Watching friends work through the decades long journey of citizenship, going to prestigious undergrad institutions, getting PhDs, publishing in journals, teaching part-time while working full time in industry, all just to get the right to stay in the country they’ve lived since they were 18 is fucking depressing.<p>I doubt I’d qualify for EB-1 [1]. I’d have qualified for EB-2 at 28 when I attained five years of work experience [2][3]. If I didn’t have a BS I’d need ten years experience. If I had spent the usual five years flailing about in a PhD instead of dropping out early, I’d have delayed “work experience” another three years.<p>Now this hypothetical version of myself waits as short as two years (China-born) and as long as eleven years (India-born) to get an application considered. Meanwhile, they’re trying to maintain work authorization, either via the time-limited OPT or hopefully winning an H1-B which has its own highly competitive lottery. And when they finally get PR/citizenship, their (now quite old) parents have no hope of receiving PR/citizenship so they’ll probably be flying across oceans to care for them as they age.<p>All of this for the mistake of being born in the wrong part of the word.<p>Meanwhile, I’m some fuckup who happened to be born in the US who has never known struggle. It just all seems cosmically unfair.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-first-preference-eb-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-second-preference-eb-2" rel="nofollow">https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...</a>
[3] aswell23 is correct that I would qualify for EB-2 based on my BS degree. I had misread the EB-2 requirements. The text originally read: “I’m still two years shy of the 10 year minimum years of experience for EB-2 [2]. So that leaves EB-3.”<p>EDIT: clarify second paragraph with third-person pronouns.<p>EDIT2: clarify based on apwell23’s comment<p>EDIT3: further clarification based on apwell23’s second comment.