Kavi - San Jose, CA

The Immigration system is so broken here - that people like my husband, who is still on an H1-B visa after 8 years of having worked in the United States, spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to obtain a Green card and then several H1-B extensions.

He filed for his Labor in 2000 and did not hear anything till 2001 when he had to change jobs because the company that he worked with filed Chapter 11.  His new company filed his Labor all over again and well, with the 9/11 incident and the economic downturn, his labor was pending till 2004, when he finally sought the services of another company to file his Labor through the system and became a victim of employer abuse.

His employer in 2004 insisted that he work through them and part with a huge amount of money towards his GC process and claimed that he had to pay even employer portion of all taxes, medicare etc.  What is worse, employers like these take undue advantage of the Immigration system.  They did not pay him for almost 8 months when he had no choice but to quit and start the process all over again with another company where he ended up spending money again for them to sponsor his Green card.

The names of these companies - Logic Bytes, Inc. in New Jersey and the next employer being Tech Nation Software Consulting Services in South Dakota. 

He is yet to receive from Tech Nation over 58,000 $ in salaries and due to the fact that they were unable to provide proper documentation, his labor did not clear through them. 

Thankfully, he had in the meanwhile, filed yet another labor through another company, who did the right thing and also got his 140 approved. 

Well, when we were just beginning to heave a sigh of relief that his 140 is approved and now he can transfer to this company on a 3 year H1 extension since the VISA NUMBERS ARE SO RETROGRESSED, the USCIS kicked back their application for his H1 on the basis that he had once been part of the process of forming that company in 2003. 

So, he’s back to the mercy of these “make hay while the sun shines” employers who sponsor an H1, yet will take the lion’s share of the monies and may or may not pay him on time.

The worst part of all of this is that I am a Green card holder and despite that, his option of getting a Green card through employment is faster than filing through me - because of the fact that the system is so broken and sponsorship through me would take forever for him to get.

This system has been so broken that honest, hardworking, highly educated and talented individuals like my husband end up waiting in line for immigration benefits and at the mercy of ruthless employers, who cheat and take advantage of the system. 

It is high time that something be done about this system.  We have lost over $100K in just lost wages, unpaid wages, filing fees, attorney fees, employer fees for sponsoring the GC etc.

We hope that attorneys like Mr. Shusterman and organizations such as this will be able to help relieve some of our frustration.