03/24/2026
“My family and I immigrated to the United States when I was around four years old. Living in the U.S. has always felt like home. Like many families, we came here to build a new life, arriving on an H-1B visa with hope, determination, and a belief in the promise of this country.
For much of my childhood, our lives were shaped by the realities of the H-1B and H-4 visa system. The uncertainty was constant. One missed form or delayed approval could mean being forced to leave the only home I had ever known. The system limited my father’s ability to pursue work he was well qualified for, delayed my own opportunities for employment, and cast a shadow over my dreams of attending college. We had no house, no car, no savings. We came to America to build a life, but how do you fully begin when your future is always conditional?
My family’s story is not unique. Countless South Asian families across the United States face similar challenges navigating legal immigration systems marked by backlogs, visa lotteries, and prolonged waiting. Yet these experiences are often invisible in public conversations about immigration.
I remember sitting in my sixth-grade classroom as my teacher explained the “steps to citizenship.” Live here for five years. Be a good person. Pass a test. It sounded simple. When a classmate later asked if I was a citizen, there was an unspoken assumption that if I wasn’t, I must have done something wrong. In reality, my family was doing everything right.
That moment stayed with me. It made me realize how much our civic education fails to reflect the lived realities of immigrant families like mine. I want these systems to change, and I want people to better understand what legal immigration in America truly looks like today.”
