Bonded Spouse, by chance

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.