Thread by @ankurg90

After 4 years of constant struggle, last week, my wife and I became US permanent residents. The #immigration process emotionally exhausted us. We both came to the US 9 years back, are @MIT graduates and economically privileged. Still, the process made us feel small and desperate.

https://twitter.com/ankurg90/status/1280976042790981632

Overall, the lawyer fees and applications costed us ~$15,000. The documents submitted to USCIS amounted to more than 1,000 pages. My total exchanges with attorneys over the 4 years amount to more than 103,000 words (yes, it is a 6-figure number, I checked it).

I personally spent probably ~400 hours to complete the paperwork over the years. Spread over 4 years, this may not sound like a lot, but this does not include the time spent worrying about the results, worrying about changes to USCIS rules, checking case updates.

While going through this stressful process, we compete in our fields with those who don’t have to worry about these restrictions. During my academic job search, #immigration weighed heavily on my mind. People negotiate startup packages whereas I negotiated #immigration support.

We had it quite bad due to a combination of previous administration policies and Covid delays, but people #immigrants from India go through much worse. We do not get any voice in the political space and public media.

The problems we faced as Indian #immigrants arise largely because of country caps, which almost exclusively impacts immigrants who were born in India. There are many suggested solutions and policy changes but there hasn’t been no positive action. #EndGCBacklogs

Other problems such as #H4EADdelays, #GCbacklog, #H1B visa cycle and #USCISMadeMeQuitMyJob are extremely unfair. The problem is so pervasive that it affects kids who come to the country legally and age out (groups like @ImproveTheDream are working hard to highlight this).

To keep myself sane, I utilized online forums such as @Trackitt and followed @AttyStevenBrown, @David_J_Bier, @anirban_das, @wasdenbanias and @gsiskind. The problem is clearly discriminatory that almost all attorney clients in the recent litigations are Indian #immigrants.

Here are some links to read about the problems people face. This is a powerful story about #H4EADdeyaly americankahani.com/lead-stories/h….

Here is another story about wasted green cards that appeared in @washingtonpost in July: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/….

I hope you will take out sometime to read about this problem. Please read about it and contact your local congressperson and senator to end this completely unfair and unnecessary burden on a particular section of immigrants.

My new year’s resolution is to create awareness about this problem. A lot of people who go through the process stop caring about it once they are on the other side of the process. I will make sure I don’t do that mistake.