Obama wants to hear your idea

[naushit]

President elect Obama has just launched http://change.gov

and here http://change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople They are inviting ideas for changes and one of the check box is "immigration" .

Guys, let them hear our voice?

[eb3_2004]

Just added mine...

[amitjoey]

done

[GCOP]

I also sent message to President-Elect to expedite Emplyment Based Immigration cases for Permanent Residency: By Passing HR 5882 or By temporarily increasing Employment based visa Numbers until backlog is cleared.
Every one of us should send suggestions. It may help us. At least, we should try. Let us hope for some good news in Lame duck session or in new congress and New Administration.
http://www.change.gov/agenda/immigration/

[DDash]

Just sent in my request abt immigration.

[arunmohan]

Can someone post a sample of message, So everyone can use it.

[amitjoey]

Can someone post a sample of message, So everyone can use it.



The Employment based green card system is completely broken due to excessive delays and backlogs in petitions of nearly half a million highly skilled workers who are certified by US Government to be doing a job that no US citizen is willing, qualified or able to do. The delays in obtaining a permanent residency are due to 2 reasons: Numerical caps on employment-based green cards and processing delays in adjudication of files. Today the system takes anywhere between 6-12 years to grant Green cards to some of the best and brightest of the world who have chosen America as their future home.
The processing delays mock America’s respect for those who “play by the rules” and get in line.
Yours truely,
Frustrated, law abiding, tax paying immigrant

[dagabaaj]

http://change.gov/agenda/immigration/

At least someone has called out the issues. even if they are at a high level there is an opportunity to say something. I think if our lobbying has gone right then we may actually have some leverage.

[dagabaaj]

Good sample. But I feel that the line ...to be doing a job that no US citizen is willing, qualified or able to do. is a little off color. Does not really show us having respect to the existing population. Let's not put words in the wrong mouths. Just my opinion everyone is free to say as they please.

[gc_on_demand]

Guys come on this takes 2-3 minutes.. Please take part in posting this message. We need Digital2k... he is good in motivating people..

[javadeveloper]

The Employment based green card system is completely broken due to excessive delays and backlogs in petitions of nearly half a million highly skilled workers who are certified by US Government to be doing a job that no US citizen is willing, qualified or able to do. The delays in obtaining a permanent residency are due to 2 reasons: Numerical caps on employment-based green cards and processing delays in adjudication of files. Today the system takes anywhere between 6-12 years to grant Green cards to some of the best and brightest of the world who have chosen America as their future home.
The processing delays mock America’s respect for those who “play by the rules” and get in line.
Yours truely,
Frustrated, law abiding, tax paying immigrant

this message looks good , but someone please come up with best message.amitjoey I don't mean to hurt you , but looking for the much more best/perfect/convincing/pleasing message to the president of USA

[amitjoey]

This is ofcourse a very generic message and something basic which I expect each one of you to take and elaborate or take as a guide and change/alter and write in your own words. And we do not want everybody to take a perfect message and parrot it. That would look like a single person copy-pasting it 1000 times. Please personalise it and write it. There are 1000's (1/2 million) individuals affected and it should look like that.

Please post on the Obama site, fax in your FOIA letters. Thats the least anybody can do right now to help themselves.

[mailsunnydeol]

Can someone post a sample of message, So everyone can use it.

Most of the Employment based Immigrants are highly skilled. Their potential needs to be tapped. Providing them faster Green Cards will let them position themselves as entrepreneurs bringing in new jobs to American citizens. They participate significantly in building the money pool for the federal and state government tax banks.

[belmontboy]

The Employment based green card system is completely broken due to excessive delays and backlogs in petitions of nearly half a million highly skilled workers who are certified by US Government to be doing a job that no US citizen is willing, qualified or able to do. The delays in obtaining a permanent residency are due to 2 reasons: Numerical caps on employment-based green cards and processing delays in adjudication of files. Today the system takes anywhere between 6-12 years to grant Green cards to some of the best and brightest of the world who have chosen America as their future home.
The processing delays mock America’s respect for those who “play by the rules” and get in line.
Yours truely,
Frustrated, law abiding, tax paying immigrant

Good sample, but it would be better to add a little history about yourself. This might include how you contributed to economy, society. This gives an edge over illegals. Also you could add what problems we have to go through bcoz of this wait, and how will fixing this problem help immigrants help US economy.

[laborchic]

This is a very good idea and we all should write a personalized message pointing towards the same goal.

President-elect seems to be very IT savvy and may be this may help...

Have your spouses and kids fill up their own opinion.

[Dipika]

The Employment based (EB) green card system is completely broken due to excessive delays and backlogs in 485 petitions of nearly half a million highly skilled workers, who are certified by US Government to be doing a job that no US citizen is willing, qualified or able to do.
The delays in obtaining a permanent residency are due to 2 reasons:
(1) Numerical caps on employment-based green cards and
(2) processing delays in adjudication of files.
Today the system takes anywhere between 6-12 years to grant Green cards to some of the best and brightest of the world who have chosen America as their future home.
The processing delays mock America’s respect for those who “play by the rules” and get in line.
Yours truely,
Dipika
Frustrated, law abiding, tax paying immigrant since more than 8 years (2000).

[bobzibub]

The economy is heading into the crapper right now.
That will be headache #1 for early 2009. So it would benefit us to make an economic argument. I'll write something up in a bit....

[gccovet]

It would be great if we can quote URL's from the past (pro eb3 immigration stories) from newspapers, media etc. in the message.
GCCovet

[jnraajan]

Pappu

Can you move this thread to the main page? I think we should all write to him now..

[ups]

just submitted that idea. I think this can be very helpful. Can we make this as action item?

[skc526]

abt Visa recapture and quota increase. I would suggest everyone to spend 2 mins to fill out the form

[amitjoey]

Check this out:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=government&articleId=9119398&taxonomyId=13&intsrc=kc_top

[needhelp!]

Please address Highly skilled employment based green card backlogs of 6 - 12 years!!

Thousands, highly educated and contributing to the US economy are stuck in an endless wait for green cards, with careers stagnating (cannot change job description while green card is in process, or start all over again), not to mention the legal hassles, travel restrictions, and years and years of a state of limbo, not knowing whether you can finally settle down, not able to make long-term decisions.

Ideas:
- Recapture unused green card visa numbers from previous years
- Remove discriminatory country quotas for skill-based green cards
- Make administrative fixes to allow job portability during process.

[mayhemt]

Overhaul the current immigration system towards a healthier system with clear & concise regulations, which empower US, the employer & the legal immigrant.

Current Issues (Temporary Legal Immigrant worker):
H1 Cap Limitation.
H4 visa holder (spouse of an H1 worker) cannot apply for Employment, unlike L2(spouse of an L1 worker).

(Beneficiary of Permanent Legal Immigrant):
Huge wait periods due to backlog (sometimes 7 years - During this period one starts thinking about approaching Cuba or Columbia for citizenship & then coming to US for permanent residency/citizenship).
Restrictions on applying for Spouse: A legal resident cannot apply for adjustment of status for his/her spouse until a Visa number is available.

[glub]

Sent this:

Legal and high-skilled potential immigrants are on the receiving end of the immigration reform quagmire. I, along with thousands of highly educated, qualified, tax-paying immigrants have been in a long queue for permanent residency for the most part of a decade now. We were educated by American universities, work for American companies that have proved to the labor department that they could not find qualified American workers, create shareholder wealth in the American economy and live for years as part of the American melting pot. But still the queue to a green card never ends. This queue is an artificially created one, with random country-based limits and random interpretation of rules that change at random times.

The Legal immigration process in America is DYSFUNCTIONAL and has been for decades.

CHANGE NEEDS TO COME HERE TOO. There are thousands of honest workers with high-paying jobs who are NOT BUYING HOMES ONLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO GREEN CARD.

Clearing their path to permanent residency is critically important now more than ever.

[arc]

^^Bump^^

The website is for ideas not for petitioning, but its all good hope someone reads this...

[sri1309]

All,

Please do. I did it yesterday. We never had this opportunity before.. This is called CHANGE trying to knock our door too. So open the door, when it knocks.. Please send in your views. Tell them " We too need the change". And we would also want to say "Yes we can"..

[guy03062]

Submitted the concerns of EB green card delays and possible solutions.

[piyu7444]

Submitted the concerns of EB green card delays and possible solutions.

I raised the concern of delay in GC as well as CIS work culture. HOPE someone reads it. There is a CHANGE WE NEED.

[drirshad]

I am a qualified PhD working in the US for the past 12 years and still has my employment based immigration petition pending. This is due to my country of birth being India, compared to any other country like UK, Canada, Australia even EU that are much faster in this regard it is taking away a huge part of professional life to immigrate to the USA. I have already seen many qualified people return to home or other countries due to this backlog. The Employment based immigration system must be fixed to keep the edge US have from qualified immigrants by passing the HR 5882 Bill as soon possible otherwise the land of opportunities has already lost the charm for the people planning to come here and can also effect the people who have dedicated their lifetime being here. Change is required for the qualified immigrants.

[copsmart]

Please check the “Immigration” checkbox and quote “Employment Based Green Card” under “Another issue” section/textbox.

Together, we can make a difference and make our voices heard.
Let's keep this going!

[Jaime]

sent

[gc_dega_gandhigiri]

Sent for me and my spouse.

The Employment based green card system is completely broken due to excessive delays and backlogs in petitions of nearly half a million highly skilled workers who are certified by US Government to be doing a job that no US citizen is willing, qualified or able to do. The delays in obtaining a permanent residency are due to 2 reasons: Numerical caps on employment-based green cards and processing delays in adjudication of files. Today the system takes anywhere between 6-12 years to grant Green cards to some of the best and brightest of the world who have chosen America as their future home.
The processing delays mock America’s respect for those who “play by the rules” and get in line.
Yours truely,
Frustrated, law abiding, tax paying immigrant

[GCplease]

Posted the following yesterday -

The economy is in a pretty bad state. I appreciate what the Congress is trying to achieve by the Rescue Plan. And, I have the utmost confidence in the sharp minds we have in people like Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke , present Treasury Secretary Paulson and whoever is going to take over the Treasury Secretary role in the Obama Administration.

On top of the Rescue Plan, we need to somehow fix the Housing crisis which started all of this. We need to figure out a way to add home buyers. Now, where are the buyers, you may ask. There is surprisingly an easy answer – Employment based Legal Immigrants. These are immigrants who came into this country legally, pay their taxes and social security and who apply for their Employment based Green Cards, the legal way.

There is a huge backlog of employment based legal immigrants who are waiting to get their Employment based permanent residency (Green card). There are approximately 750,000 applicants in line. This backlog has been caused by the annual quota of employment based green cards whose annual limit (140,000) was set decades ago.

These are the immigrants who have already passed through two stages of immigration processes – the Labor Certification where it has been verified that no American talent has been available for the Job Descriptions these immigrants were hired for and The I-140 where the employer is verified to be a genuine employer with financial ability to pay for the immigrants so that they don’t become a liability for the state. They are in the final stage of the Green Card process where this huge back log is.

On top of this, visas not used on a calendar year due to enough resources not available to process them, are wasted. Over the years, these un-used visas amount to around 250,000.

Increasing the annual quota of employment based Green cards from 140,000 to 300,000 would be ideal. Even Microsoft’s Bill Gates has supported this idea in his recent Congressional testimony on March 12, 2008. But that would require the act of Congress and the Senate and it needs to take its course. We need an immediate solution. Re-capturing the unused visas just needs some administrative fixes and this has been done in the past as recent as 2005.

Senator John Cornyn is working on an Amendment that would allow the Department of State and DHS to recapture unused employment based visas. Refer -
http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ForPress.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=E3CA3FF5-802A-23AD-4A46-BA89FCCC0735

In this he states,

“This (recapture) is not an increase in employment-based numbers but rather, a direction for the agencies to use all the visa numbers that are available today”.

If these unused visas are captured and issued to the Employment based legal immigrants, who have stayed in the country for at least 6 years, we are adding a significant amount of home buyers to the economy.

These immigrants will eventually get their Green Cards in 2 to 4 years. Why not give it to them now so that it will be beneficial to the ailing economy.

The 250,000 un-used visas that are captured and the annual quota of 140,000 employment based Greencards for 2008 amounts to 390,000 green cards which amounts to approximately 195,000 families getting a green card.

Employment based legal immigrants (EB1, EB2 and EB3) who have stayed in the country for 6 years are economically well off and have excellent credit history. Once they get a Green Card, they'll feel more secure and think about buying a home and settling down.

Of the 195,000 families, 25 % may already own a home. 25% may not have the intention of buying a home due to various reasons. Even if the remaining 50 % buy a home, approximately 100,000 homes will be taken off the market. This will act as the much needed catalyst and will ease the Housing crisis a little bit.

Hopefully the benefits of the Rescue Plan will kick in by that time and our Economy will start flourishing again.

[Harivinder]

I have already written my opinion. I think the core team should draft a short and precise letter that every one can use.

[sri1309]

http://change.gov/page/s/yourstory

You now have this in home page. Link to "Tell us your story". Old link isnt there, not sure why.. But please write. write.. They need to know we are waiting.. waiting to get relief, to buy houses.. to create jobs... Tell them they dont need to wait for other issues to be delt and then this one.. They dont need to do things sequentially.. THey can take care of as many things as they can at same time.. They can push for this even in Lame Duck...Pls write... I did it again..
Pass it to your friends who also have GCs.

I wrote something in just 3 lines.. "How long should we be punished by not getting the GC". We had trust in the system and followed by the rules, should we be puniushed or rewarded"... Legal employment based EB2-EB3 immigrants from India. Please remove quotas immediately till back logs are eliminated. "

[aadimanav]

change.gov is down. change.com is running.....:)

[wIeRdLiFe]

Hi,

I sent a message. Mentioned how Canada is luring candidates with their Alberta program.

Cheers.

[pointlesswait]

lets see what "change" he can bring..
dont have much hopes with democrats...


Hi,

I sent a message. Mentioned how Canada is luring candidates with their Alberta program.

Cheers.

[sri1309]

change.gov is down. change.com is running.....:)

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
Here under "issues" also we can present our ideas.
Also watch the videos there http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/ .
He does know legal immigrants are waiting and the system needs to be fixed. Just keep writing so that he knows we are also looking for help. Right now, I am sure others in housing and jobs crisis are writing, but we MUST highlight ourselves also. Please do.

[arthsidhu]

I have posted this message. No one at immigration voice needs to share by opinion or agree with me, but this is my story bound with the immigration process.

CONGRATULATIONS TO PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA!
I am legal US resident living in this country for the past 8 years. My wife along with my little US born daughter have a small american story to share with you. My story is similar to millions of highly skilled law abiding, tax paying immigrants who are stuck in the immigration limbo due to the policies of old administration. I came to this country at a young age as a student, worked my way through, by learning and gaining experience in various advanced technologies. After integrating myself into the american community, by attaching my future with this great country, I am afraid that due to the inconsistent and inept immigration policies, my life along with the enormous positive impact I might make to this country might turn upside down.

I have plans and potential to start a own business, with a potential to provide employment to many americans. I have enough savings to buy a home, but with my employment based immigration petition in pending for years. similar to many high tech immigrants, with no end in sight, my future seems to be in limbo. The biggest question I have is, what benefit it holds for the immigration agencies to keep us waiting for 10's of years in the last stage of immigration process, when they know that we already have a good paying job, have been vetted through a tough Labor and I-140 process. I consider myself as a highly educated and skilled future american, who grabbed the inital opportunity provided by this country to be successful, and now ready to make a positive impact in the community I live, by starting my own business in the future, providing employment to my fellow americans and eventually securing my families future in this country.

Hundreds of thousands of highly skilled legal immigrants and their families stuck in this limbo, would greatly appreciate if the president elect Obama can take a common sense approach in clearing the delays in the employment based immigration process, by having the congress and senate act on the bill HR 5882 immediately. We have waited long for ths CHANGE and I believe Preside Elect Obama is the one who can bring it.

[ashishgour]

I have sent him the script on the home page for

US Housing Crisis and Employment based Green Card issues .

[jungalee43]

I checked economy and immigration boxes and posted following message:-
"
My idea can be described in one line. Pass "Comprehensive Immigration Reform of 2006" and make it a law. Please note that I've mentioned CIR of 2006 and NOT of 2007 as CIR 2007 was a disaster to begin with.
I am a high skilled immigrant category EB-3 waiting for my green card in the third and last stage only for five years. I want to buy a house, but I would not do so until I get my green card. I am proud to say that the country of my birth is India though it is big obstacle in the final stage of green card process. US discriminates its high skilled immigrants on the basis of their country of birth. So the person born in Pakistan, Bangla Desh gets green card a whole lot faster than person born in India with exact same skill sets and exact same contribution to US economy. With that I have following to say: -
1) There are hundreds of thousands like me who have money to buy house with 20 to 25% down payment, have good and stable jobs. But they are holding on their desire to buy a house and start living American Dream in absence of green card and the enormous uncertainty that is inherent with the process.
2) A small step of passing HR-5882 in the lame duck session would provide immediate relief to people (approx. 750,000 in numbers) like me. This would lead to sell of at least 250,000 homes with 20% down payments. It would bring efficiency and justice into the system. This would give a small and real shot in the arm to US economy.
3) At least a few million undocumented workers have saved a good amount of money. Passing CIR2006 (Two Thousand Six) would provide them with a path to green card and all that money that they have in bank would flow into the system. This would lead to sell &/or lease of a few million homes. In addition to this the bill would collect over $100 billion in form of fines, fees not considering back taxes. With this US economy would be on road to recovery.
4) Please also remove the "country of birth" based quota from high skill immigration. The quota may be a good idea in family immigration but certainly not in high skill immigration.
"
__________________________________________________ ______________
Contribution to IV $1000/- so far.
Ready to do more.

[Alabaman]

Lets keep this going... with all the stories being posted it will catch their attention and they will think about our plight.