EB2 India Backlog Frustration

[Disturbia]

I'm in US on H1B FT job with approved I-140 and priority date of EB2 2012.
I am clueless as to when I'll be able to get EAD and pretty frustrated about it all. There's no timeline prediction thats accurate, and the backlog is frustrating.
Anyway, don't know how long it would take and its frustrating because I want to visit India without the stress of uncertainty in H1 visa stamping ( having got stuck in Hyderabad before as a contractor before I haven't visited India due to this uncertainty in visa stamping.
I don't have my family in US and this is hard due to the uncertainty of H1B visa stamping delays, EAD delays, delays for everything.

 

[xTDx]

It is what it is. Frustration will not  going to help anyone. You may get your PD current in about 2 years or may be less.

We all have choices, you made a choice to stick here. Better to spend your energy towards saving H4 ead and working in support of immigration reforms. Write to senators, talk to your friends at work, write on twitter, stand in protest , work with groups like Immigration Voice. High chance that it may not even work but at least you will learn something. Take part in DHS rule making process by making public comments. Fight or get frustrated. All countries have some form of social , economic or other issues like  immigration issues. 

Ask yourself what did you do to make things better ? That usually works for me. 

 

[Provence]

No one is forcing anyone to be in the US. As someone noted in your parallel thread, it is your personal decision. You could return to Hyderabad if you're homesick; as an Indian national, and this might come as a surprise, you have permission to work in India full time without worrying about visas or priority dates. 

[care_candidate]

@Disturbia

There are people here who have waited more than a decade. EB-2 India is one of the worst category to be in and EB-3 is close second. People visit visa bulletin each month for years and try to estimate when their own date will be current. We all know the risk of going for stamping and despite the fact that H-1b is intended for maximum of six years, people stay at that status for more than 15 years. It is not uncommon to complain about your situation but get this that there are hundreds of thousand people similar to yours.

In your case, for PD=2012, my estimate is that it will be at least to 3-4 years to become current - Hard to swallow but it is not far fetched. Having PD too old is not the only factor that affects here. There are thing such as number of candidates with you, resources available, political will, elections...and many more things that you have no control of even you are suffering.

Nobody forces candidates to work or stay and wait; it is your best choice you opt.

[User18]

On 2/27/2019 at 2:05 PM, xTDx said:

It is what it is. Frustration will not  going to help anyone. You may get your PD current in about 2 years or may be less.

We all have choices, you made a choice to stick here. Better to spend your energy towards saving H4 ead and working in support of immigration reforms. Write to senators, talk to your friends at work, write on twitter, stand in protest , work with groups like Immigration Voice. High chance that it may not even work but at least you will learn something. Take part in DHS rule making process by making public comments. Fight or get frustrated. All countries have some form of social , economic or other issues like  immigration issues. 

Ask yourself what did you do to make things better ? That usually works for me. 

 

Very Very encouraging post!! What we do for others to make their life is profound! 

Even for our freedoms, even drafting H1B proposals and green card laws ....someone has worked hard, fought and sweet hard for us to be where we are today. 

It's unfortunate lot of Indians take things for granted and worry only about their situation/family and Never thought or think or remember about the people who fought for us in the past. 

[Disturbia]

Thanks all for responding. Well true its our choice whether to stay or not. But when we start family here, we have to count on their future as well , not us alone anymore.

I want to know if the visa stamping in India has really gone downhill whereby admin processing has spiked after the H1B scrutiny?

[Provence]

All H1B workers are expected to maintain a primary residence outside the US at all times. H1/H4 are non-immigrant visas. 

The spike in RFEs and elevated scrutiny have a set of reasonings behind them. The spike in H1b abuse.. padded resumes, fake experiences, shady employers.. all have combined to raise USCIS' suspicions. It's just not me saying it, it's well documented in Indian newspapers where 70% of H1 visas are approved. USCIS has caught up to the abuse over the years. 

[hary536]

On 3/7/2019 at 3:36 PM, Provence said:

All H1B workers are expected to maintain a primary residence outside the US at all times. H1/H4 are non-immigrant visas. 

The spike in RFEs and elevated scrutiny have a set of reasonings behind them. The spike in H1b abuse.. padded resumes, fake experiences, shady employers.. all have combined to raise USCIS' suspicions. It's just not me saying it, it's well documented in Indian newspapers where 70% of H1 visas are approved. USCIS has caught up to the abuse over the years. 

H1 is a dual-intent visa. Not just non-immigrant. 

[Provence]

13 hours ago, hary536 said:

H1 is a dual-intent visa. Not just non-immigrant. 

Agreed. But at it's core, H visas are non-immigrant that are liable to be revoked/cancelled at any time and the holder be subject to an exit from the US. Therefore, as I stated, non-immigrants are expected to maintain a primary residence outside the US. 

[hary536]

3 hours ago, Provence said:

Agreed. But at it's core, H visas are non-immigrant that are liable to be revoked/cancelled at any time and the holder be subject to an exit from the US. Therefore, as I stated, non-immigrants are expected to maintain a primary residence outside the US. 

I don't know about the legality of your statement: "That H1Bs are expected to maintain a primary residence outside the US" unless you can reference a legal document.

But, let's not get side-tracked from the main topic of this thread. There is nothing wrong with the OP expression his frustration. It's well known joke among the legal community that it is easier to get legally immigrated by following illegal path rather than following legal path that includes wait for years and years. Yes, that's a choice he/she made by working on H1B. As you said "No one forced you".

However, this whole visa stamping process is a BS. Hence, frustration is natural.

Why can't they do whatever checking they want to do at the time of H1B approval instead of doing the checks at the time of visa. Why is no one talking about this? If you approved H1B petition, then why create issues at H1B visa stamping. Why don't you all the required checks before approving H1B petition? 

 

[care_candidate]

On 3/7/2019 at 5:36 PM, Provence said:

All H1B workers are expected to maintain a primary residence outside the US at all times. H1/H4 are non-immigrant visas. 

The spike in RFEs and elevated scrutiny have a set of reasonings behind them. The spike in H1b abuse.. padded resumes, fake experiences, shady employers.. all have combined to raise USCIS' suspicions. It's just not me saying it, it's well documented in Indian newspapers where 70% of H1 visas are approved. USCIS has caught up to the abuse over the years. 

Everything you said is unequivocally true!

[care_candidate]

On 3/15/2019 at 1:12 PM, hary536 said:

I don't know about the legality of your statement: "That H1Bs are expected to maintain a primary residence outside the US" unless you can reference a legal document.

But, let's not get side-tracked from the main topic of this thread. There is nothing wrong with the OP expression his frustration. It's well known joke among the legal community that it is easier to get legally immigrated by following illegal path rather than following legal path that includes wait for years and years. Yes, that's a choice he/she made by working on H1B. As you said "No one forced you".

However, this whole visa stamping process is a BS. Hence, frustration is natural.

Why can't they do whatever checking they want to do at the time of H1B approval instead of doing the checks at the time of visa. Why is no one talking about this? If you approved H1B petition, then why create issues at H1B visa stamping. Why don't you all the required checks before approving H1B petition? 

 

Your last statement is not true.

WHen they "approve" H1b, if you read I-797 carefully, it says this is not a visa. A visa to USA, can be only obtained outside US, in normal circumstances. This is applicable to extensions and change of status also. At Consulate, you are expected to go through formal process of application and/or interview. There are different departments related to approval and admission process.

USCIS: Adjudicative decisions performed at the service centers (Formerly INS)

CBP: Admission at port - Border agency of DHS

DHS: Protect US within and borders and more

Consulate: Work with US and foreign law enforcement to combat international crime; And issue visa

[hary536]

On 3/23/2019 at 7:41 PM, Noah Lott said:

COs determine visa eligibility....which is more than reading a piece of paper written by some attorney or (worse) a credential evaluator...I have come across numerous phony H1B applicants, with phony diplomas or experience letters...a few questions to them that they could not answer, back to USCIS the petition went....I had a computer terminal at one embassy set aside for the alleged software programmers (who were really going to sweep the floors at some IT business in the US)...sat 'em down at the terminal and defied them to write some easy programs...others had ineligibilities they tried to hide...there are no shortcuts....petition approval is a joke....mostly a rubber stamping process...it takes focused COs to root out the phony workers from the real ones....and there are numerical limits in certain visa categories as well....and just so many people can be employed to do the various jobs in immigration....it would take a long time to completely background each and every visa applicant...

If things are happening as you say"terminal to write easy programs...",etc, then why not do that process before approving H1B application. Why wait until visa application? Those "so-called" phony H1Bs you are talking about, are still allowed to work in US on H1B(if they are already in US) and don't even need a visa to work. 

 

[hary536]

On 3/18/2019 at 5:25 AM, care_candidate said:

Your last statement is not true.

WHen they "approve" H1b, if you read I-797 carefully, it says this is not a visa. A visa to USA, can be only obtained outside US, in normal circumstances. This is applicable to extensions and change of status also. At Consulate, you are expected to go through formal process of application and/or interview. There are different departments related to approval and admission process.

USCIS: Adjudicative decisions performed at the service centers (Formerly INS)

CBP: Admission at port - Border agency of DHS

DHS: Protect US within and borders and more

Consulate: Work with US and foreign law enforcement to combat international crime; And issue visa

I never said "H1B approval is equal to visa". What I meant was why not do all the checks they do during visa interview, beforehand at the time of application, so that then there is less need for 221g cases and saves lot of hassle for the H1B applicant wasting time in his home country while waiting for the checks that USCIS could have done before H1B application approval. 

I wonder, how many of you have actually gone through the H1B 221g process?(in-spite of not being a phony applicant)

[care_candidate]

7 hours ago, hary536 said:

I never said "H1B approval is equal to visa". What I meant was why not do all the checks they do during visa interview, beforehand at the time of application, so that then there is less need for 221g cases and saves lot of hassle for the H1B applicant wasting time in his home country while waiting for the checks that USCIS could have done before H1B application approval. 

I wonder, how many of you have actually gone through the H1B 221g process?(in-spite of not being a phony applicant)

Funny thing but few years ago, I got rejection based on 221g in first attempt. At that point I had no idea how to improve as everything was genuine and there was no way to make any amendments. So I merely waited for a month and tried my luck second time. Same questions, same answers and got visa!

My impression was that they want to make some extra money from application fees. That may be true but it really depends on who interviews you. There is no such standard scale to determine applicant's qualification.

Not fair but fact...