Author | Tao Kai
In January, Google sent an email to all employees — deciding to suspend all PERM applications (the most important step in the process of obtaining permanent residency for expatriates who want to immigrate to the United States). In the email, Google said that with the tough situation in the job market and the number of PERM applications also increasing, Google decided to suspend all new applications. The abrupt closure of the passage could change the fate of countless expatriate employees. Getting a green card is the first hurdle in immigrant life. In order to clear the customs, people try to do everything they can. But on the road to a green card, in addition to the rules written in black and white, it takes a lot of luck to avoid the complexity and scams. Or even an accident. In September 2019, Chen Qin jumped from the Facebook office building where he worked and died instantly. As a former college entrance examination champion, Chen Qin graduated from Zhejiang University, University of Southern California and other famous schools, and his work experience involves several well-known enterprises in the United States. However, Chen Qin, who has studied and worked in the United States for 8 years, why is it not a green card that he is waiting for, but a tragedy?
Going ashore or drowning
There are several common ways to get a green card: work, investment, or dependents. For people like Chen Qin who have studied in the United States and have professional skills, the most reliable way is to find a job - preferably a "big factory" - and then apply for green card approval through PERM. Before obtaining recognition and entering the green card process, a foreigner like Chen Qin will work and live in the United States on an H-1B visa.
Chen Qin worked hard and hoped to get a green card / "Genius Gunman" stills
The H-1B visa is currently the most important work visa and is issued specifically to foreign employees with specialized skills employed by U.S. companies. The H-1B visa is good, but for foreigners who want to live permanently, it is a countdown "bomb": in the long run, with this visa, you can work in the United States for 3 years, renew it for 3 years, and after 6 years, if you have not been able to obtain a green card, you must leave the United States; In the short term, once you leave, you must find a new job within 60 days, but if the reason for leaving is "being fired", there will be almost no other company to give you a chance.
Chen Qin, who holds an H-1B visa, apparently wants to get a green card before the "explosion." Therefore, he chose the Internet giant Facebook, got an annual salary of $220,000, took over domestic parents, took out a loan to buy a house, and also chose the company's challenging PIP system in order to get recognition faster and succeed in "permanent residence": as long as the performance is passed, the score is excellent, you can be promoted and raised, and most importantly, the company will issue a certificate to help him get a green card.
Chen Qin, who has achieved excellent results along the way, believes that as long as he works hard, he can get a green card through this route. But the job is often unsatisfactory, and after joining Facebook, he was assigned to the advertising design department, which has always been in a technical position.
The major is not right, there are many work tasks, even if he works hard, the performance score always hovers at the passing line; He applied for a transfer and did not hear back.
Chen Qin was fired due to failing the PIP assessment / "Genius Gunman" stills
In the end, Chen Qin was fired because he failed the PIP test - which meant that there would be no other job to accept him, his visa expired, he failed to get a green card, and he and his parents were to be repatriated... Under these pressures, he committed suicide by jumping off a building on the day he received notice of dismissal.
Tough "do what you like"
For a long time, the "employment-based immigration" chosen by Chen Qin has been regarded as the most practical and least "pitted" way to obtain a green card. Performing through one's own efforts, being recognized by employers, and then staying is more in line with our impression of inspirational narratives related to "struggle" and those often celebrated "American dreams".
As early as 2001, in the Chinese movie "Gua Sha", the male protagonist Xu Datong, played by Leung Ka-fai, easily obtained a green card with computer research-related work, opening a series of discussions that could influence the cultural values of a generation of immigrants; As a negative teaching material, in the 2016 TV series "Mr. Good", Gan Jing, played by Che Xiao, failed to find a job that could get a green card after graduation and could only go home.
Gan Jing, who failed to get a green card, returned to China after graduation / "Mr. Good" stills
Chen Qin, who is stuck in the dilemma of "working hard to complete the requirements to get a green card", may forget that the green card is not a certificate of achievement, but a weighing of what foreigners need to supplement its own development in the host country. "Useful" people are admitted, and what is "useful", Google's suspension and Facebook's repeated make it clear that companies are not immigration reception points, but who to clear customs, they have their own uncertain intentions.
If there are too many complications of employment-based immigration, look for some projects that are clearly linked to green cards and nationality, see what kind of talents are needed in the target country and city, and then adapt yourself, can you win?
Corresponding to Chen Qin, the experience of another Chinese student, Zhao Panshu, may be a footnote for this difficult "doing what he likes".
As early as 2009, Zhao Panshu obtained the only public study abroad qualification of Nankai University that year, entered Cornell University in the United States for a master's degree, and then entered Texas Agricultural College to teach. Like the "countdown bomb" that Chen Qin faced, Zhao Panshu needed to find a way to get a green card to stay.
At that time, the United States was launching a "MAVNI program" - a special conscription program for the national interest of the United States. The program, which seems to be "heroes regardless of provenance," is designed to recruit foreigners who are fluent in foreign Chinese, have a certain special professional background, and are willing to immigrate to the United States through allegiance to the U.S. military — they can obtain green cards by enlisting in the U.S. military, and thus obtain citizenship.
The MAVNI program gives foreigners the opportunity to get a green card / stills from the Battle of Los Angeles
In order to stay smoothly, Zhao Panshu joined the MAVNI program and entered the US Army as a low-level soldier for two years. But when it came time to get a green card and apply for citizenship, the wind changed.
Although the MAVNI plan stated "supply and demand", it was controversial from the beginning. While the government is promoting conscription and military training, and allowing people like Zhao Panshu to enter the US military team, it is also thinking about and pulling the problems in this system: some politicians believe that the security risks of the MAVNI program are too high, and the "plus" green card and nationality are more likely to be used by terrorism and espionage; The US "Military Times" believes that this plan is only a background check for applicants, which involves a lot of human and financial resources in the military...
In 2016, amid skepticism, the Obama administration froze the MAVNI program. In 2018, the US military even removed some foreign soldiers like Zhao Panshu who had enlisted and trained in the military, and Zhao Panshu became a "black household".
In the face of vulnerable immigrants seeking green cards, the government's immigration plan has gone against the grain compared to sending an email explaining the ins and outs of the "big factory", and there is not even a single notice.
There is no return of blood
Green cards are hard to come by, and demand is hard to predict. If you give up exploring what the target country of immigration needs, instead of racking your brains to match it, you will find a different way to make an undeniable request — like family reunification, or choose to contribute something that is popular everywhere — like money, will it make the road to a green card smooth?
Family reunification immigration, also known as "chain immigration", as the name suggests, one person with a green card and obtaining nationality can bring family members into the immigration chain one by one in the name of reunion, so that they can obtain permanent residence status. After all, blood ties cannot be falsified, reunion is important in any country's culture, and family reunification immigration seems to be completely impossible to refuse as long as the hard conditions of blood ties are met.
One person gets a green card, and family members can also obtain permanent residence status / "Parasite" stills
But it's still not a game without suspense. For relatives who come to reunite, countries have different requirements: the United States requires citizens over the age of 21 to sponsor their parents' reunion, Canada and Australia have income requirements for parents who come to reunite, of which Australia requires each person to pay more than 40,000 Australian dollars in "contribution fees", if you do not want to pay this money, you have to wait in line for 30 years.
Even so, because of the huge "chain" of chain migration, each country has different limits: Australia will open only 4,500 applications in 2022, and this is only an application, and there is a long process ahead. Some countries even simply use the "lottery green card" method to draw lots, making the reunion a complete competition of luck. In recent years, discussions about "chain immigration" have often been in the press, and during Trump's presidency, he once considered completely abolishing the chain immigration policy, making this "clearance" road foggy.
If you invest with money, can you shorten the time and "buy" a green card?
A helpless fact is that most people who want to obtain a green card through investment, house purchase, etc., are in their own country, thousands of mountains and rivers away from the target country they want to immigrate. Suffering from the poor information about where to "scatter" the money, it also gives some "middlemen" an opportunity.
Green cards spawn many "middlemen" / "Genius Gunman" stills
In July last year, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement accusing middlemen Li Xue and Wang Lianbo of wire fraud, money laundering, and obstructing the Federal Election Commission's management of campaign finance laws. One of the most important criminal tactics is that they defrauded more than 150 Chinese more than $27 million by setting up a fake investment immigration program.
For nearly a decade, Li Xue and Wang Lianbo created a fictional private educational institution called the Thompson Education Center and produced promotional materials about the program to deceive people in China who wanted to invest in immigrants. At the same time, the two used the defrauded money to donate to US politicians without any political inclination, and they donated to whomever they wanted, and got the opportunity to attend events and take photos with politicians, making investors mistakenly believe that their project was officially supported by the US and that a green card was in sight.
With the money they cheated out, Li Xue and Wang Lianbo lived a luxurious life while continuing to donate money to politicians to maintain an "officially certified" persona. And the investors who shelled out huge amounts of hard-earned money in China can only fall into an endless wait year after year.
It is necessary to have the knowledge to establish a foothold in a foreign country, to have the luck to catch the through train that will not be expelled halfway, to have patience to withstand waiting, to have a fire eye to identify the bulls, ghosts, snakes and gods along the way... Getting a small and heavy green card is never a reward for "love to fight to win", but a lucky game that requires paying all kinds of "capital" and testing all kinds of "intelligence".
The pictures in the article come from the Internet
Edit | Jiang Wen
New Media Editor | Jiang Jiang
Typesetting | Zewei