While I think it is unfair to downvote someone just for offering their point of view but I do disagree with your point of view.
Trump got elected because of the working class who typically don’t see the light of increasing stock market. May be they should and may be having some kind of mandatory 401k match the administration was proposing at some point would help them but by and large they don’t.
China is one area I think he has been more consistent with. But the market largely doesn’t benefit from that. That’s why market cheered when the trade deal was signed and now Wall St is largely behind Biden camp hoping the status quo persists. If anything stock market wants to see rising China and stable relationships even though it might hurt long term bottom line and jobs here in US.
I travelled all over Europe past two months and I must say Europe is quite laxed. And there cases haven’t really gone up. Pretty much every outdoor cafes in Europe were open with a few exceptions and I didn’t see much difference other than people wearing masks and social distancing between tables.
I think in US everything is polarized and politicized. To the point that wearing masks is somehow considered against freedom.
I believe health officials have some blames to share. They still have not come clean for their initial mask guidelines that was blatantly wrong. I think health authorities will have long time to regain trusts in US.
I also feel we don’t quite understand the transmission mechanism fully yet. It’s airborne, at least we know that part but the clusters in nursing homes and indoor parties also indicate there is some mechanisms in play when indoor.
Thanks for doing this. I have started working in the US with L1B visa in March but because of the pandemic and the US-Canada border closure I have not been able to move there officially. My L1B was issued in a US-Canada land border (basically flagpoled - took the visa and came back) and my company is fine working remotely since we will be working from home for the rest of the year anyway.
However I need to get a SSN and so far from the SSA website they are issued only through a physical appointment. I have called up a few SSA offices and they all told me they are closed right now and don’t take any appointments. They will let me know when they start scheduling appointments and at that point I will have to go to their office and attend the interview physically.
My questions are:
1) assuming the border remains closed for a while and I have no means of going there while the current EO is in force, is there an alternative way of getting SSN you know of?
2) If it comes to that and there is no way of getting SSN without going there physically - the EO doesn’t impact existing L1Bs but my situation is a bit complex since there was never a stamp in my visa. They just issued I140 and an entry seal in the passport (as is done for all land entries through Canada I suppose). The EO does specifically mention having to have the visa stamp for me to be allowed to enter. How strict do you think the enforcement is going to be and do you think I will be allowed to enter if I attempt when they schedule the interview for SSN? Are the CBP officers enforcing the EO as verbatim or there is room for interpretation for someone who already has L1B but no visa stamps?
As a person of color and someone who is interested in moving to SLC for more affordable cost of living I am interested. Can you elaborate more? What is it that you found negative? I worked at firms with lack of racial diversity where I was literally the only non white person but didn’t have much problem other than of course not being able to relate in some off the work conversations and socializing aspects of it.
I thought SLC is now a lot more diverse than it was 10yrs ago partly cause the housing pressure in other big cities.
Came here to say this. Current immigration policy is so broken that for someone coming here with H1B to realistically qualify for green card, it takes years of paperwork, and most Asian born employees have no realistic chance of getting it anytime within 10yrs horizon. This makes it impractical to plan for house, career and startup. I personally know some folks from India who have no practical chance of getting it in their lifetime.
There was a bill to amend that so the country of birth based bias is removed. The bill was opposed in bipartisan way. Dick Durbuin, one of the most progressive senators and Ted Cruz one of the most right wing senator both were on the same page on this issue. This tells you the current state of affairs in our political climate on real immigration reform. Neither side really wants it and wants to keep the status quo.
I have signed a similar non-compete without knowing the 18month clause is there when I moved to Austin to work for Amazon with an L1B visa.
My plan once I leave Amazon is to move to California and work out of there for 18months before moving back to Austin to get around this issue.
As many others said salary is about 1.5x-2x lower. Taxes are about 7-10% higher. Cost of living in metro Toronto or Vancouver is pretty high, around the same as Seattle or DC. Housing prices are outrageous in both the metro areas. Vancouver over 1.5M for detached and Toronto around 1M.