhD [1]. But if you don't want to immigrate (owe US taxes for foreign income, etc.) then you're right. Staying on H1B is no way to live.

[1] http://www.uscis.gov/eir/visa-guide/entrepreneur-visa-guide#...

Well, what if you are in another country working for a company (say Microsoft) on a visa, even though you are American.

> The H1B is fundamentally broken and I'm amazed that so many people put up with it. Credit to the US for being such a desirable destination, I guess.

There are plenty of countries with more broken visa policies (I've lived here for almost 8 years and still don't qualify for permanent residency).

Where is "here"? :)

China.

I know people who have lived in the US easily that long and are still stuck on H1B.

Countries with worse policies are no excuse for the embarrassment that is the state of US immigration.

You can only be on a H1B for 6 years (3 years renewed twice). After that, its either greencard or go home for a few years, and everyone I know has been able to get greencards even if the "process" is kind of tough.

However, I cannot get a greencard in the country of my residence (where I have many coworkers with USA greencards, ironically enough), so I think it is not very fair.

You can stay longer than 6 years if you have a pending Green Card application.

Yes, but your GC application has to basically be approved by that point, and you are just waiting for a slot.

Well if you see the Q's on the workplace stack overflow about some of the "horrific" employment practices from India the H1B rules might seem liberal.

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