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You're welcome.

Your post reiterates my contention that our "system" on many levels is broken, and that includes immigration policy.

It should not take years for a qualified and capable individual such as yourself to immigrate to this country. I suspect the fact that you are not from one of the more 'favored' nations may be a factor.

This is why amnesty in any form for those who have gone around the system is a nonstarter for me. Its an insult not only to you, but to myself as well, a native born American and a descendant of legal immigrants.

Well, the green card route is what's really holding things up. My application is pre-PERM, so it is gathering dust in a backlog reduction center. The new PERM program liberalized the Labor Certification process where an employer simply has to demonstrate they took the necessary steps to find an American for the position. The recruiting efforts are randomly audited if no red flags pop up (about 1 in 20 cases) and is guaranteed to be completed in 60 days. It's all computerized now. I'm under the older RIR system which is similar in structure, but different in the fine print. When my case was filed, PERM hadn't been finalized and the lawyers didn't know what the new rules would be, and that was before the Backlog Centers were established. RIRs were normally a 3-6 month process, but that's been switched to a 2-3 year process after the fact.

Now, with the PERM info I just supplied, shouldn't there be more concern there than for the H1B system? This system is virtually an honor system for bringing in foreign labor on a permanent basis. How soon will people be screaming abuse there?