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Please help us clarify this.


Or maybe, a member who is a CPA, probably can answer this question?

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I'm travelling...I pledge 100$ towards this...

Apologies for the afterthought, this may not be necessary but carry your H1-B with you to the event venue.

Almost all Hyderabad house hold has one or more members live in US, who save atleast 15l/year and invest a lot in homeloand which would translate into sustainable stability in AP,India.

Unless US govt. declares bankruptcy, AP real estate would not burst so it would be safe to invest in AP.....

I feel you guys are barking the wrong tree altogether. I agree that there will be a slow down in the real estate market. No question about it. But not the segment you guys are arguing abt. Only 10% of the NRIs can afford a house worth more than 50 Lakhs. I am being conservative here. So the upscale realestate market is not fueled by NRI money. Its the black money in india.

There is a lot of black money in India. Real estate bubble in india is definitely because of that money. It will not correct as much as US for sure!

oh and yes, it is easy to file a claim with DOL on your employer - since YOU paid the fees employers has already did bad.
the form is WH-4 - http://www.dol.gov/whd/forms/wh-4.pdf

here is the article on this matter - Underpaid the Prevailing Wage? 5 Reasons an H-1B Employer Should Settle Your Complaint � U.S. Business and Immigration Law (http://vkvisalaw.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/underpaid-the-prevailing-wage-5-reasons-an-h-1b-employer-should-settle-your-complaint/) - it is about underpaying, but it contains other things important to you.

you may actually settle an agreement with this employer, so that he pays you paystubs you could use for H-1 transfer so that you do not go to courts. But have a lawyer involved in this.

Ok, so here are some more thoughts ... obviously we are all stuck in our current positions and we are worried about the future. Unless, we do something to be prepared we won't be better off when we get our GC's? Given where most of us are I think we have two options:
1. Advance your education (MBA/PM/certifications etc.)
2. Start a business.

I would like to hear from everyone who has or wants to start a business.
1. Have you thought of starting a business?
2. What does it take to start a business while on H1B
3. Is it worth the effort not knowing if/when you will get the green card. Remember starting a business is not a short-term goal.
4. Are there businesses that cross borders i.e. we can continue to run the business even if we have to leave the US?

My Second $100 on the way. It should reach IV on 28th.

Great job and keep it up.

I talked about this IV to lots of my immigrant friends who are in different stages of GC processing. I feel those folks are thinking of getting a free ride with others contributions and hard work. I can only pity them for not being a part of the team. This kind of character would get them GC but would not get them to top in any profession. Still I did not lose my heart. I will keep on talking about IV with them and I beleive, one day they will feel to contribute.

Wonderful with BOA!!! but always looked bitter due to high wire transfer fee.

4-9 years ago, when used to send large amounts ($4000, my family was in India), I used BOA because I had bank account with them. They would charge me US$45 per transaction. Seeing that others are charging $10 or so, I reached Manager about such descripency. He explained that after taking $45, BOA becomes my representative and works in my best interest. He showed that last conversion rate was $1.50 more than any bank published rates in India on that date. So I made effectively $40-50 even after paying us $45. BOA manager explained that they gave Times Bank Indian Rupee. Had they given US$, Times Bank would have eaten all the profits.

With others money transfer agencies:
#1. I always got approx. $1 less than published rates.
#2. There has been delays
#3. They have deleberately taken more number of days to do transaction on that day, when rates were worst.

I never lost money by sending through BOA, it used to be $4000-5000. But since BOA charges $45, I could not use their services for money less than $2000.

$45 had made trustworthy partner, free/$3/$5/$10 made stealing partners.

I think many a times we over analyze things. It does not matter what the common people think about legal immigrants. Most people do not care. Even if they do, it does not affect us in any way, because rules are made by politicians not by men in the streets. And most polticians do care about immigrants, but only the illegals ones, because it is their future vote bank. For legals the only hope is companies like Microsoft, with a big fat wallet. Just pray that the economy keeps going at the current pace or else there could more trouble for us.



Leadership or Money is not issue for getting results. Why there is so much oppositon to H1b and GC increase? There is a fear in certain american people that they may lose job to the low wage H1b people. Is anyone either corportions or Pro-immigrants trying to remove the fear? Is skill bill has any protection to american workers? We want to increase to h1b or gc without botherng the impact. Now USA really need more h1bs and gcs. But are we suggesting anything when job growth stops or recession happens? Rememember so many people were laid off between 2000 to 2003 including H1b people and Americans but that time also most of 195k h1b was used. I knew lot of people
those who lost the job because of outsourcing and H1b. They struggled for couple of years and and now most of them are in good positon because job market improved. Bold decison will be H1 increase or Gc increase with complete protection to American people and adjustment when demand decreases. Otherwise even h1b or gc is increased by lobbying or politics hatred may increase that is not good for immigration.

Please see the response that I received from VisaLaw.com

The SKIL Bill is a proposed piece of legislation that would increase the
number of H-1Bs and green cards. It is included in the comprehensive
immigration bill Congress is likely to consider this spring and will
hopefully pass in the fall.

Regards,

Greg Siskind

Gregory Siskind, Attorney at Law
Siskind Susser Bland - Immigration Lawyers
Telephone: 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455
Fax: 800-684-1267 or 901-339-9604
Email: gsiskind@visalaw.com
Web: www.visalaw.com

Hello,

The frustration that I see here is understandable, but just by being frustrated or by posting here, things do not change.

We are the change that we have been waiting for.

There are many things that IV core is working on (we see the outcomes like pending I-485 stats, notes of explanations on visa bulletins, but fail to recognize the efforts required to reach these key milestones on bringing transparency and fairness to I-140/I-485 process).

But to make IV (or any organization/community) effective, money is critical. What IV needs is not big (you can contribute as low as 25 USD per month - less than the cost of daily coffee - regular, not the fancy lattes!).

IV is nothing more than our collective will to change our situation. And the change starts from me as an individual. What I've come to realize that such change doesn't come by asking others to do something for me. It starts with me doing something, either providing my time/effort/money to the cause that I believe in.

In case of IV, some of us choose to contribute money, some choose to volunteer (hats off to them!), others choose to contribute time, still others do the legwork ... to each his own! Pick your preferred way and start... the success is not guaranteed, but if we don't start, the failure is guaranteed!

Voted (for currently Q. 11)

I am sorry I haven't done it either. I am gonna get this done tomorrow. I am deeply buried in work right now (hope you will trust me on this given the time of the day now;-) but this action item is way too important to miss out on!!!


Thanks Santb1975 and everybody else who is making this happen!

Before giving an analogy, think twice.


If black hats were around during the Indian independence movement, here's how it would have been:

In 1930's
Black hat: "What the hell, Gandhi! What good did salt satyagraha do? Where are the results? What did you achieve in the last 15 years? Change the leadership."

In 1940's:
Black hat: "Yeah. I continue to do nothing. But you suck."

In 1942:
Black hat: "Quit India movement! What a stupid waste of time. Gandhi, you should do a cultural show and raise some money."

Ok. Ideas seem to be always welcome at IV. But crassly worded trashing of volunteer leaders rankles a lot of us.

I won't be reading that silly sounding de bono hat book you suggest. But I might go to a cultural show by that other Bono and help him raise some money.

It looks like these politicians want to create more and more pain instead helping to get out of the problem.

Since I did not set up the website, I am not sure how members and guests are counted, but I can tell you from my own experience that I log in when I have something to say or when I get prompted. So many times if I just come and quickly see what is new, I do not log in,....that might be lazy but I figure many do this, hence the number you see could be 300 members and 133 guests or so....

I see 136 members and 297 guests online! I wonder why guests have more tensions than members?

Not sure if the social security taxes are for immigration benefits. Also, the taxes we pay are for several other services that we get in the US. Remember, even as non-citizens, we get millions of benefits such 911, clean roads, and the list will go on. Why do you think we want to immigrate?

I don't think this kind of an argument will hold any water with the press or lawmakers. There are other good arguments, and we should stick to them.

qplearn. You are right.

But as I have noticed, there is a lot of misinformation being spread around H1-B holders. One of those is that H1-B holders don't pay taxes. I have now read it at so many places, if I didn't know anything about H1-B visas, I would probably have believed it by now. So we really should make a point to mention that we pay taxes and social security.

DOL should not have given this advance notice, I am sure that all Desi consulting companies now aware of this rule will try to sell of their approved labors before April and approved labors will be available even in vegetable market.

There is lot of chance they would do this, and unfortunately we cannot avoid that, lets counter this by creating awareness among our members and GC seeker's community of how much risk involved in buying an approved labor at this time.


Contributed 300$ TO IV.

What is our next action item...What is the IV Core think we should do..?

Assuming that you can still file for labor substitution, any suggestions on risk involved with substitution for future employment?
GOOD LUCK!!!