Yuchen Jin, a computer scientist and chief technology officer (CTO) of AI startup Hyperbolic Labs, recently faced a surprising rejection of his U.S. green card application by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ( USCIS).
In a post on But here’s the twist since the CTO mentioned in his message that “he never worked at Apple”.
He criticized the agency, saying the agent carelessly reviewed the documents and simply copied and pasted the reasons for the denial.
He wrote: “USCIS just denied my application for a US green card. Claiming that my work lacks impact “beyond that of Apple, Inc.” – even though they acknowledge that I am Apple’s CTO. WTF? I have NEVER worked at Apple! I earned my PhD in CS, co-founded an AI startup, and raised $20 million. Yet after waiting a whole year, I am rejected with this absurd reasoning. I really hope DOGE, along with @elonmusk, @sriramk and @DavidSacks, can fix the system and accelerate high-skilled immigration. High-skilled immigrants are America’s secret weapon. This should be based on merit – not left to a USCIS officer who carelessly reviews documents and copy-pastes reasons for denial! »
Reactions pour in to US immigration blunder
VC at Menlo Ventures, Deedy das said, “I definitely say this is happening to you, but this isn’t the first time I’ve seen USCIS make egregious mistakes. If it’s a NOID you might be able to claim an obvious error, but the chances are slim. I would withdraw my application and reapply. I’ve seen almost identical apps work on the second attempt.
One user added, saying, “Sorry to hear about your situation. And thank you for sharing. I’m also getting hassled by USCIS on my way to a green card and received a weird RFE as well. My visa attorney mentioned that he was noticing staffing issues at USCIS – a decline in quality and quantity. Not good news! »
Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind and Google Research, said: “This is beyond frustrating. We should want talented people to come to this country! You deserve better than a cursory rejection when it’s clear the person didn’t even carefully review the application. I hope this will ultimately be resolved in the opposing decision.
One user joked: “I’d bet they have a form letter and forgot to edit parts of it.”
