Dilip-da,
Thank you for your support. Esp about the booting out incident. I like being on AssamNet.
Umesh
Dilip/Dil Deka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dilip/Dil Deka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Umesh,Many of us have gone through some of these experiences. I like the fact that you do not hesitate to document them.I didn't think you would make it to the states, you did. I didn't think you'd survive the cultural shock, you did. I didn't think you'd remain in the US after completing your studies, you did. Keep at it, you'll succeed in getting a work permit and a green card if that is your goal. We didn't go through some of the struggles you are going through. So it is hard to empathize with you all the time. But I wish you success because of your perseverance.If you recall I wrote to keep you in the net when many others were asking for booting you out.I do not agree with many of your views but I know it takes all kinds to make this human race. Keep writing though I delete many of your postings.Dilipda
umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Convert your F-1 student visa to H-IB work visaHi,US non-profits are rabidly afraid of seeking to hire foreign staff to work in Dc etc - esp after getting rebuffed many a times from US immigrant services INS - even when they seek intra-company transfers of their employees from over-sees offices. More so , after Sep 11. Maybe becos one of the examples given to me ws of a certain Mr Muhammad from Middle East/ Africa ( I don't remember clearly). So I am trying to identify a different route. It seems that also is a road well travelled.NOTE: For those in a hurry: just go to the bottom of the page - for tips and tricksWell, after I got the eye flu last week ( eyelids got swollen 3 times their normal size - just minutes after I "seeing off" my NRI landlord fly out of Reagan Intl. Airport, across the river from DC to Cochin, India on Kuwait Airlines ) - I devoted my time to using my other senses - mainly listening to Beatles and others on FM channel and racking my brains. Just a day before I had borrowed Rs 30,000 ($650 ) from my borther in India to meet the fund flow bottleneck while paying my student loan ($350 pm for 15 years) and rent ($400pm).Economics - means optimal utilization of ALL resources. I try to be a good economist - for my own good as well.I had been sincerely applying to jobs in non profits across the world - mainly East of US- to all posiitions -even Country Head ones-wherever French was not a requirement.US non-profit experience:Incidently, today I completed my one complete month of teaching 8 yearolds in US - from immigrant families - mostly Latinos and one Black. Most are from either poor or disrupted families. Atleast one has a behavior disorder,one's father is in jail for "hitting a girl - my mother" -as the boy said, one girl's mother needs an English-Spanish translater, another's US raised father is barely able to sign his name. Another breaks into tears in class becos he misses his father (Boys don't cry) who stays near his home but met him only on weekends (maybe family separated). I can say that I have met a group of students who represent "disadvantaged" term in the lexicon of US colleges of education. This gives me confidence. Ofcourse the Harvard tag adds to the work I do - it seems colleagues do give weight to that as well.Salary & Experience for expat jobs: Complex situationI was wondering why not also try to work in US with some non-profit - and maybe take short trips when needed to developing countries. Unlike those who have not grown up in poor countires I do not need to get acclimatized to their environment to do policy or strategey related work. Further, only very senior positions are available in developing nations -which pay in dollars (even though even Country Heads of these Intl. NGOs draw pay less than that of a District School Superintendent in US) . The local citizen - field officers (FO) in some NGOs ( I saw their pay in www.devnetjobs.org ) in India pays less that what is designated in UN's goal - $2 per person per day (FO's pay = Rs5,000 pm or $120 pm or $4 per day - which feeds a family of four assuming) . Even if you discount the fact that costs are very low in field positions - I assume salaries would be higher in US for lower level positions - which most likely would be numerous. No wonder on the evening of graduation ceremony at Harvard while we were returning our capes and hoods and gowns at Harvard Coop. - one classmate from Silicon Valley area said that she is going back home and work as a school teacher in a local school - to get rich , build her home and raise children. And not seek jobs in development with non profits working in poor countries.US view of NGO posts in poor countries:She said that she had worked enough in development (she did a lot in Africa before the program ) -and perhaps becos she had recently got engaged to her boy friend doing his doctoral in a technical field at Stanford. Maybe she needed a Harvard tag to match his Stanford tech degree. This reasoning would gel with the trend in India -esp in Jaipur where many girls do MBAs or computer courses just to raise their marriage prospects or glam factor. Harvard grads called "H-Bombs", ofcourse have no match in that respect.Coming back to the issue of H1-B visas: The TrickThose who did masters or PhD from a US Univ have an additional quota of 20,000 H1-B visas per year. If I remember correctly, only 6,000 of these were utlized last year. Now, a tenant in my landlord's other house is one such person (in Software field) who got a H1-B visa from this quota - in only 2-3 weeks-as he had told me a few months ago. Then, I had been pursuing ambitions to get a job a World Bank (I haven't dropped it even now though) and by-pass this option altogther -and perhaps vacate one such visa for some needier than I.He told me that he got it thru a contractor - an Indian and a US citizen who had got a license to become one. Now, another of his colleagues came to live in my house, who came straight from India- after working for two years with this "contractor" in Chennai in Jawa. He holds a good degree - in Computer Engg from Trichy . But he pays $17 per hour out of the $37 per hour he earns here - to the contractor. Bloody bloodthirsty!! - but atleast he is here in US and working. Moreover, he has to pay him $4,000 for visa expenses - as return of loan.While returning from the temple one day I asked him casually why he was so tight fisted and so serious - so he gave me the details of his situation. He even had borrowed from me (already broke) - $30 one weekend morning for temple puja -to be returned coming Monday which he returned after two weeks.Last night he told me that if I go thru the contractor - I can put the condition that I pay later - for the visa fees. The good part it is that I avoid trying to get a job and a willing employer . First I get an H1-B visa -based on my qualifications (Harvard tag should help there) and sponsored by the contractor. Then I am free to look for and get a job in my field of interest (education). It reminds of the contractor we employed at Jaipur School to get security guards and other sundry workers - we paid the contractor who paid his workers.Before he left for India my landlord (he came thru contractor from India on H1-B -software in 1999- and now on GreenCard) cleared one of my doubts - if the contractor creates problem - you can change and get another to sponsor you. It seems many Indians are in this field.
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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