It took me over a year once I moved to the US to get a credit card. It took even longer for my wife since she had no SSN until a few years ago (yes you can live legally in the US for years and declare taxes without being allowed a SSN).
There is a vicious circle: no credit history, you can't get a credit card... but you need one to get a credit history. You also have the option of the prepaid credit card, where you have to loan the bank say $500 for a $500 line of credit.
But my best advice: live within your means and always pay off you cards.
He's not visiting, he legally lives here, even if only for a few years. There is a difference between 'visiting' a country for a few weeks and living there for a few years. Also are you claiming that all US citizen never ever leave their passport at the hotel or other 'safe' place while going to the beach when abroad ?
Uh ? Where does the driver license say that you are a US citizen ? All it might prove is that I was legally in the US when I first got the license but I never had to prove I was still legal whenever I renewed my license. My licenses always expired years after my current visas expired. I've always been here legally and my driver license has never been proof of anything else but my ID and that I can legally drive.
60k was my salary out of 'internship' with a Masters. No previous experience other than 1y internship at that same company. I did get raises over time but moved to a different company to get the bigger raise. After 5y I was well within your range, still on a H1-B, higher if you include bonuses. The biggest hurdle to get hired somewhere else: the 3y experience mark. Before that companies would not even reply to my resumes, nowadays I turn down head hunters.
That might be anecdotal evidence but I used to be a H1-B holder and have friends that are or have been in this situation. While on a H1-B I have changed jobs twice, and while it is a little bit more troublesome than while on a green card it is perfectly possible and is much easier than some think. Transferring a H1-B can be expedited to 2 weeks at extra cost. I don't know the latest fees but the whole process should cost less than $5k. Not that much when you consider how much companies are spending hunting for talent.
Regarding salaries, if they are not competitive then this is not in compliance with the law. Back in 2002 my salary was $60k/year because that how little the company was allowed to pay me. I still managed to get raises, especially each time I changed jobs.
Also for the grace period, there is some 'reasonable' time allowed. A friend of mine was laid off last year and the lawyers told him 6 months (I kid you not). He had to leave eventually because the economy was so bad but now he is back and has re-activated his H1-B with an other company.
So, yes it is more difficult when you are on a H1-B, but if you are above average talent (which is what H1-B should be for) it is not like you are locked in with your current company.
The only case I can think of is if you had your H1-B for 6+ years are waiting to get a green card. The H1-B get extended by the green card application which is linked to you current employer. This situation sucks, and I don't have much advice knowing the waiting list for some countries is longer than the 6y you can accrue on H1-B. The only thing is that if you are actually talented pressure you manager to get the green card application started ASAP if you plan on staying. Bigger companies tend to have better immigration lawyers and also more willing to eat the cost (which they're supposed to by law).
She remained in the hospital for eight days while she underwent skin grafting. During this period, Liebeck lost 20 pounds (nearly 20% of her body weight), reducing her down to 83 pounds. Two years of medical treatment followed.
After that you would understand that she would seek come compensation:
Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for US $20,000 to cover her medical costs, which were $11,000, but the company offered only $800.
I suppose you are trolling but I'll answer your question: it is because there is a higher risk they will never see their money back. If you lend money to 100 people and 10% of them will not repay you, you cannot expect to gain anything if the loan rate is under 10% do you ? If you take an other set of 100 people where you expect only 1% of non payment then you can give them a much better rate. It just happen that people with large disposable income are less likely to default on a loan.
And this is why I never let Paypal fund the payment from my bank account and force them to use my credit card. If there is a problem with the order I just call the credit card company and they will reverse the purchase on their end. But better I avoid eBay and paypal as much as I can.
A friend of mine mentioned when the technology just came out that you could just setup a 'free pr0n' website and you would get a horde of humans entering the letters for you for real cheap.
If I am not allowed to vote do you really think I can run for office ?
I'm not discarding your whole argumentation, just pointing out that not all taxpayers are equal or equally responsible. Again why should I, the taxpayer, be punished because of the voters bad choices ?
The taxpayers are exactly who should be punished. They elected a set of officials who apparently believe it's okay to spy on families in their own homes.
taxpayer != voter
Do you realize that I am a taxpayer and have absolutely no right to vote ? There are quite a few people in this situation. At the same time a lot of US citizens have the right to vote but do not pay taxes.
Why should I be punished for something I had absolutely no control over while the ones who voted these criminals into office are not ?
The US has taxation without representation and representation without taxation, so stop blaming me for paying my fair share of taxes.
Disclaimer: I used to be on H1-B and am a permanent resident now.
Do not forget that it is 65,000 "new" H1Bs, they are valid for 3 years, renewable once for a theoretical total of 6 years. It is also extendable from year to year pending a change of status, usually while the green card application is being processed. Some people can be on H1-B for 12 years with this. Add to that the fact that H1-B are usually concentrated in a few areas and you get more than 1% of the local "workforce" (not the same as population).
That said I would estimate that the average H1B last 5 years. Personally I think the green card process is broken, if the queue is taking many years to process either the US should put more resources into it (it cost lost of money so it got to be profitable) or be more picky about application and reject them sooner.
I'm a bit annoyed at all the bad press H1-B visas get. Sure there is a lot of abuse, but I like to believe that in my case there was a genuine need for a foreigner. While being on a H1-B I've quit twice and each time for a significantly larger salary. On my last H1-B year my total compensation was double the required H1-B salary. I have a few friends that have been on H1-B and most of them were much more qualified than the average software developer here in Silicon Valley.
I've been hosting my server in my closet with the various incarnations of Comcast since 2001. I host a web server (multiple sites actually), smtp, imap, pop3, ssh, etc... And have never been nagged by them. I've also heard a lot of good things about the Pro version of Comcast where all the above is actually approved and they have reall customer support (they are managed like 2 entirely different companies).
But if you are the one designing the system, what is the incentive to you if you get more money for breaking it ? The whole idea is that the pager is a PITA and your work is to make sure you do not get paged 'ever'. You do that by designing a robust system. Now if your team is understaffed to the point where you can only be reactive and not proactive, the developers get pissed off and leave.
I though the same thing for a while. But then after spending almost 3 years with little to no hiring in my team I realized that having 3 slow months because of new hires is really worth it. If you're always in crunch mode and never have time to hire someone else, then you need to bite the bullet and hire someone already. What ended up happening is that resignations happened more often than new hires, putting more strain on the remaining employees.
And why would you need to tase someone who is face down on the ground and under control ? Tasing is the new way to beat-up without leaving massive bruises. Really it does relieve the itch of trigger happy cops. When taser showed up they where supposed to be the last line of defense so you would not kill a suspect where you would have shot him before.
I'm very sad to see that you're excusing murder because tasing someone on the ground is considered 'normal' and 'OK'.
Unfortunately the ones that have the power to pass such laws in the US have absolutely no interest or incentive to do so. Who is dumb enough to put a trap triggered by the feeding hand ? Me, I'm just paying my taxes without representation.
Back in 2002 I had a Handspring Visor with the phone module. I remember answering it in front of my friends and they just assumed I was playing crazy... as if I started talking to my shoe. It did earn me some extra Geek points at the time. An other 'weird' thing was to have up to 5 smartphones, with data plans at the same time (ok they were prototypes and it was for work).
I beg to differ. Customer support in France is usually awful. If you have a problem with your ISP the number you call cost more than a regular phone call while in the US it's always toll free. In short the ISP makes more money when there is an outage than when everything works. This got so bad that the government forced the ISPs to stop charging 'wait time'.
Banks have started to add tons of fees in France as well, you really don't ewant to have multiple checking/savings accounts in France because for each account it's more fees. In the US I have accounts in at least 5 banks, not that I have any money with 3 of them it's just that they're free anyway so if I ever want to transfer money back to them there is no paperwork to re-open an account.
Same goes with Apple, it's so much easier to get my Apple gear serviced here in California than in France. So much so that last time my Mom had a battery problem she waited to visit me and we went to the Apple store where they replaced her battery *after* the warranty expired. There is no way they would have been that nice in France... actually when they fixed her screen in France they put the glass panel outside in, so now she has fingerprints 'inside':-/
I used to think like you, "hey europe has nany states so corporations have to be nice", well not true at all. Corporations seem to behave much better with the customer in the US in general. Even with the employees, haven't you seen the wave of suicides amongst the France Telecom employees ?
I don't write cover letters anymore but I do get interviews at big name companies usually followed by a strong offer; to name a few: Apple, Google, Mozilla, Netflix, Palm, Yahoo.
A few years ago, when I was still writing cover letters since I was 'junior' I did send a cover letter to Palm... I said I was thrilled at the idea to work for Apple, oups. I got the job anyway and it convinced me that cover letters are a waste of time. Also it is quite frequent when interviewers do not bother to read the resumes because they're too busy with their work to prepare the interview.
Slashdot Mirror
American Express is your friend.
It took me over a year once I moved to the US to get a credit card. It took even longer for my wife since she had no SSN until a few years ago (yes you can live legally in the US for years and declare taxes without being allowed a SSN).
There is a vicious circle: no credit history, you can't get a credit card ... but you need one to get a credit history. You also have the option of the prepaid credit card, where you have to loan the bank say $500 for a $500 line of credit.
But my best advice: live within your means and always pay off you cards.
He's not visiting, he legally lives here, even if only for a few years. There is a difference between 'visiting' a country for a few weeks and living there for a few years. Also are you claiming that all US citizen never ever leave their passport at the hotel or other 'safe' place while going to the beach when abroad ?
Uh ? Where does the driver license say that you are a US citizen ? All it might prove is that I was legally in the US when I first got the license but I never had to prove I was still legal whenever I renewed my license. My licenses always expired years after my current visas expired. I've always been here legally and my driver license has never been proof of anything else but my ID and that I can legally drive.
one undred dollars ($100)
I think I found your missing h should I turn it over to the police ?
EU citizen working in the Silicon Valley. If you really want more details, it's all on my homepage (resume, vacation pictures and all).
60k was my salary out of 'internship' with a Masters. No previous experience other than 1y internship at that same company. I did get raises over time but moved to a different company to get the bigger raise. After 5y I was well within your range, still on a H1-B, higher if you include bonuses.
The biggest hurdle to get hired somewhere else: the 3y experience mark. Before that companies would not even reply to my resumes, nowadays I turn down head hunters.
That might be anecdotal evidence but I used to be a H1-B holder and have friends that are or have been in this situation. While on a H1-B I have changed jobs twice, and while it is a little bit more troublesome than while on a green card it is perfectly possible and is much easier than some think.
Transferring a H1-B can be expedited to 2 weeks at extra cost. I don't know the latest fees but the whole process should cost less than $5k. Not that much when you consider how much companies are spending hunting for talent.
Regarding salaries, if they are not competitive then this is not in compliance with the law. Back in 2002 my salary was $60k/year because that how little the company was allowed to pay me. I still managed to get raises, especially
each time I changed jobs.
Also for the grace period, there is some 'reasonable' time allowed. A friend of mine was laid off last year and the lawyers told him 6 months (I kid you not). He had to leave eventually because the economy was so bad but now he is back and has re-activated his H1-B with an other company.
So, yes it is more difficult when you are on a H1-B, but if you are above average talent (which is what H1-B should be for) it is not like you are locked in with your current company.
The only case I can think of is if you had your H1-B for 6+ years are waiting to get a green card. The H1-B get extended by the green card application which is linked to you current employer. This situation sucks, and I don't have much advice knowing the waiting list for some countries is longer than the 6y you can accrue on H1-B. The only thing is that if you are actually talented pressure you manager to get the green card application started ASAP if you plan on staying. Bigger companies tend to have better immigration lawyers and also more willing to eat the cost (which they're supposed to by law).
the only Americans who have ever heard of Global Collect are Sony
FYI Sony is Japanese.
Indeed, I used to think that the award was dumb until I actually read what happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants
Revealing sections:
She remained in the hospital for eight days while she underwent skin grafting. During this period, Liebeck lost 20 pounds (nearly 20% of her body weight), reducing her down to 83 pounds. Two years of medical treatment followed.
After that you would understand that she would seek come compensation:
Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for US $20,000 to cover her medical costs, which were $11,000, but the company offered only $800.
Draw your conclusions once fully informed.
I suppose you are trolling but I'll answer your question: it is because there is a higher risk they will never see their money back. If you lend money to 100 people and 10% of them will not repay you, you cannot expect to gain anything if the loan rate is under 10% do you ? If you take an other set of 100 people where you expect only 1% of non payment then you can give them a much better rate.
It just happen that people with large disposable income are less likely to default on a loan.
And this is why I never let Paypal fund the payment from my bank account and force them to use my credit card.
If there is a problem with the order I just call the credit card company and they will reverse the purchase on their end.
But better I avoid eBay and paypal as much as I can.
A friend of mine mentioned when the technology just came out that you could just setup a 'free pr0n' website and you would get a horde of humans entering the letters for you for real cheap.
"it's a shame how far we've strayed from IOC's original purpose."
works too sadly
You can run for office yourself
If I am not allowed to vote do you really think I can run for office ?
I'm not discarding your whole argumentation, just pointing out that not all taxpayers are equal or equally responsible. Again why should I, the taxpayer, be punished because of the voters bad choices ?
The taxpayers are exactly who should be punished. They elected a set of officials who apparently believe it's okay to spy on families in their own homes.
taxpayer != voter
Do you realize that I am a taxpayer and have absolutely no right to vote ? There are quite a few people in this situation. At the same time a lot of US citizens have the right to vote but do not pay taxes.
Why should I be punished for something I had absolutely no control over while the ones who voted these criminals into office are not ?
The US has taxation without representation and representation without taxation, so stop blaming me for paying my fair share of taxes.
Disclaimer: I used to be on H1-B and am a permanent resident now.
Do not forget that it is 65,000 "new" H1Bs, they are valid for 3 years, renewable once for a theoretical total of 6 years. It is also extendable from year to year pending a change of status, usually while the green card application is being processed. Some people can be on H1-B for 12 years with this. Add to that the fact that H1-B are usually concentrated in a few areas and you get more than 1% of the local "workforce" (not the same as population).
That said I would estimate that the average H1B last 5 years. Personally I think the green card process is broken, if the queue is taking many years to process either the US should put more resources into it (it cost lost of money so it got to be profitable) or be more picky about application and reject them sooner.
I'm a bit annoyed at all the bad press H1-B visas get. Sure there is a lot of abuse, but I like to believe that in my case there was a genuine need for a foreigner. While being on a H1-B I've quit twice and each time for a significantly larger salary. On my last H1-B year my total compensation was double the required H1-B salary. I have a few friends that have been on H1-B and most of them were much more qualified than the average software developer here in Silicon Valley.
I've been hosting my server in my closet with the various incarnations of Comcast since 2001. I host a web server (multiple sites actually), smtp, imap, pop3, ssh, etc... And have never been nagged by them. I've also heard a lot of good things about the Pro version of Comcast where all the above is actually approved and they have reall customer support (they are managed like 2 entirely different companies).
But if you are the one designing the system, what is the incentive to you if you get more money for breaking it ? The whole idea is that the pager is a PITA and your work is to make sure you do not get paged 'ever'. You do that by designing a robust system. Now if your team is understaffed to the point where you can only be reactive and not proactive, the developers get pissed off and leave.
I though the same thing for a while. But then after spending almost 3 years with little to no hiring in my team I realized that having 3 slow months because of new hires is really worth it. If you're always in crunch mode and never have time to hire someone else, then you need to bite the bullet and hire someone already. What ended up happening is that resignations happened more often than new hires, putting more strain on the remaining employees.
And why would you need to tase someone who is face down on the ground and under control ? Tasing is the new way to beat-up without leaving massive bruises. Really it does relieve the itch of trigger happy cops. When taser showed up they where supposed to be the last line of defense so you would not kill a suspect where you would have shot him before.
I'm very sad to see that you're excusing murder because tasing someone on the ground is considered 'normal' and 'OK'.
Perhaps he has something to hide.
His nuts.
Unfortunately the ones that have the power to pass such laws in the US have absolutely no interest or incentive to do so. Who is dumb enough to put a trap triggered by the feeding hand ? Me, I'm just paying my taxes without representation.
Back in 2002 I had a Handspring Visor with the phone module. I remember answering it in front of my friends and they just assumed I was playing crazy ... as if I started talking to my shoe. It did earn me some extra Geek points at the time. An other 'weird' thing was to have up to 5 smartphones, with data plans at the same time (ok they were prototypes and it was for work).
I beg to differ. Customer support in France is usually awful. If you have a problem with your ISP the number you call cost more than a regular phone call while in the US it's always toll free. In short the ISP makes more money when there is an outage than when everything works. This got so bad that the government forced the ISPs to stop charging 'wait time'.
Banks have started to add tons of fees in France as well, you really don't ewant to have multiple checking/savings accounts in France because for each account it's more fees. In the US I have accounts in at least 5 banks, not that I have any money with 3 of them it's just that they're free anyway so if I ever want to transfer money back to them there is no paperwork to re-open an account.
Same goes with Apple, it's so much easier to get my Apple gear serviced here in California than in France. So much so that last time my Mom had a battery problem she waited to visit me and we went to the Apple store where they replaced her battery *after* the warranty expired. There is no way they would have been that nice in France ... actually when they fixed her screen in France they put the glass panel outside in, so now she has fingerprints 'inside' :-/
I used to think like you, "hey europe has nany states so corporations have to be nice", well not true at all. Corporations seem to behave much better with the customer in the US in general. Even with the employees, haven't you seen the wave of suicides amongst the France Telecom employees ?
I don't write cover letters anymore but I do get interviews at big name companies usually followed by a strong offer; to name a few: Apple, Google, Mozilla, Netflix, Palm, Yahoo.
A few years ago, when I was still writing cover letters since I was 'junior' I did send a cover letter to Palm ... I said I was thrilled at the idea to work for Apple, oups. I got the job anyway and it convinced me that cover letters are a waste of time. Also it is quite frequent when interviewers do not bother to read the resumes because they're too busy with their work to prepare the interview.