Keeping the Visa Bulletin Retrogressed is not only unfair but immoral.

This June 2016 Visa Bulletin shows a retrogression for India and China of EB2 category of almost 4 years for India.  In May 2016, India was at least in 2008. In June 2016, it is becoming a 12 years behind the current year.  Not only the employment based (EB) is retrogressed but the family based (F4) category is also retrogressed for both.  Indeed the June 2016 Visa Bulletin shows a disturbing processing time which ultimately is making many loose faith in the system.  The government in October 2015 raise the hopes up with a new system of the visa bulletin where they divided the visa bulletin dates into two parts including an acceptance time and then a processing time.  Many started to have hope again. Then during that great hope, came another bad news: the government retrogressed the dates even before they came into effect.

For those who are waiting and understand the visa bulletin, it was not only a blow but an ultimate ‘coup de grace’.  Ultimately many got back their courage and hope things will get better until the other bad news of June 2016 visa bulletin hit them again.  The roller-coastering of the visa bulletin is starting to have a huge psychological human toll on many. People are not only disappointed but they are angry at a system which promised them a chance but every time it seems there is hope, it is just unreachable.

Most of the people waiting on the dates of the visa bulletin to become current are law-abiding individuals who actually have remained legal in the United States, paying taxes legally, buying US products, investing in the USA and actually are very hardworking individuals. Yet many of them have been waiting for more than 10 years to obtain a permanent residence.

The problem with the waiting on the visa bulletin dates to become current is that many of them are at the mercy of the employers, are stressed and are uncertain of their future. Note that most of them are respected professionals who work hard and contribute to the United States economy. Some of them are even patent holders and have been instrumental in the daily functions of the fortune 500 companies. Yet they are treated sometimes worse than they were undocumented. This is not to say that undocumented people are better treated. Few years ago we have started an online petition of “Reduce the EB2 and EB3 waiting time for India and China” and these are some of the comments and feeling that we have received on the petition:

I have been in the US for 8 years now and I have been doing my part by paying taxes , giving back to the economy. I don’t ever send money back home. All my income besides a little bit in savings is invested back in the economy. It is very difficult to pursue anything career related in the fear of losing the place in the GC line. We spend 1000s of dollars on trips back home to spend a significant amount of time on visa stamping (with uncertainity).

Javed

I am signing because the wait for GC is exceptionally long and it prohibits talented individuals to pursue career opportunities that they really deserve and deny them entrepreneurship opportunities. All because the GC process is so tedious and there long wait due to back log of applications.

Karan

I’m personally affected by the current process as it holds me back in my career (Job promotions, travel etc) as well as personal life decisions on investing in the US (property etc) are on hold. I feel that people actively contributing to the economy (paying taxes, consuming services, creating employment) should be given permanent residence as it promotes decisions that will benefit the economy.

Varun

I have been here in us for almost 9 years and have changed many employers that took advantage of me for the broken system…. reducing the time for eb2 will really help me and my family to be at peace….

Santosh

I’m signing because it has been 6 years since we started our application for GC, its now stuck at I 140… My son is now a junior, has 4.0 gpa but cannot get any scholarships since he is on H4. Please expedite the process so he can also go to his dream college.

Ymni

The petition has more than 3800 signatures and it is growing.  The truth is that the system itself is not very transparent.  Many of the visa numbers which are not used in the visa bulletin are not re-entered in the quota and the allocation of the quota is unfair because most of the engineers which constitute the majority of the people who are on the waiting list are from India and China.  These two countries constitute almost one third of the world population and yet their allocations are not proportionately represented.

We speak to many of the “waiters” on a daily basis and their stories are often heart-breaking.  The system definitely have flaws and not remedying to the flaws is not only wrong but totally immoral. Unless we find some good solutions and find them fast, we will not only find ourselves loosing the cream of the the technological fields but also with a huge depressed population on whom we count to keep America competitive and great.

As such we call on the government and all those who believe in justice to sign the petition on change.org. We also ask organization to support the families of those who have actually made companies such as  Google, Facebook, or Linkedin great.  Please support them to keep America great.