Choices, Decisions and Immigration

Dear Dreamers,

I migrated to the big apple 15 years ago, back then I was a young man. Now at the age of 29 I see what I have accomplished and some of the choices I have made in order to get to this point in life. Since I was a small kid I loved school, so when I moved to NYC it did not take long for teachers to see my potential. I originally came to live with my dad, he was illegal back then, but I hadn't see him in about 8 years. When I arrived to the airport I saw him and I felt I was talking to a total stranger. Things didn't work out between he and I. I moved with one of my aunts living in NYC who only met me when I was a baby, this was the first tough choice I made.

While living with my aunt I helped her on her cleaning jobs and also baby sitting 3 of my cousins. I got my HS Diploma and I moved out of my aunts house. I was 19 years old when I started going to a Community College, I payed for my own tuition, food and housing while working at different restaurants. At many of this jobs I lied about my status, but back then I didn't care since I needed to work. It took me a long time to get my AS in Computer Science since I was a part time student and illegal but I got the degree. I took a year off and became involved in the Free Software Movement and Linux. My FLOSS(Free Libre Open Source Software) experience motivated me to go on to a senior college to get my BS in Computer Science, I started applying to jobs through school and with my good grades I got a gig that lasted for about 3 years with a startup company, I lied to them about my status but since they did their own payroll they didn't care much to double check. In December in 2007 the startup closed down.

I had no job but by now I have enough knowledge and decided to go on and applied to as many IT jobs as possible and see if I got any offers. In the first month I had one job offer from a financial hedge fund, I decided I was going to be honest about my status but it didn't work out even though they meant well. Last week I had another interview with Y company and two days later I had an offer. This time I decided not be honest and lied like I had done it before. On the same day I lied to them they were able to find out I was lying since I gave them my ITIN number. The company that does their payroll told them they couldn't use this number. They asked me more questions and I told them I had lied about my status.

I told them the following "I'm sorry for lying but I have done everything in my power like going to school and getting good grades. I haven't had any problems with the police in 15 years. I have study hard subjects on my own, some of them are only seen by Masters students of CS. But when it comes to immigration everything stops there for me because I'm powerless against such a bureaucratic institution." They thought about it and I told them that in 2001 I applied for a family petition under section 245i, by 2001 my dad became a resident but the backlog for Mexico is insane. They called my lawyer in order to double check since I already had lied once.

At this point they offered me the job as a consultant. I can use my ITIN to pay for taxes as a consultant, this means you do your own taxes. I'm excited about the job offer. But the most important thing I have learned from this specific experience is to tell the truth. Some people may not understand it and probably don't care but these guys were open mind about it and they decided to give me a chance. I felt so good when I let out this feeling I have been carrying with me for the last 15 years.

Until the next time!!!

Welcome and stick around!

wow, interesting story. i too hav been here for more then 15 yrs... and it was so hard for me to get jobs but yes i had told the truth for jobs tht were on the books but they apologized that they cannot take me in though i am qualified. i hear ya, it is best to tell the truth. hope things wrk well on ur part and congrats for getting the job u wanted! hav a great time here and welcome! thank u for sharing ur story.

Hey welcome to DAP!

I see you are alaso a beneficiary of 245i... so did your employer plan to sponsor you for a work visa under EB-2?