Re: New York Times--More Muslims Immigrate After 9/11
On my last trip to Pakistan, I reconnected with a number of people who are doing very well in their chosen fields. Financially they are doing fine, and when I mentioned all the opportunities they can have if they consider moving to the United States, most of the time the answer was a resounding "oh no! I am not gonna come to the US". Even for those who have a thought of migrating to a "developed" country, US ranked very low. In many instances, even UK was much more preferrable. Reason being: the horribly time-consuming immigration process in the United States. In UK, for example, good qualified immigrants (Chartered Accountants, engineers) are enticed by the program that allows them to get their British passports in 3-5 years. Immigrants to Canada get their Canadian passports in 3-4 years.
In the US, on the other hand, for an employee-based immigration, first you spend 1-6 years on H-1 kind of work visa. Then if you are lucky your employer will sponsor you for a green card, which usually takes another 3-6 years before the process is complete. And then you wait another 5 years to get your passport.
For many of these people, who vacation all over the world (Europe, Africa, Far East), US is the least likely place they will come for a vacation either. Reason: perceived harassment at US airports.
Although, my representative sample was naturally very limited, but the over-whelming negative response from almost everyone I met was kinda surprising. Especially now that many European countries and Canada are aggressively attracting good qualified professionals, it seemed a shame that US is happy just to issue diversity visas to people who come here and look for jobs as security guards and cab drivers. No offence to any profession, ofcourse, but there is something seriously wrong about US immigration policies.