April 4, 2007

I got out of Egypt...

.... And may have to get out of the US

As the festivities of Passover have drawn to a close, I logged on to my emails to check what has happened while I was retreating at the Seder table and celebrated my yearly regained spiritual freedom.

Little did I know... as the Jewish people was collectively rejoicing, my professional freedom got (potentially) clamped down by an announcement from USCIS, the US immigration authorities.

I am in the process of applying for an H1B visa and finally leave the company that has brought me here a little over 18 months ago. I have found a job that I was dreaming of, and a great company that had agreed to sponsor me for this visa, in spite of the kafkaian immigration laws in the US, which require the employer to extend an offer and sponsor a potential hire 6 months before the start date.

Alas, USCIS announced yesterday (April 3rd, 2007), 24 hrs after the opening filing date, that they had received 150,000 applications, for around 58, 000 visas available. The end result of this absurd system is that USCIS will hold a lottery to allocate the visas.

We are not talking about a Green Card, or a political asylum status. No, no, a simple work permit to the USA, valid for 3 years and renewable only once for another 3 years. Not the kind of work permit that allows the scary, under qualified and underpaid (that last attribute is true, though) foreign workers to suck the blood of bountiful America, and steal the jobs of its citizens.

This is the result of the "tighter" security measures implemented in the US post 9/11. Stupid, stupid, stupid measures. Do they think that this is doing any good to the US economy? Are we, the "aliens" the threat? Of course not.

But in the mean time, I have a poor record in ever winning a lottery. I did not even win a goldfish at my primary school annual raffle. I am not even talking about the fabulous prizes of the contests of Le Journal de Mickey that I religiously entered every now and then, but to no avail.

I have the feeling that these coming weeks, I will be feverishly checking my mailbox in the hope of finding a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket, in the form of a USCIS approved H1B petition. What else can I do?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Je serai donc la premiere a laisser un message sur le blog qui peut-etre fera basculer le congres en faveur de "l'immigration bill".
Ne check pas trop souvent ta mailbox and let's hope for the best whatever happens!
Toujours un plaisir de te lire en francais comme en anglais.