My post
Beautiful People,
When my husband accepted an Organ Transplantation fellowship in New York, I was 30, the mother of a 1-year-old boy and a successful career woman living in Israel. For that purpose, my husband received a J-1 visa, which was an exchange visitor, non-immigrant visa. It allowed him to participate in a work-and-study-based exchange visitor program, but he had to leave the United States immediately after the program ended and return to the country of last residence for two years before applying for any other visa or for a non-immigrant status.
The immigration system doesn’t care how unique your program is, or how professionally attractive you have become. It doesn’t care that American institutions or firms would love to have you, because they have a hard time finding someone like you. It also doesn’t care if your spouse is a professional worker, which companies will be reluctant to hire. What company in their right mind will hire a project manager with an expiration date?
America hasn’t opened educational and professional exchange programs to internationals out of the kindness of its heart. America needs exchange programs to strengthen relations between the US and other countries. It is a win-win situation. On the one hand, the visitors gain training and experience in the US they can use to benefit their home countries. On the other hand, the US establishes its influence and power across the world.
Furthermore, the visitors are not only receiving, they are also giving. They share their own knowledge and experience with the institutions where they work. During their stay, they may engage in research and development and could become part of a breakthrough innovation. They may contribute a fresh outlook on issues that might result in essential progress. At the end of their program, they may become so unique it is stupid of America to kick them back to the country of their last residence.
America needs professional exchange visitors. Do skilled educated professionals need America? Is it worthwhile for professionals to pay such a high personal price to specialize in America?
Meanwhile, high-skilled workers have other options. They are not desperate. They can study in a country where they have an avenue to settle down without having to choose between education and family, where they don’t have to beg to stay, and where they are given incentives to stay. A place where they are considered an asset, not a liability.
In 2001, I paid the price. I left my career, my home, my family and friends, and my country and after our J visa expired I returned to my country. But everything has changed.
XO,
Sharon
When my husband accepted an Organ Transplantation fellowship in New York, I was 30, the mother of a 1-year-old boy and a successful career woman living in Israel. For that purpose, my husband received a J-1 visa, which was an exchange visitor, non-immigrant visa. It allowed him to participate in a work-and-study-based exchange visitor program, but he had to leave the United States immediately after the program ended and return to the country of last residence for two years before applying for any other visa or for a non-immigrant status.
The immigration system doesn’t care how unique your program is, or how professionally attractive you have become. It doesn’t care that American institutions or firms would love to have you, because they have a hard time finding someone like you. It also doesn’t care if your spouse is a professional worker, which companies will be reluctant to hire. What company in their right mind will hire a project manager with an expiration date?
America hasn’t opened educational and professional exchange programs to internationals out of the kindness of its heart. America needs exchange programs to strengthen relations between the US and other countries. It is a win-win situation. On the one hand, the visitors gain training and experience in the US they can use to benefit their home countries. On the other hand, the US establishes its influence and power across the world.
Furthermore, the visitors are not only receiving, they are also giving. They share their own knowledge and experience with the institutions where they work. During their stay, they may engage in research and development and could become part of a breakthrough innovation. They may contribute a fresh outlook on issues that might result in essential progress. At the end of their program, they may become so unique it is stupid of America to kick them back to the country of their last residence.
America needs professional exchange visitors. Do skilled educated professionals need America? Is it worthwhile for professionals to pay such a high personal price to specialize in America?
Meanwhile, high-skilled workers have other options. They are not desperate. They can study in a country where they have an avenue to settle down without having to choose between education and family, where they don’t have to beg to stay, and where they are given incentives to stay. A place where they are considered an asset, not a liability.
In 2001, I paid the price. I left my career, my home, my family and friends, and my country and after our J visa expired I returned to my country. But everything has changed.
XO,
Sharon
No comments have been added yet.
