This is a terrible situation. As the kid of an H1-B I can’t imagine being in that predicament.
At the same time, this is what happens when the basis of your immigration system is “legislation by hostage taking.” Ever wonder why the H1B says “temporary” status on paper, and you have to pretend like you plan to go back home at some point? (“Dual intent?”) That’s because it’s because it was never designed to be a permanent immigration system. No permanent immigration system designed for that purpose would let you build your life in the country first and then decide only a decade later whether you’ll be allowed to stay. It’s absurd.
Since the 1960s the executive branch has been doing with fragile regulation or executive action things that it can’t achieve consensus to do through Congress. The 1990s reforms that created the H1B did nothing more than paper over the most egregious shortcomings of using a temporary worker visa as the main vehicle for permanent immigration. DACA is a prime example of what happens when your political system is so broken that you have to use executive action because you can’t get concensus in Congress. And it shows how fragile that can be.
Folks considering immigrating to America should understand: H1B is not meant for permanent immigration. Proceed at your own risk. Maybe try the more sensible immigration regimes in Australia or Canada.
> Ever wonder why the H1B says “temporary” status on paper, and you have to pretend like you plan to go back home at some point? (“Dual intent?”)
As I understand it the "dual intent" means you don't have to pretend you plan to go back home at some point. After I switched to an O-1 from an H-1B for a new job I was advised not to leave the country while my green card application was in progress because applying for a green card could potentially be grounds for denying entry at the border on a visa like the O-1 without the dual intent.
No, dual intent means that you can have the non-immigrant intent required for the H1B while doing something that would cause the government to infer immigrant intent, like applying for a green card: https://www.dekirby.net/library/dual-intent-article.cfm
> The concept of dual intent is a legal fiction that allows an immigration officer to grant a nonimmigrant visa or admit a foreign national into the United States even though the visa may allow for the holder to seek permanent residency status. This means that a foreign national may enter the United States on a nonimmigrant visa that may allow him to seek a green card in the future or, alternatively, he has already filed a petition for a green card but is seeking to enter the United States on a nonimmigrant visa.
The distinction is critical. At all times when you hold an H1B, you’re saying “I intend to go back when my H1B expires,” because that’s required by the visa. All you have with “dual intent” is the government’s executive grace that they won’t consider it to be a signal of immigrant intent when you apply for a Green card.
> and you have to pretend like you plan to go back home at some point? (“Dual intent?”)
This is backwards. Dual intent means that you do not have to "pretend"; having an immigrant-intent, expressed by things like applying for permanent residency (marrying a US citizen), does not invalidate an H1-B in the same way that it invalidates an O-1, TN, etc.
Anecdotally, many emigrants (a dozen or so) that I know are now choosing to go to Canada. The US has lost a significant amount of its shine over the last few years for them, and their skilled labor is going elsewhere.
It is easier to deal when one considers alternative of returning to India. One can get a job in IT in some tech hub back home in India, However everything that people find commonly available in US/Canada for middle class or sometimes even lower than middle class is either not available or just reserved for 0.1 percent of ultra rich.
I have had distant relatives earning in tune of million dollars a year dying for a need of hospital bed. Plenty of people in India who are not Chinese level rich but still well-off and looking to move to Canada from India. They are not in hope of better earning but just better living standard with the money they earned in India.
Having said that there is thin slice of situations where one can be better off in India. One of which is having lot of domestic staff. So someone can have a full time worker at home who can cook, clean, and take care of kids for about same money that will get you a weekly maid service in USA in a month.
At the same time, this is what happens when the basis of your immigration system is “legislation by hostage taking.” Ever wonder why the H1B says “temporary” status on paper, and you have to pretend like you plan to go back home at some point? (“Dual intent?”) That’s because it’s because it was never designed to be a permanent immigration system. No permanent immigration system designed for that purpose would let you build your life in the country first and then decide only a decade later whether you’ll be allowed to stay. It’s absurd.
Since the 1960s the executive branch has been doing with fragile regulation or executive action things that it can’t achieve consensus to do through Congress. The 1990s reforms that created the H1B did nothing more than paper over the most egregious shortcomings of using a temporary worker visa as the main vehicle for permanent immigration. DACA is a prime example of what happens when your political system is so broken that you have to use executive action because you can’t get concensus in Congress. And it shows how fragile that can be.
Folks considering immigrating to America should understand: H1B is not meant for permanent immigration. Proceed at your own risk. Maybe try the more sensible immigration regimes in Australia or Canada.