Lottery to decide my life

jespah, those offerings look more fit for dinner than for ganesh. Mmmm.

dagmaraka, maybe you should consider just marrying a friend with the justice of the peace or something? there's no shame in it..

The more I read up on how the H1B process actually works the less I like the system. The design of the system is entirely bad but the gaming of the system that is going on makes a joke of teh whole thing.

stuh, that would mean they win. I'm not willing to marry for papers. There IS a shame in it for me. I know it's not wrong and many people do it, but it's not for me.

I like your letter, dag. The only thing I saw was



should be the current cap.

I'm sure others with better editing skills will weigh in soon.

JPB, I'm not hiding I'm a forreigner. English language is not the specialization I am wanted for at my current job.
I'm sure Kerry will get the main message if he cares.

...thanks though. I will edit it more if I send it further. In fact, I just sent it to the representative Michael Capuano.

You don't go to an awards ceremony dressed like a hobo just because you won the award for using your brain instead of looking pretty. People judge you. And when you write a letter to an big name ex-presidential elect, if there are grammatical errors in it, it is disrespectful to him.

Would you rather be a martyr and make a point, or stay in the US?



It's not a battle you can win. Any way you look at it, they win. They have control over you. The fact is, it's not fair when one human says to another: "this is my continent. You need my permission to live here."

No matter how you get that permission, if it is by buying it, marrying into it, sleeping your way into it, applying for it and getting lucky, it doesn't make a difference...you are accepting the fact that you lost, they are in control. You can't change the system, you can't make it fair, all you can do is use the system to your advantage. If you are too stubborn to consider one option for moral reasons, you're just being stubborn and foolish.

Nice letter.

Great letter. I like that it has a voice, and isn't cookie-cutter. So even if it's not perfect, I'd leave mostly as-is. The one thing I'd change is a few "the"s:

1.) JPB's suggestion

2.) another "the" in front of "U.S. has money to wage war, for space research, but not enough for its own workforce, education, or health,"

3.) remove the "the" from "and contribute in every other way to the society, like any citizen here," before "society."

I'm assuming from spacing that the orginal is more paragraph-y, and it got squashed together with copying and pasting?

Overall it looks really good. Send, send, send.

Good letter. Good idea.

Good luck.

Dag,

I hesitate to criticize the letter but I don't think it will grab his attention. While we, at A2K, all know you and most of your story (learning new stuff just in this email now!) and background is, this letter does not reflect that story and this is what is extra-special about you. Your specific job and the unusual experience, training, knowledge that you have is what makes you completely unique and, pardon-me, but a highly educated tech expert is no comparison.

Although the length of the letter is short enough not to overwhelm, I think it is too general and talks about 'our lives' and 'we are reduced to waiting'. This is about you and you only. You want him to hear about your situation and not the immigration situation in general.

Personalize it.

Get your boss to pen an accompanying letter, reiterating that they absolutely cannot do without you and that your completely unique qualifications are not replicable, that if he loses you there is a paramount danger to losing the strength of the companys abilities to proceed with the work that they do.

Is there the possibility that your employer can sponsor you in your application for permanent residency? I'll admit to not being 'up' on immigration standards lately, but I thought that an employer backing up an application had some clout.

Heeven, it is not only about me. I cannot ask Kerry or whatshisname to take on my personal issue. I don't find that realistic. If I have a worthwhile issues that people might support, then we're talking. At least that's how I see it. There must be something in it for him in return. I believe if I pitched it as my personal story, he wouldn't give me one second of his time. And rightly so. THere are many exceptional people out there who could use a senator's help.

I do think that personal stories are a good hook -- the general issue may be perfectly valid, but it's a SPECIFIC story that tends to get people's attention. Not zero-sum; the personal story can just illustrate why the larger issue is so important.

That said, while of course the letter could be polished and honed further, this phase shouldn't be overthought IMO. I see it as more of a carpetbombing sort of thing, doing this and that, whatever might help, but especially doing stuff FAST.

Oh and I do plan to write my congresspeople as well.

Oooh, replies on the page before.

Thanks, everybody!
Soz, JPB, I took your edits and put them in. I am now sending it to people in Congress committees on education and labor, and on homeland security.

Stuh, it's not just about them "winning". it's also about me losing. It's against all I was brought up to believe in to marry for papers. I simply will not do it. This legal process that I'm undergoing, no matter how tedious, long, complicated, costly, and unfair, is the only way for me. If that cannot be done, I'm going home.

Thanks soz It means so much for me. I got so much practical help from people here! Unparalelled in the real world, since this is best done online anyway...

Here's an easy way to do it, for anyone else who is interested:

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

OK, done. (Deborah Pryce, though, blech.)

Thanks, soz. God will reward you with many children..... wait, that's probably outdated. May He reward you then with a green luscious garden and/or a puppy and/or whatever is the item of your highest desire right now.

...and I owe you dinner or sumthin!

...considering all suggestions, I have added a few lines to the 'personal' part of the letter. I agree that that grasps people's attention most effectively.