Study in the USA

Understanding student visa takers, who helped the US Embassy break records

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Study after the times of Covid

OpenDoors Report is probably the only data to fall back on the close enough numbers on the international student enrollment in the USA. This is supposed to be a record breaking year for the US Embassy. Some people also commented on how and why middle class is sending students to the USA, despite the history of visa difficulty for working visa population based on the Great Backlog. Yes, everything in this country is great.

A few Indian challenges

I would defer to what my ex-supervisor said. I was in two minds to go or no go to the USA when it was my turn. I had already spend fair deal of money back in the United States of India on education, burned through some savings and achieved two degrees and a post graduate diploma. And still struggling for a proper foothold in core engineering jobs viz electrical, mechanical, civil engineering. The entry criteria for all the public sector undertaking (PSU) jobs had changed to GATE, now you need to crack GATE to get into PSU, and that graduating from an accredited university does not guarantee getting through the GATE exam. No wonder it is so competitive and exclusive. There are a few who are successful, but if you did not want to incur any gap in employment and then joined workforce, then studying for GATE becomes a bit harder. The flexibility and freedom is on our side, but the time is never, the clock keeps ticking. I have known various yet unknown places in the country of India by attempting different types of examinations for entrance into public sector undertaking jobs, bank jobs, and so on. It is a journey on its own and takes a character far away from actual engineering. It would remind someone of the initial entrance examinations that we go through to get the Bachelors in engineering in the first place. It was interesting and funny to pose one such GATE electronics circuits problem to a senior scientist at the place I was working, he had a Masters in Engineering already and a working professional. But he got to answer it incorrectly. This proves how useful GATE as an examination is. My advisor, said even if he could not make it big in the land of the states of the Americas, he would still encourage me to go and have that experience.

The challenges for students is not in getting a degree from the USA. There are not many Americans who attend colleges. Like many practical minded population they understand that education can do so much but money trumps, and there are paths of lesser resistance available to them, like associates degree, vocational training and so on. The challenge may actually lie elsewhere. The current population estimate of India is very close to being number one in the world. Statistics is a nice way to look at this. An eye opening map for the global India is given by Xavi’s tweet.

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So if India is that big and populous, why is the demography not yielding its benefits, why is Tamil Nadu not Germany, why people want to go to Germany instead of Tamil Nadu? There is enough internal migration within India, the data for which is yet unknown.

How do we try to answer the student visa issued by US embassy in this context? Even with so many opportunities to study and work within India, the drive for the people to get educated, to migrate, to see, experience, learn and work with new and different cultures is only increasing. There is also a serious lack in the number of educational opportunities at par with the western standards. Despite having the most universities per country, beating out USA by a huge margin, India is yet to be known as a global educational hub, or one that gives education at par with the places that students flock to. So we have the quantity, and some quality, but overall still more kilometers to go.

Work Culture is one major understanding that comes through foreign work. Be it in another state or a country. Work is a beast, to be tamed. Work culture in India is different from Spain and is much different from the USA. To understand a different work culture and understand the shortcomings and benefits of being in home country is one benefit of immigration, this kind of economic immigration is facilitated by post study work permits in majority of the western world. This is a sample time period for the beneficiary and the employer, kind of like a date to understand each other and to see if this kind of relationship is sustainable in the long term. With good post study work permits such as that in Canada or in the USA for STEM degrees, a student visa holder is ability to get good Return on Investment in terms of cultural exchange and recover the student loan debt. It is not uncommon to have student debt in some countries like the USA, while may be surprise for yet another countries like Germany. Choosing a place of study, so as to transform into a post study worker to undertake such activities is incorporated into visa and study schemes in western world. At the same time, India does not have a culture of Internship, or a smooth transition from study to work. There is a GATE to be opened for a better future. This experience of endless entrance examinations leads to burn out and focusing on the means than the end. Coaching centers galore.

That brings in the relevance of Spadikam (1995) movie to this days.

So to answer the first question based on the tweet from US Embassy, who are all these student visa holders?

New students

There are fresh students in student visa in this pool. They fall into the category of people who want more experiences and cultural exchanges that we discussed before.

Change of status visas who needed to travel

There are some who are already in the USA in a different visa status, had to change to student status and then get a visa to re enter USA, the news does not say how many fresh F1 visas were issued vs how many are getting a renewal or a change of status and later a changed visa. This two pronged idea of status and visa may confuse a few people, the status is to be legally in the USA. The visa is only to enter the USA internationally. Several people lost jobs through out Covid times since 2019 onward, many lost jobs, many changed plans, many returned to India, many want to return to study or continue studies that was stopped earlier. This needs a visa if they were stuck in India and had to physically reach USA for continuation, completion and post study work.

Choices that we make, some we are forced to make

There are people who wanted to rejoin family, but do not see any pathways and visa and status that are viable other than a student visa. There are aged out children of H1B or other temporary visas, who reached age of 21 and need to hold their own visa status because they are legally not a dependent anymore. F1 visa is their only choice.

Should you come to the USA?

If you have valid reasons, and see benefits beyond the visa troubles and other limiting factors, do come. If you are on the fence, better to get matters sorted out before heading into the USA. If you have better options, better countries, that align with your interests, and ambitions closely, go with them. If you can’t make your own choices, someone or something else would make choices for you.

Movie Review

Bharat (2019) Movie Review

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I got to see Bharat (2019) in the Amazon Prime Video OTT. This movie is underrated per IMDB. I would put it at a much higher rating than above average, likely 8 or 9 out of 10.

Who would not like this movie? It is pure fiction and has a larger than life story with strong emotions covering the whole spectrum from sadness to happiness, death to life before and to life after, from patriotism to atrocity, from poverty to richness, from dependence to independence, from childhood to old age, from non violence to violence, from fantasy to reality, from existence to non-existence. I would count this as Salman‘s best movie ever, that I have seen.

Placing the Tiger in the background and working in and around untouched domains

Coming from the hangover of the YRF Spy universe. Bharat, makes me think of this as a precursor to the Tiger. Almost completing the Tiger’s background story, which could have easily sat between pre-Tiger to Tiger. With similarly bold character of Katrina Kaif holding up and performing beyond expectations of a stereotypical Bollywood heroine. This also fits well with the Salman Khan’s zone of movies with the premise of India-Pakistan making this one also a true pan sub continent movie of Bajrangi Bhaijan. Complete with the Pathaan and upcoming Tiger Movies, this almost demands at least in people’s mind to give Salman movie fans to make these attempts a redeemer of whatever faults the human has and keeps the hope of negating the differences and unifying the broken hearts of both countries.

Bharat the redeemer

Coming back to Bharat the movie, at some Katrina’s character also knocks out the superhuman of the character making it very human. This must have been a truly humbling experience for the fans. As for the actors, they are just acting, it is for us, that it matters more.

Bharat and work

That scene of getting himself and his team a work visa was funny, unrealistic and stupid, nevertheless entertaining. Going through tough times of Partition of the sub-continent to formation of different countries, the effects of which were shown with good intent and effectiveness, Bharat stands out. Taking us through numerous jobs that the titular character undertakes and gives his best, it is a reminder for anyone who is willing to succeed, to also be willing to put in the effort. As we grow up we relate to different aspects of a movie. A working class person, someone in the working age, hopes to get to work and live a work life, accepts a VIP orAla Vaikunthapurramuloo or The Pursuit of Happyness at a much more realistic viewpoint. On a parallel, Katrina’s character also goes through work life, of immigration, public broadcasting and reality TV, a natural evolution resonating with the macroeconomics of the country of India.

Bharat and immigration

As a southerner, the effects of partition are not known much in the south, only history testbooks and interests in geopolitics would draw a curious mind towards this forgettable but important nation creating moment. I would have to use much imagination on top of the excellent writing of Kushwant Singh in his Train to Pakistan, to fill the gaps of humanness and the lack thereof. Bharat also goes through ambitions of the unemployed, how they wished to build their family first, reminding an average Mamootty fan of Pathemaari. Pathemaari was a serious take on poverty, helplessness, economic immigration and immigrant workers. Similar immigrant worker stories of which we heard and read in the recently concluded Qatar world cup 2022 as well. So many years have passed, but history repeats itself. Bharat particularly touches the immigrant’s nerve when it talks about hopes. Destroying someone’s hope is worser than death. In Kerala, a related proverb goes like, “Give an elephant, but never give hope”. Sometimes as immigrant and/or worker, we give hopes to ourselves, some of them may need a reclassification as a false-hope, to satisfy our ego and give ourselves a really hard footing. Don’t hopes drive us? Don’t we give ourselves hopes to live on and live by? Sometimes winning, sometimes losing and having a lifetime of experience to reflect upon.

Going through different jobs, posing different situations and the associated struggle and fun, it sits well with me as an economic immigrant working out of home country. The fun side of which reminds me of yet another great movie – The Forrest Gump. Salman portrayed an emotionally less aged character in the hit Bajrangi Bhaijan, whose innocence, just like Forrest Gump captured the heart, this one in and as Bharat combines the best of both worlds, and includes a whole universe of characters, emotions, situations and struggles, which is yet another surprise in a Bollywood movie, especially one normally expected out of Salman. Dealing with even pirates, on his own style, who would not want to be Bharat’s friend. It is his friend in bad times, that kept with him, and even this aspect of friendship was explored,in addition other relationships with siblings, parents and extended family with much importance in the movie.

Overall, Bharat was an interesting experience, of laws and lawlessness, ambitions and complacence. It is a wonder for someone who went through The Forrest Grump and Bajrangi Bhaijan to see that even within a standard Indian movie duration, Bharat could offer this much, and keeping a coherent narrative with effective visualization. Like other Salman movies, this one too, stands ground on hit movie songs. Bharat was a refreshing experience, and thence for once putting this particular movie well above my average ratings for an average Hindi Movie.

There was only one instant where I felt the movie could have improved. During Bharat’s near death experience in the underground work place, an otherwise stopped watch should have started working, to show us that this was unreal times, where his whole life flashes before him, and the watch should have stopped, when he recovers, indicating that we are back to normal where the watch never worked.

Bharat also pays good reference times for the legends Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan.

Sidenotes

As someone who worked for a Pakistani Origin CEO, in a company which had significant footprint in Pakistan, USA and office in India. Going to a sponsored vacation trip with all Pakistani people in an unknown country, was a unique and memorable experience for me. Thanks to the USA for letting us do that.I would confidently claim that time has been proving over and over again of no much difference between humans, their needs and emotions. And people of all countries gel well when they are outside of their homes. So I would encourage everyone to get out of the comfort of home, and go and see the world. To shine lights on the darkest corners of our brain, to open up and bring in a true acceptance of the world we live in.We need to do more of that between these two beautiful countries and many other countries as well.

Footnotes

I could not end this without relating this movie to my own work life and visa experience as an economic immigration, though not as exciting and entertaining, it has its own ups and downs captured as related posts here.

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The work animals

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Nervous system, does most of the control signal propagation leading to control and actions for an average organism. Thereby, are voluntary and involuntary system, so I learn. The involuntary system would do what it has to do, regardless of how much we hope to control it. The voluntary system is in our conscious control. Consciousness collaborates from awareness, when we are aware, we are conscious, we could put our effort into controlling the controllable using the voluntary systems. Sometimes, we forget to understand the controllable and then worry voluntarily about the uncontrollable, uncontrollably.

A movie may make us go through motions of emotions, make us believe, make us happy and sad, and if there are options go through the entire spectrum of rainbow. The measure of success of a movie, also depends on the human connect, how convincingly it can make us forget the controllable, and transform us into an universe of unnatural systems and processes.

In regard, to the economic immigration, people choose to go to places where there may be opportunities, try their ‘luck’, because that ‘luck’ is uncontrollable. But the effort to get to the luck is controllable with achievable targets, workable with checklist.

We can choose to take chances and work towards job using study then work, or straightaway work. From the beginning of humanity there may have been some kind of work, some form of employment. Industrial revolution would have solidified the systems in place to streamline employment and hence work-life was officially born. In some countries they have classified the universe of employment into categories. Like Charles Darwin’s origin of species, origin of employment would eventually evolve into labor classification, standard occupation code in the USA, national occupational classification code in the Canada and similar codification elsewhere. This is a more logical organic classification than the erstwhile work based caste system in Indian peninsula where you are born into a caste. While the pros and cons, supporters and haters exist for this this. Little would an Indian imagine that you will be born into a work based lock in the US H1B visa system. Which is a work visa system.

Other countries have yet another chance for foreigners in terms of job seeker visa. Currently some countries have some form of job seeker visa.

These countries are looking for workers, if working is what we are seeking, then we can get the job seeker visa, which does not guarantee the issuance of the visa, nor does it guarantee a job when we land there. We may voluntarily take these chances.

Some relations are also like this. In particular the immigration systems of the world. First and foremost, Canada as a globally known immigration system with express entry system, works for them. By entering the pool of candidates that the country may be willing to select, the metrics of which may be known, however, who will be beneficiary will not be known. This is a chance based system, a lottery with some components that we control like work profile, life skills and so on, but with absolutely no guarantee to get selected. Many in the USA mistakenly think that Canada is an easily place to migrate to. Perspectives, that we control. Ignorance is controllable. Ignorance is a choice in this age and time.

Sweden is also apparently an immigrant friendly country, until you read the troubles. How an employer’s paperwork can cause the beneficiary of the visa to be in uncontrollable situation is exemplified by this story.

With each of these opportunities we do not see much transparency in the policy, consistency, laws and systems in its entirety. Some things have to be experience, somethings learned, somethings we are told and are mandatory. The mandatory ones are easily understood, like getting a job needs work visa, legal residency, temporary or permanent, tax numbers mean to do the work, enough health to work and so on. Sometimes it is easy to fill forms given to us, as part of job application. We know that we need an address, a phone number and so on. This is as good as a checklist. And working through it is achievable to the most part. We do not predict natural disasters with 100% detailing, not all lives are saved in the world with all the predictive knowledge, do we say the universities and the eminent scientists of the world are useless? We could probably say they are not as useful as expected. Expectations are controllable, expectations however great can be controllable.

In all such employment, if we keep our expectations to limits, emotions to limits, limits to a controllable, then we could control. This is so as not be become a control freak. Every limit also defines the sphere of influence and control. Every control gives us a feedback, a feedback completes the loop, the loop of employment, work-life. Is this a re-definition of the work base caste system, at a global scale?

We get classified based on education, work, for some people work defines there routine and family life. Defining boundaries and freedom, benefits and rights. To the extent that success defined by work translates to work life. I need not believe this, though there is some understanding of the way this system works and I get to play it by being in an employment based visa. Even without taking visa and work permits into consideration. In everybody’s home country of citizenship too we get our life defined by work and employment. Even if we are running our own business, the employment of business defines certain part of us. Social life, environment, situations and circumstances that present to us are influenced by such work.

Social animals evolved to be a work animal.

Movie Review

Pathaan (2023) Movie Review

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I watched this movie in the USA and have something to say about this. AMC gave a good 30% discount to watch this. AMC theatre was one of the worst I have visited. It was unclean and the seats were not that great. This was comparable to the Kantara showed in Regal which was also yet another theater may be in the verges of stopping there business, or may be they are all restarting from their revenues hit by pandemic?! This review is about Pathaan movie starring SRK released in 2023.

Pathaan film is also based on RAW, just like Vijay’s Beast 2022, but without the problems of it. The movie begins with a KGF1 style setting where the hero, with long hairs covering his face, is tied up, surrounded by villains. The trailer and poster showing SRK, looked like a makeover, unrealistic for the SRK that I have known. His best movie ever, for me is FAN may be followed by Swades. Throughout his movies, SRK has shown a stand alone way to hold any movie up solo, compared to say Amir Khan, where Dangal, Secret SuperStar, 3 idiots, Taare Zamin Par all heavily depended on the story and other characters. Pathaan is a different beast, where we see the best movie formula, chase, fights, game plan, game like adventures sprinkled with enough fun. The movie borrows enough and more scenes from Mission Impossible, James Bond series, KGF1, Uncharted, Batman series and may be some games. If you wanted to see all of this featuring SRK, then this is the movie to watch. If the dialogues had to be in Hindi, this is the perfect movie. If the setting has to be not India, then this is it.

There are some rare scenes in the movie, that anyone who is not even a fan would like. Such as Salman meeting SRK. Who better than John Abraham to play the villain, a villain created by system failure and policy gaps. Just like the one an Anniyan would do. I would anyday side with this character than the main lead. And it was a disappointment not to have a mass dialogue when the final showdown between these two ends. Any Telugu, Tamil movie would better justice in terms of screenplay and dialog at the end of fights. Per Wikipedia, Pathan is corruption of their original Afghan name, and has a history and background story of migration and interaction with other cultures. While I know none of them personally, there is some common terms that resonates with my recent blog posts. These keywords are loyalty, trust and work.

Throughout the film there is an evidence of people doing their work, be it a good guy, bad guy, or the double agent. They are all doing their job until the system thinks otherwise. I saw this movie as a job related confusion and a show of resulting consequences. Everyone keeps doing their job until they find some conflict with other interest. And as a result they assume an anti system stance. Because the system betrayed them and orphaned them. Don’t family come first before duty. Getting priority on this would have helped the villain much earlier. Without a support structure, orphaned and abandoned, there is not much to hold on to with a continuing life. Throughout Pathaan we would also see that both these characters go as in Tom & Jerry fighting and leaving and repeating, never really hurting in a deadly fashion. As in Joker, Thaniyavarthanam, situations can change a person. An inconsiderate society, an ill situation, a depressing environment, a bad upbringing can all contribute to someone going to nadirs of the life, digging themselves in deep without escape. It would take a massive undying Pursuit of Happiness, a King Richard, a divine presence as in Pranchiyettan & the Saint, a friend along as in Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi, an unquestioning companion as in Peanut Butter Falcon. To save someone out. I was disappointed that Pathaan could not reason with and bring back the good in the bad guy, a system can corrupt a person so much, and make it hard to bring them back to life, and it becomes easy to assume that character to be branded bad, pointing finger at their own self-infliction, and rather easily, instead of other ways, push and shovel them into further depths and wish them dead.

Overall a good movie for SRK fans. And keeps the hero realistic without any idealism, that a Vijay or Rajni would have given this character.

Work in the USA

Work forever by chance

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H1B and green card process for backlogged countries can be compared to a few of the mythological stories. To reach there someone went through H1B which is a process.

H1B a temporary worker visa provided lasts 6 months. and during this time a company was sponsor the employee for a green card. Green Card in employment based category are divided into many. The employer sponsored ones are EB1B, EB2, EB3. Each of the preference numbers in the employment based green card has a country wise limit. So most populous countries in the planet hit their limit while a coworker born elsewhere could get green card faster. Since country of birth is not in a person’s hands. Unless your parent was Ravana who made the stars and planets align so his son Indrajith was born in the exact time and date and location that he wanted.

Narada’s H1B

In one of the Narada’ story. After much discussion about who is the greatest devotee and how a mortal life on the earth is seen from above. Vishnu makes Narada transport into the earth. In a city of the ages, he gets employment, gets married, has children and lives a happy life, until a flood comes and wipes off the entire town with all the people. And Narada remained, returning to Vishnu, he understood how life on the earth is temporary and how it is good and bad and during his time there, he never thought of Vishnu nor pray. Thus is the story of life for all the mortals. Which particularly connects with H1B work visa, or anyone living the life of employment.

Trishanku‘s Heaven and H1B

H1B with I-140 approved with 180 days passed, so that I -140 based priority date persists may be equated to Trishanku’s heaven. While you are eligible to work forever, there must be an employer. You transcend to the USA as a resident for all other purposes, buying house, doing job, living, pay taxes, access schools for children and so on, limited to work, but unlimited access to spend or invest. It is kind of a compromise formula for the backlogged Indian in Green Card who will never see the Green Card. Sorry to Trishanku if this comparison is incorrect. Apart from the 60 days of grace period on loss of employment and limited number of working hours per H1B Visa rules pertinent to the sponsoring company, the status offers benefits and sometimes these may outweigh other available opportunities.

Bali‘s unreachable mountain (ബാലികേറാമല)

In another mythological example, in Ramayana, Rama and Lakshmana go in search of Sita in the forest. In their they are trying to reach and speak to Sugreeva, who stays atop the Bali’s unreachable mountain. The greatness of the Bali is that even though Sugreeva stays on it, the name still goes to Bali. So with that blessing Sugreeva is sage from Bali. However, he is afraid of these two strangers approaching the mountain, and to Rama and Lakshmana it seemed that the more they walked towards the mountain, the mountain became farther to reach. While not a direct correlation.The approach to Green Card through H1B is sort of a mountain unreachable by Bali.

The real process of H1B to Green Card

After 2 years and 10 months in a company. They could not get my green card petition in. Because I was in OPT, STEM OPT and they sponsored H1B so why sponsor yet another petition?! Legally, they could do it in parallel. Practically, it depends on the manager who wants to judge and review the performance. Because of their incapability to support green card process, one may choose to go with another company.

In another company with 2 years and 9 months of experience, after much chagrin and futile argument, and absolutely unsociable behavior developed by this system’s effect and aftershock of layoff but the venue of which only came due to acceptance of expression, right to freedom of expression, blatant disregard to fear and consequences and some amount of pending misery. All added up to getting to remain true, honest and right to the self. A system cannot be that bad. Especially, when it boasts to come from a so called first world country and first world employer. However, after much stain. I 140 for EB3 green card petition gets approved and an H1B life is extended based on that for another 3 years. And no one discussed about the green card backlog in this category based on country of birth. The legal team did not consider my profile for any other, there is only one, EB1, category.

The technique apparently is that people who want to stay can stay. This is not slavery. There is a choice to break the contract of employment. There is no choice to build anything better. There is no way forward. There will be no support. There is no innovation. Do the job or don’t do it. A job in which somebody grabbed me by collar, somebody said I am taking all the money from salary to my home (country). And I would have to argue with green card or US citizen co workers knowingly fully well that if things go south, they could stay in the country of work in the usa, to find another employer. While I would have my counter started. A counter of 60 days. And here the work forever life begins with the end in mind. A life of 60 days. Some insects live only for days, some microbes for hours.

Interestingly, in a cookery show by Lakshmi Nair, she said during the multi step cooking, all this we are doing for some taste, and we keep food in mouth only for a few moment, lasting no longer than a minute. But tastes leave a lasting memory.

This is true for all tastes, the good and bad. And we go through several steps and processes just to arrive at a taste, a certain taste. If it fails, we try all over, if we have strength and patience. Or else we drop the idea. And declare that we are no good. Sometimes, yet some other time, there may be someone who likes the taste, though we may not, as the cook, as the experimenter, we have choices, to drop or to continue.

Work in the USA

Aftershock of H1B Layoff

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As if losing the job was not enough. There were other clocks that worked at their own pace. The Green Card process with my ex-company ended, PERM was not even processed. H1B ended giving me a grace period of 60 days. A human translation, is there is no more a future job that the company would be able to support. The company has further restrictions in hiring and offering PERM petition because of the layoffs. By law they have to offer jobs to qualified domestic citizens. So there is no more future in the company. And company would not entertain any questions on it.

I had the whole office work setup at home. Now, I was not permitted to return all that to office. So the brilliant guys there called my own ex-friends and ex-colleagues to come and collect stuff from my house. It was short of an emotional parting.

Several people had lost work so there is no special consideration for me. I am still wondering how Covid is a hogwash reason that could affect a hardware-software company.

I went back to the search sheet just like the ones created for finding universities, this time for jobs. Job search techniques, I refreshed with all the books in the public library. No library has any information about visa sponsoring employers. So that was purely luck based. Interviewers did not understand the exigency of the situation that I had only 60 days to make myself useful at their company, and they had to move through the interview process fast and keep me updated all the time.

I had to amp up on the networking side using LinkedIn and tried to make use of the connections built from day 1 in history. Where some where helpful in leading me to some opportunities, some where not helpful. What can they do, I am sure everyone helped in their own way. By luck and kindness of strangers I could get a proper referral and get into interview, and perform satisfactorily for them to offer me a job. Then, it was a wait for the H1B visa transfer(change of employer). I had to take time. I had the timer running and still trying to find any employer who could do that process faster, attend as many interviews and phone calls as possible. This was not easy. Meanwhile sold all the furniture, and spoke with lease office. Now that I did not have to outright sell the cars, because cars are needed for any life in the USA. If there is a job in the USA in near future, then selling the car may be costly compared to buying a car later. But there is still the uncertainty since I had no paper to show yet.

My previous offer during studentship (F1 Visa) was a good reminder. I was offered to be interviewed and the office admin there collected all personal details to book flights and so on and then cancelled it at the last moment and did not book anything. There was no offer to bring in for interview then or later.

I could not go back to India and go back to F1 to continue PhD that easily because of lockdown. I could not get any visa appointment slots. I could not see any relevant jobs in the city I was in. I had to move. I was preparing everyday. I had watches several movies run in the TV during this time but do not remember even a single one. I tried to maintain contacts with a few people who were in my situation, checking on them what they may be doing. I felt I was responsible for one person I interviewed and was later offer a job, laid off only 4 months into the job. I felt bad. Why my manager or CEO did not feel bad for letting all of us go, I could not understand. We remove emotions from policy, then a temporary foreign worker whose work no more exists ceases to exist. No humans were harmed, in theory!

Luckily the papers came in just in time, just 10 days before the end of grace period of 60 days. That determined my continued stay in the USA, and continue the work by chance in the USA.

To this day even after 3 years of these happenings, I relive thiese major life lessons, as a memorable set of events. For the slightest of the reasons in my new job, such as computer not letting me log in. Swipe in card not working. Manager not scheduling 1:1. Manager asking me to come into office without giving details. I would pre emptively carry the necessary stuff ready to go. If a 15 min video call could change my life and work by chance in the USA. Then it could happen again. In my place, in Kerala, we say if jackfruit falls and rabbit dies, it is not necessary that for every fall of the jackfruit rabbit would die.

I could give my example as a hopeful story to some of my contacts who faced layoffs during that time in 2020 in Covid. Most of them are doing well today. All is well that ends well.

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Work in the USA

In the US, on your toes

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Life in H1B brings surprises and because the H1B is sponsored and beneficiary is you. Life is decided on somebody’s else’s mercy. The amount of say you have on the H1B is zero. Hiding it does not help. That makes one vulnerable. To make it normal, selling, and upselling and shameless self promotion is warranted.

Looking back at my notes, analysing the option to head to US also read that I would on my toes when I move to the USA. One of supervisors who referred me to the MS program, advised that I should go to the USA. Although he never got to reap the benefit of post study work, because of inability to land a proper job during the 2008 recession.

Knowing this why would I head to the USA. Because this is a famous country, loan is available and it is possible to repay in post study work. Post study work permit is also possible. That much was planned. H1B and further could not be planned. Because H1B is a lottery. If it is made available take it. Any opportunity is better than no opportunity. And since I had to work outside of my home city, because of the availability of the jobs elsewhere, some overnight trip long. USA may be a little bit farther at 30 hours, but fair deal. USD to INR conversion fills any shortcomings.

My supervisor also advised that I should be looking for job from day one. I was extremely pro active, And this was noticed by one professor. I told him the truth, I am exploring all of what is avaiable. I had read ” What color is your Parachute” during job search. And exactly as mentioned in the book, I landed in a Silicon Valley based startup and as luck may have it next to my university. So I did not have to take all the bad and good of the SF. It was a different small company setup. Like a house almost, with excellent people – except the few I mentioned earlier. And then there were changes with H1B, you need to step up the game to get the green card petition. Why because, H1B is only for 6 years and with an approved green card petition it could be extended. During this period, I had to hold fort and keep quiet, until it is completely approved. I had opportunity to move to SF, infact my manager(s) wanted me to move. I could not, they did not understand, HR did not give how much of salary change would happen, co-workers one by one tried to understand why I am not moving and why I should be moving.

They all had good intentions but had absolutely no clue about the legality implications of moving and H1B, which would bring another LCA, H1B, yet another PWD, PERM filing. That will effectively delay my reach to green card by 1 more year.

And what about my freedom to pursue a part time PhD. I was well on the way completing coursework, publishing papers, getting conference fundings and really having 100% of life filled. I was maximising and firing in all engines.

I had to scientifically present to them why I will not be moving, they accepted, held on to me and let me go.

It was pure shock. Layoff newbie. First time layoff. I had all the office hardware equipments at home ready for work from home due to Covid-19. I had the house table setup like an office, with experiment running and then through some random meeting that showed up on the calendar. I was told in a video that I was affected and am part of the lay off.

I had my 60 days clock start to find another job, or exit the country. Such is the H1B life.

All the progress in PERM filing was lost because it was not approved yet.

Everyone is disposable, my first full time american work boss had said. I remembered that. I could not say bye to anyone officially.

I had 4.5 years more of H1B. All that is useful with only an employer sponsorship. I had to find an employer. Meanwhile, getting ready to move. Selling all the stuff, because in my location that was the only job I could get as an international. I knew all my classmates had moved to other cities.

I could move to PhD. But change of status from H1B to F1 was atleast delayed by 1.5 years. If status is pending I could stay. But where is the money. So back to the first step. I had to make money. If I have a chance I should attempt for work rather than studentship. So priority was set. I was on the toes again.

I learned from all my campus dining jobs, that to get SSN I needed to get work in a non-veg serving area. Which is faster than getting it later using OPT. I could not get internship so I worked in Athletics, I could not get research assistantship so I worked as graduate assistant. I could not get a senior engineer role with my 4 years’ Indian experience, I could get electrical engineer job. I could not get research role, I could get a job, that will sponsor visa and take me as an international with work authorization. So I was mentally ready to take any job. When keeping the visa alive took precedence, any job would work. I could be on my toes.

Hence, I am very grateful to my universities for teaching life lessons. University of Calicut taught me how to survival in adversity, and uncertainty. IGNOU gave me confidence to achieve what I wanted. SUNY at Buffalo gave me perspective on how to work and survive.

Work in the USA

Bonded Spouse, by chance

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H1B comes with the wonderful option of bringing your family in to the USA. According to the USCIS Family is only spouse and children. Parents, Grandparents, Brothers, Sisters, Uncles, Aunts do not count. Suddenly your family has shrunk. If you like to learn about one country that officially recognizes a family in its fullness, see my previous post.

H1B stand alone is heaven, you are always on the toes, ready to pack and move, share accommodation, sell and buy decisions everything depends on one person and is easy to make.

Options Check

With marriage it is supposed to be more full/complete and happy. However, would there be anything more punishing than not letting the spouse work by providing a work permit on H4. H4 EAD is only available with I-140 approved. However, without reaching I-140 approval, that spouse is going to be a sitting duck at home. It is ok for some people to spend time in learning, studying, taking care of home and rest of the dependents. However, that is not the aim of anyone on H1B who is already highly skilled specialty occupation qualified, and by middle class norms we can safely assume the spouse also would be eligible for such a category provided there was an equally competent H1B sponsoring employer in the location in the field of interest.

Option A : Follow Passion and further your career

Now, what if the spouse comes with a degree that is restricted by licensing, example dentistry. Then the spouse has to clear all the requirements for international dental program. Which has a very small intake compared to the general public of the USA. What if spouse cleared all the exams, attended all the interviews and still did not get selected? Try again. What if on retry too there was no option available and no admits given to pursue there career further.

Option B: Try something else

Try something, anything, like Google Maps aunt says take any lane and keep going forward, beat depression and hang on. Engage in something random. Binge on TV, food and music. And think, wishfully of an upcoming future that is bright and shiny.

Option C: Study something else for the sake of visa and future job

This is the appropriate middle class action for any H4 who is half decent in studies and ethically, morally middle class and want to support the family. So in hunt of this path, H4 is let in and given admit but cannot get funding, cannot work in research in certain healthcare. Then you need F1. For F1 visa you can change status or do consular processing. For change of status wait for a long time and then join the course. Ready for more wait times . Read more employment gaps. Or consular processing to F1, which the USA will accept because they bring in the money and spend in the USA, compared to an employee, who apparently takes money away.

In fact, I had a bad experience with a co-worker, to whom during my small talk and networking effort, I conveyed my country and work visa status, for which he said that I am taking all the salary home, as if he does not. At sometime, I had to communicate this to the HR and stop talking with the co-worker altogether.

Option D: I will not talk about this because that is actually not an option.

Optionless choice, by chance

The impact of restrictions on the H4 has impact on the H1B. Afterall it is more often that H1B is depended on H4 for taking care of all the non-work work. See Immigrant Talks YouTube video where Omkar says how to put it to the employer, the manager how this is affecting the work. However, I did not know this at that time. So my default answer for “How is it going” was “Bad”. And coworkers would not understand why I am saying that. When I say I became bonded labor and my spouse is even more restricted, as if I am a slave and she is slave of slave. Nobody understood this. When American co workers discussed their stupid red vs blue politics, I would interject and ask if they wanted foreign influence, I being a foreigner would be able to influence their decisions! I signed up for a job that for the first time in my life, on paper called me officially alien, at the time of part time paid research through the state university of new york research foundation (SUNYRF). Now, since I have been alien I was ok with that status. I would even tell coworkers that I am officially alien and there is no need for space travel to moon and mars to see one. So what would I expect out of Alien’s wife. This is probably not the best title to give a newly wed partner. But if jokes are in, let’s put everything in to make a soup. And as alien’s with appetite for humor we could digest it at home, with some bitterness. My Indian origin H1B batchmate coworker would say to this “We would not understand the some of the American coworker’s joke, and they would not understand ours”.

This type of dependent visa is available in some other countries of the GCC. With more restrictive rules. However, the way it is implemented does not suit the values of the USA. However, more than once they have gone back in their own ethics. American Revolution, I studied in my kerala state syllabus school, was based on “No taxation without representation“. However, for the H1B, especially on a backlog, there is a long time, a very long time of taxation only and absolutely no representation, if there is a lifetime backlog. There is no shame in taking taxes for the services, and people have to pay taxes in the H1 or any alien visa. This is by rule. This is excellent. I would want this if I was running the country. But then it is a U turn on the very foundation, of the USA. This is intellectually alienating ideology as well.

Work in the USA

Let’s write down the H1B Life Opportunities and Limitations, SWOT

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H1B a temporary work visa in the USA has some rights written by the the Government here https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/temporary-workers.html

And there are opportunities and limitations. So let’s do a SWOT. This will be SWOT for the beneficiary. Not for the company, employer, USA or anyone else. Because , you know, well, USA life is centered around self. If you want to know an example of country officially built around family see my previous post.

Stengths

H1B is a temporary strength to work in the USA for the employer who sponsors the work visa. It comes with strength to build network in the USA and claim US based worker tag anywhere you go. You get affiliation for conducting further networking. If you do not want to get bogged down by the responsibility of being permanent resident of another country, temporary is a way to. Because it is temporary, it flexes according to the market. If you ride the market, then you are victorious. As a temporary work permit USCIS has put in checks in place to help the workers using this visa. Some common checks and balances are, you can work 40 hours in this visa. There could be concurrent H1B visas. There is a cap exempt(not for profit) and H1B cap subject (for profit) category.

If you are in H1B cap subject category it could help mentally prepare to ask for more remuneration, because it is for profit. There is no shame in asking for more money and it sounds ethically and morally correct because of the visa sub category.

H1B Cap subject visa is subject to lottery. If you win the lottery, consider yourself lucky. If you are lucky you can ask for more money. So it is a great confidence builder in faith, your stars and luck compared to some other category where profile is selected based on merit or profile score like Canadian express entry system. You will generally be lucky and can follow astrology to the core. If you feel life is not fair and every should have equal luck then H1B is for you. You are a person standing for equality, liberty and fraternity and equal chance. There could have been times in career where you needed only a chance to prove yourself. H1B visa a chance to ask for the chance to prove.

H1B Cap exempt category is for people believe in their merit and do no believe in luck and money. You will generally for such companies who pay very low salaries and struggle to live a life that demands money. USA is a socialist-capitalist country. You can only be on either side once you are a citizen. A US citizen either has no money , lives in tents, begs on the street and depends on the Government for benefits. Or there is the other category of US Citizen who puts money in stock markets through personal purchase, retirement plan or so on, thinks that USA has to be great globally but not so great locally, will go to any means, even logically, and morally unsound political decisions, to safeguard, have basement in their houses to save themselves from imminent danger. I really do not know the use of basements in the houses. Is that supposed to simulate a cave or what? H1B Cap exempt caters to the people who do not believe in the riches and money, but want can pursue name, fame, inventions, speak and discover. In general social terms, these are people who could not get a good paying job or do not want it.

Weakness

H1B is only temporary. Anything long term thoughts and plans are only valid for 60 days. That is the time by which another H1B transfer can be made with conditions after conditions after conditions. So instead of going through a lot of if, else conditions in the uscis rule book, keep it simple at 60 days.

Conditions: Any plans limit to 60 days. Anything more, needs contingency planning. Initial H1B is limited to 3 years, extendable to another 3 years to maximum of 6 years. Within 6 years if there is a pending I-140 approved then the temporary work status (I-94: H1B status) and visa (H1-B visa) can be extended indefinitely as long as you are employed. In a country where layoffs happen everyday left, right and center, not my words, NPR said this. Then, you truly live the quintessential American Dream, get a temporary job and work using temporary work visa. It is a match made in the books of USCIS.

H1Bs suffer mentally, emotionally and socially. They are foreigners and temporary. So image living off of tents, eating in paper plates in campground. Blah! No. H1Bs do great once they see opportunity.

Difficulty in getting the visa, renewing visa and other related Government documents like license persist through H1B career. There is stress of layoffs, job performance, and dependent visa holders. H1B dependent visa holders without I-140 cannot work or pursue anything. So they are bonded to bonded laborer. This does not fall under the category of slavery per ILO.

Opportunities

H1B is temporary. There is opportunity everywhere. It is only up for grabs. A permanent resident, would prefer to stick with an employer, do not move bases and settle in a location basking the good and bad glories of that particular location. My once colleague said that H1B advantage is the mobility. H1B can find correct employment at correct wage, because it has to go through labor conditional approval (LCA) and H1B petition which justifies the work authorization, in turn it prevents employer fraud, and gives a direct comparison to the wages posted by the department. Except the recent Caifornia state mandate for wage declaration, to get a fair analysis of the wage offered to the market use Wage search Wizard. So if you are on H1B you are guaranteed to have worked with every legal aspects to be correct. This gives more opportunity to explore companies that need a foreign temporary worker, though they will post the job as permanent, it has not much meaning in the grand scale of things.

H1Bs are the creme-de-la-crema greatest of the greatest wage earners. They can spend lavishly and afford anything and everything legally permitted under this visa category.

Threat

H1B is temporary. All the good and bad lasts only temporary. Life is temporary. It is more temporary for the H1Bs. H1Bs without I-140 can exit the country of USA. There are around 190 countries in the world. In that time if you had thoughts of permanency, it will be questioned everyday. It takes some special mindset to avoid thinking about next best visa, next best country, getting green card. What will happen to house, car, children’s education, return to work after stamping, extending to other visa statuses, stopping everything that was started in 60 days. And so on. These are common threats for anyone who would lose a job in the USA? Wrong. Exiting the country and selling everything is not same as staying with comfort of roof over head and stressfully hunting for job. And if the job comes, in another state you need to take it or lose the work visa status. Talk about the thrills of living the life of H1B. This the greatest mystery thriller in the small world of the USA.

Work in the USA

Is H1B redefining the modern world of work and economic immigration?

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Who is H1B for?

H1B is typically for the employer by the employer. Filing lottery through endless renewal petitions are a matter of authority and responsibility of the employer. This upholds the purpose of economic immigration to the USA? Hardly, because it is lottery based, there is no one particular skill to qualify for and the employer is actually taking chances on the employee, no, on the system to get an employee on boarded. If you think as an employer, then it is a painful process. However, Organizations are organisms without any emotions, they are set of rules and practices, that have no feelings, it is designed such that, yes you as an employee will not feel bad.

Human in the Loop

Whenever you are an employee of the USCIS, immigration law firm, or the petitioning company’s mobility and immigration employee, or the actual beneficiary employee of the petition. There should be absolutely no emotion. This system protects your emotion in such a way. And many countries have same or similar systems of work visa with intake limits and number of work visa that could be offered. It has become a lottery in the USA, because of the demand increase and supply constraint. Nevertheless, not to worry too much about the system is what the system claims.

Take any movie with a legal background, the winning element is adding emotion to the trial. However, the trial has to be impartial and without emotion. The law does not have a big heart. And probably the employees associated with any law on either the receiving or the giving side are not true humans with emotions. It may rather be substituted with an automated system of jump a traffic red light and get a ticket, park in no parking zone and you get a fine and so on.

When you put humans behind anything there is never no emotions. Hence, we exist as social but animals.

My first interaction with a non Indian in the USA was with a university employee. He asked ” How is it going?” I started answering.. but he was gone a mile already. So that is it. All these so called small talk or talk beginners are useless fillers, have no emotions.

Later the question “How is it going?” got a canned reply of “Great”. Then H1B life as a Bachelor made it greater. Until marriage.

My initial reaction to H1B

Once the H1B got approved, I asked the company for sponsoring Green Card. My H1B batch-mate was surprised that I dared to ask within a short span of less than one year since H1B kicked in October 2018. Luckily we three were put together to be filed together for the green card as well. There comes the PERM. Though it is made to sound like permanent. It is not permanent.

It is a long process of applying to Department of Labor for the prevailing wage, as if they did not know the wage in the market, they work on it for 6-7 months and then with that number in mind a PERM is filed, as if we never worked in the company before. And then a recruitment happens, as if we never got recruited in the company and then hiring happens, where you emerge as the solo candidate who won the job, to which there is no American who qualified and then wait for the DOL to approve PERM, already 1 year passed by this time looking at the processing time, and then with that file the Petition for Immigrant Worker I-140 under employment based green card category, which has a country of birth based quota. No country of birth could exceed 7% of the available visa in a year. So until Green Card petition is approved you get to continue on H1B.

Summary of F1 to H1B to Green Card process

So the story so far is wait for OPT-EAD.

  • With OPT – EAD, work with employer who files H1B. Max limit 3years with STEM OPT Extension.
  • With H1B, work with employer to file PERM, I-140. Max limit 6 years on the H1B visa.
  • And then with I-140 never apply for Green Card, because no Green Card is available for people who were born in my country of birth.
  • With Approved I-140 and 6 months of work. I -140 cannot be revoked, so H1B can be extended endlessly until Green Card is available.
  • Then keep watching the priority date in visa bulletin. But that green light is forever elusive.

Great Reference for the process is given by Raghuram’s blog.

With all this information, for an Indian student starting at F1 and reaching for I140 need a minimum of getting H1B in first lottery pick after 1 year of OPT(1), H1B(1), I140 (2.5 ) a sum of 4.5 years, minimum. At max? OPT-STEM-OPT (3), H1B (4), I140 (2.5) gives 9.5 years. Then it is a forever cycle of renewing H1B visa for every 3 years. Like any subscription model, an immigration law firm could easily survive their lifetime with this kind of work cycle and companies pay a premium.

Especially, for the US population there are not enough STEM candidates. There are not enough human beings for non STEM tasks as well. USA is as big as china with less than 1/4th population. So they need people to fill various jobs. STEM jobs just happens to be one of them. There are several visa categories in the USA and no one knows it in its entirety. The list of categories have gone beyond humanly comprehensively and most of the paperwork needs a team, a small village to gather and complete every petition. Of course, it generates jobs and keeps the money circulating. The economy benefits when there are more people who are earning and paying taxes. And all legal immigrants are bound by IRS to file tax correctly, with implications and penalty for failure on the legal status.

Indirectly, humans eat, drink, sleep and keep the economy rolling. USA forces employees to have their own car and that is yet another subset of circular economy. You need car to get to work, to earn money, to fill petrol (American gas) in the car and then maintain registration, driver’s license and renew with state and emissions inspection and continue to go to work to keep this economic cycle running. For a detailed breakdown of the impact of H1B on USA’s economy see this.

All about Ajeya's fantasy