As you mow the lawn you get time to think (and now I have the mower working I can!).
I was thinking about how I am excited to have started my own company, Adigio. I get the freedom to do my own thing. Make my own mistakes. And only have one idiot boss (me!).
Then I remembered back in time, when I was over here on various VISAs (student VISA, then company sponsored). At that point I didn’t have any flexibility. As a student I could only work for a short period of time per week. When sponsored by a company, I was tied to them. As I think about it now, that seems really painful and risky. What if the company had tanked? What if I really wanted to move on?
The idea of freedom is an interesting one. As an “alien” in “someone elses” country, I definitely felt “different” at first. It was quite upsetting to realise that I had NO RIGHTS to be on this piece of land, on this part of a moving sphere. That felt so strange to me. How can someone NOT let me be in this space!
I understand that you need some laws (”I don’t want everyone moving [insert where I live here!”), but now I empathize a lot with any immigrant wanted to get to a better life…. especially if they aren’t allowed.
I am thankful for now having all of the freedoms that I am allowed.
Maybe I will discuss the craziness that I went through to get my green card, and get past the “protectors of our soil” :/
August 11th, 2004 at 1:14 am
Hey Dion,
Can you summarize in a few sentences what are the requirements for green card sponsorship? I am currently in the U.S. under the H1B “work” visa. It’s very frustrating to:
- not be able to do freelance work
- not be able to start my own business
- be afraid of having the visa expire after all this hard work
August 11th, 2004 at 11:59 am
Congratulations, Dion, on the new freedom. It’s brave to strike it out on your own.
Indentured Servant, the requirements boil down to this: you need to be sponsored, either by a U.S. corporation or citizen. Citizens can normally only sponsor their relatives. Corporations can only sponsor their employees (and they must be able to prove they cannot find U.S. citizens or existing green card holders who could do the job).
That’s obviously not the complete story. It’s too complicated to fit in a weblog comment. There are lots of web sites you can look at for more information. Use a search engine, but beware of unscrupulous people trying to sell you stuff. Cross check with http://uscis.gov/ (not an easy site to use, but it should be authoritative).
August 11th, 2004 at 12:02 pm
Nicely said Nuther.
The relative angle is interesting. My parents got in via my brother, yet for me to come in as a sibling was bloody impossible :)
I entered up being sponsored by my wife ;)
Dion