F1, H1-B, Green Card and the whole nine yards

I guess this could very well be the story of every second Indian in the United States.

It all starts in the second or third year of your engineering college. You see many of your seniors talking in higher order English. With some prodding you would realize that they have picked those from the Barron’s GRE word-list. This is probably the first time you get exposed to what is GRE and how you can study abroad. You invariably follow the crowd and start preparing for your GRE’s & TOEFL’s and ultimately a day comes when you have your admission in your hands and you are all set for getting a visa.  This is the beginning of the saga which does not end for another 10-15 years. 

Year 0-3 (F1 to H1)

You start with taking an appointment with the US consulate in the nearest city. Until a few years back, one had to stand in a long winding queue outside the consulate as early as the previous night of the interview. One of my friends had his father arrange someone to stand in the line for him. The idea was to do it in shifts (reminds me of a blockbuster item opening at Best Buy with people waiting in line in shifts). This person would take the night shift and my friend would come in early in the morning and take over from him. This would basically ensure that you make it your appointment for the day. (Apparently, there used to be a pole outside of Chennai consulate which was around a block or two away from the entrance. If you find yourself standing in the line beyond that pole, then you might as well kiss your interview goodbye). You carry a bag with hundreds of documents from your birth certificates to your death certificates.. err..sorry that was an exaggeration. But you do carry everything under the sun. One mistake and you would have to go through the whole exercise another day. I am not even mentioning about the running around that you need to do for bank drafts and loan papers. In spite of all of this , you are at the mercy of the whimsical consulate officer who would judge you based on your documents and your answers, your intentions to immigrate to US for good. The whole experience is like a roller-coaster with its own share of ups and downs. Finally, of course is the excitement of a getting a US visa. This excitement is limited only to the first time. The next time you visit India and you go through the same hassle, you would be wondering why at all you felt excited the first time around. 

Once you are in the US, year after year, you are reminded of that you are living in an alien country. First with the OPT system wherein you desperately try and maximize your time without a work visa. Then the struggle to get an H1. Since the time the quota has been reduced, it has become purely a game of luck. If you are lucky, you get the work permit. If not, you need to get back home. It’s probably less of a luck game for holders of US degree who fall under a different quota. But there too I believe the numbers quickly get over.

Year 3-7 (Staying on H1)

People may argue otherwise, but life is slightly less of a hell if you are on H1 and not started your green card. I call this the blissful time of being in the US. Finally the opportunity and money that you wished for, starts seeing the light of the day.  

Some folks start their green card (GC) processing right during this stage. (They must have been front-row students in college…. you know the ones who always seem to get their assignments done on time??). Whether it is a smart move or not – that depends on the way you think about it. If you have fallen in love with the country and want to see your children and grand-children born in this country, then starting your GC process early in the game is a sound idea. If you are in two minds about staying in this country for good and you want to delay this decision to a later point of time, then again it’s smart move to start the process early in the game. 

For all the rest (a category that I fall into as well) who were either lazy to start the process or waited for their companies to take the initiative or were caught in the middle of changing jobs or simply thought that I need to worry about this only in the fifth year of my H1 and that my company would take care of it, please don’t fret about it. At the very least you did enjoy what I call the blissful time of an immigrant.

Year 8-9 (H1 to GC)

All this while your smarter friends were talking in penal codes that you have no clue about. Did you start your labor? (err..labor?… pregnanc… hmm..err..oh I got it…no not yet). Hey when can you apply for I-140? Can I get a 7th yr extension before the labor is approved? Have the dates moved for EB2? (well it took me a few months to understand “the date” movement) When can we apply for I-485? Did you get your fingerprinting done? 

Trust me by the time you get into your 5th year of your H1, you would know exactly what they are talking about and you would start looking for the panic button (Remember the staples ad or was it office max?). Well if all goes well, you would have your papers in place for the labor certification. If things don’t go well, as I have heard is the case right now in the market with all the layoffs, the company lawyers could be telling you that if you have had layoffs in your teams then we wouldn’t be able to file your case for the next 6 months. Boooom!!  There you go guys…another struggle starts to stay legally in this country.

There are of course variations in this story – A bachelor getting his GC processed, but needs to get married before a certain stage of the process to include his wife in the process; birth certificate is not good enough for the process, so a frantic struggle to get the certificate from back in India (I heard that the municipal offices in India made a big moolah out of this business); frantic running around to get your documents in order and medical checkup done when they opened up “the dates” couple of years back; is it better to be on EAD or H1?; the concept of parole… phew…the variations are endless.

Year 10-15 (GC to Citizenship)

If you live to see this year, then it’s a wait for the next 5 years to take your oath to swear allegiance. Actually, I have very little knowledge in this space to write about. I hope this is a blissful period with relatively no hassles. Also hope that the citizenship process is not half as bad. 

So 15 years my friend…..15 years…. you struggle to make your identity. Sometimes you cringe when you come to know that some illegal immigrants from the southern border are granted amnesty and provided citizenship within an year. Hmmm… what might be better…..take the chance, dodge bullets while crossing the desert and get your citizenship in 1 year or go through all of the above and get it in 15 years.  Your rational mind must be thinking….of course the legal route. Ya sure….but I want to ask you the same question when you are at the consulate waiting in the line for 2 hours. Let’s see what you answer then. (reminds me of Predictably Irrational, please do read it guys…it’s great).

There is no doubt that this country has lot to offer. It is an amazingly open country (I would say Americans are more open than Indians are). The standards that Americans set in professional world is admirable. At the same time, ask yourself the question what was the first reason you came to this country. Was it money, was it career or was it plain and simple living in a developed country? Then ask yourself if it is worth the effort. 

I have heard that back in India, money, career and even lifestyles have become comparable to developed nations.

If you don’t believe me, check this out -

http://palmmeadows.pbwiki.com/

This is supposed to be Palm Meadows, Bangalore. Maybe it didn’t exist when you came here, but it does now.

Of course, it’s not going to be the same as here. People probably still don’t obey lane rules. The traffic cop still takes bribe. The government offices have not become extraordinarily efficient. But at the same time, you do have the progress made by 10 years of Indian growth (not the Hindu rate of growth between 1950-1990). Our batchmates whom we left back in India are no way deprived anymore. Some of them are enjoying much better lifestyles and career growth in comparison to us.

So think about it guys….