Kiwi's case shows 'broken' US immigration system

The New Zealander is about to be kicked out of the US after 15 years. Photo / File

A Kiwi with two university degrees about to be kicked out of the United States after 15 years says his case shows America's immigration system is dysfunctional.

American business news outlet Bloomberg said the case of William Han showed how "broken" the American immigration system was.

Mr Han penned a missive on the Vox website outlining his dilemma.

He said he'd done everything possible to contribute to the US after arriving as an 18 year-old.

"I still remember the excitement I felt when, very late at night, my flight from Auckland touched down at JFK," he wrote.

"I had come to America to attend Yale," he added. "I spent four dutiful years there and graduated with honors, initially majoring in math and physics before switching to the humanities.

"From college to law school to professional life, from student visa to work visa, I have scrupulously followed every immigration regulation, paid all my taxes, filed all the papers I had to file ... But it turns out that following all the rules is not enough."

He said a planned new job unexpectedly fell through so his work visa was getting cancelled this month.

"I will get on a plane to somewhere else in the world, anywhere but America. Following all of Uncle Sam's rules has led me, 15 years down the road, to a plane ticket booked on short notice to anywhere but here," he told Vox.com.

Immigration is an incendiary political issue in the US, with fierce debates raging for years about the value of naturalising undocumented or illegal immigrants, including unskilled workers from neighbouring countries.

Mr Han said the US system was working against some skilled migrants, even those who'd lived there many years.

"At every step, the immigration system sets up roadblocks for the law-abiding immigrant. An employer who wishes to hire an immigrant employee has to sponsor a work visa and bear the application cost and lawyer's fees; federal regulations bar the employee from paying those costs on behalf of the employer."

Noah Smith, assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, said Mr Han's case highlighted failures in the country's H1-B VISA.

"Han, a New Zealander, has been living legally in the US for 15 years, studying at Ivy League schools, working as a lawyer, earning a high income and paying his taxes. Despite this stellar record, he is about to be forced to leave, simply because the US doesn't have a system for keeping people like him in the country," Dr Smith wrote on Bloomberg.

"The problem with H1-B isn't just that it eventually kicks high-skilled immigrants out of the country for no good reason. It's also that by tying high-skilled immigrants to their employers, it prevents them from starting their own companies..."