Biden Encouraged Chinese Students Stay in the US

Chinese students who were standing in snake lines in the US Embassy in Beijing waiting for visa interview were surprised by an upbeat Biden and his inspiring impromptus speech, in which the Vice President of the United States urged Chinese students to stay in the US.

Obvious in a good spirit, Biden thanked the applicants for their effort for the US opportunities. He told students that he hope they would decided to stay once they arrived in the US. He also promised to arrange a reunion in Washington.

What's ironic is that for students seeking an F-1 student visa to study in the US university, the predominant condition and the No. 1 reason for visa rejection is that they must demonstrate they would not stay in the US. By law, if a student shows any sign of likelihood of not returning to China once his study completes, the visa officer must deny the visa application. It would be interesting if any of the students actually told the visa officer that he would follow Biden's advice.

In addition, the Beijing Embassy did not handle visa. All immigration visa applicants must apply in Guangzhou.

Chinese Legal Immigrants Filed Complaint Discriminatory Practice by State Department Officials

Five Chinese EB3 (Employment-Based Category 3) immigrants filed class action lawsuit in US District Court of Western District of Washington, challenging the mistaken procedures used for establishing cut-off dates in their immigration cases.

The Center of the issue is an official who is in charge of setting the cut-off dates for each country. The plaintiff alleged the method currently used is flawed, unconstitutional, against rules of the State Department itself, and discriminatory against Chinese legal immigrants.

Li et al. v. USA, No. 2:10-cv-00798-RAJ, W.D. Wa. at Seattle. click to make a donation.

Vietnamese Killer Laid Off from IBM

The killer of the Binghamton New York immigration center was identified as a Vietnamese ethics Jiverly Voong (Wong) who had been laid off by IBM. IBM announced a 5,000 job cut, and offered to relocate laid off employees to oversea positions.

It is speculated that Voong, a US citizen hated to see jobs taken away by new citizens. He walked in a citizen language preparation center, and shot 14 people dead, dozens more injured. The center helps foreigners to prepare for the citizenship test. Most of President Obama's Stimulus Package dollars have clauses to make sure the money would be going to US citizens, rather than foreigners (including those hold legal working visa). New citizens become the new competitors in the job market.

Update: the man worked for IBM until one year ago, but had been working in a local manufacture plant before he was laid off last month.

As to the name, he was quoted saying he changed his name from Voong to Wong because "Americans can't pronounce" it.

Update 2: The killer is believed to be a Chinese (Wang Linfa), from Vietnam. His father is a reputed community leader. Among died, four are Chinese citizens. One other Chinese was wounded but is expected to recover.

They Could Not Keep This House From Burning Down

The only Chinese immigration organization, the Legal Immigrants Association (LIA), has been burning after the board and the president posted statements controdicts each other. The board suspended the operation of the LIA, citing power stemed from the bylaws. The president declared the board nonexistant, with endorsement of an immigration lawyer friend.

LIA had a serious chance of leading oversea Chinese in the fight on social status and recognitions.

Indians: Fastest Growing Illegal Immigrants

Although 7 million Mexicans made up the majority of illegal immigrants in the US, Indians has more potential to take up the top illegal immigrants spot if the trend continues. There were about 120,000 illegal Indian immigrants in the US in 2000, while the number has grown to 270,000 in 2006 which converts to an increase of 125%.

What Matters (Chinese in America) ?

The State Department published the visa bulletin for April 2008, in which vast amount of visa numbers are assigned to Indian born EB3 applicants. This is a big slap on the face to Chinese immigrants, mostly skilled high tech workers with advanced degrees who are in EB2 category. The positive side of the incident serves as a wake up call to Chinese immigrants community. Within 24 hours, an advocacy group Legal Immigrant Association (LIA) received more than $30,000 donations to be paid on lobbying effort and possible law suit against the State Department as the April bulletin violated the fair principle mandated by SECTION 202(5) RULES FOR EMPLOYMENT-BASED IMMIGRANTS. This may be a history making, pivoting moment in the history of Chinese immigrants.

NYC Chinese Illegals Leaving for Home

According to a MingPao report, illegal Chinese immigrants in New York City are leaving for home. Agents of several travel agencies told the reporter they saw a sudden rise of sale of one-way tickets to China purchased by illegal Chinese immigrants.

The traditional Chinese culture says leafs shall fall to the root. No matter where you go, you should come back and die at your homeland. In the recent past, however due to the harsh living condition of China, illegal Chinese tend to wait until they secure a legal identity in the US before they return China, just in case they could re-enter the US when adversity happens. It's a new trend for some illegal Chinese immigrants who had been in the US for a ling time go back China to take advantage of the prosperous economy, abandoning their effort to stay in the US.

Indian Labors Out Numbered and Out Paid Chinese Workers

According to numbers released by the Labor Department, 85,000 PERM were issued to applicants from 176 countries and areas in FY2007, among which 55,214 are H-1B type visa intended for solving the shortage of high-skilled workers, mostly in the Informational Technology field.

PERM issued in FY2007

	Indian	Chinese
Total Number	24573	6846
Average Salary	$75,646	$63,585

Comparing the top 2 populations in high-tech immigrants. Chinese are better trained (4 times PhD owners over Indian), doing advanced work (much higher EB2/EB3 ratio), but paid much less. For Chinese, there are much to learn besides work skills.

PERM is an abbreviation of Permanent Employment Certification. Category EB2 type visa is issued to applicants holding advanced skills or graduate degrees, while EB3 for normal workers.