Can a student like me get a green card?

Parents Forum
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<p>ouch… just reading this hurts me as a parent. Taking 6 years for a Ph.D. is not really out of the norm, depending on the field. After the 9/11, getting a green card even with a Ph.D. has not been a sure thing - it has become much tougher. It’s been very tough to get a permanent position in the academia lately that comes with sponsorship for green card.</p>

<p>Look at it this way, if your dad had not been good enough/outstanding enough to leave China, got a Ph.D. and a postdoc position in USA, you wouldn’t have benefited from the US education, and wouldn’t even been in a position to contemplate your options.</p>

<p>There are tons of first generation immigrants who came by themselves to the graduate school in USA not even speaking the language well, got a degree, got a permanent status, and eventually became a citizen. Compared to these people, you are light years ahead because you are already here, got educated here, and have a better access to the resources. Actually, in fact, your dad managed to accomplish a lot already to give you the boost compared to what he had to work with for himself when he was your age.</p>

<p>Instead of treating your dad as a loser with a disdainful attitude, work with him/reason with him, and see if you can get some better ideas about where the whole green card thing stands…</p>

<p>Worst comes worst, you can go to a graduate school as an international student, and start from there. Many, many people start their journey to citizenship like this. As I said earlier, you are already light years ahead since you have the American secondary and higher educational boost. </p>

<p>As much as you are frustrated about your own situation, have you thought about how tough it must have been for your dad? There is such a disdain on your part for your dad, it really makes me sad. I hope my children do not judge me so harshly and despise me publicly when I fail to give them all they want from life.</p>

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<p>mazewanderer, Thanks for catching my error about the H1B. I wasn’t aware that it had a time limit. Come to think of it, most of the people I’ve known who had H1B visas up-graded to green cards along the way.
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<p>Wow, lighten up on your dad! Sheesh. Six years is extremely the norm for such a PhD, as is his postdoc experience (which as an academic, is a crappy situation to be stuck in so long). He has done far far better than most parents, he no doubt would be in a better position if he could, and you have benefited from all he’s done so far. </p>

<p>No doubt it must be frustrating, but why be so disdainful? How about instead, ‘gee dad, thanks for leaving China and working your butt off all these years so I could have a great life so far in the US’ or “thanks for ensuring I got a college education dad” or even maybe something simple like, ‘thanks for all the advice I’ve gotten on this thread so far’.</p>

<p>Why on earth would you not give your father the benefit of the doubt and move on? It is quite clear from what you’ve wrote, you really don’t have enough information to know your dad’s situation (when you don’t even know how long his degree should take). </p>

<p>Your attitude sure isn’t going to endear you to people to actually want to help you.</p>