The United States of America has been dubbed the “land of opportunity” since its founding, causing many families to come to the US from all over the world in hopes of living the American Dream. However, this hope has been crushed by a series of rules and regulations passed by the Trump Administration, hurting not only the nonimmigrants but the United States’ economy.
America constantly requires high-skilled labor, especially in its information technology (IT) and medical fields, to keep growing its economic status. Most of these laborers hail from different countries, such as India or China.
Countries like India and China have high populations. Because of this, everything from education to employment is very competitive. To escape from this brutal system, people find it better to hold a job in the US.
To come to the US to work, a person must be skilled at a certain job and needs the appropriate visa for it. Most temporary workers come to the US as nonimmigrants under a H-1B visa, and the workers’ families are filed under a H-4 visa.
These visas come with their own restrictions. Under the H-4 visa, a spouse of the H-1B visa can undertake paid work under certain conditions, but the children cannot. Both of these visas are eligible for a maximum of six years. These visa holders also need to renew their visas every three years by their employer. If the visa gets rejected, the person has to not only leave the country but also loses their job.
Once these families arrive in the US and live here for a while, they become more integrated into American society. The exemplary education here appeals to many students and parents. The wages are definitely higher than in their home country, in most cases. They often like the social environment, as well. Overall, they want to live here and achieve the American Dream. To do so, they need to be permanent residents.
To be a permanent resident in the US, one needs a green card, and this is where the problem arises.
To apply for a green card, the person’s employer must petition for one based on the quality of work the person has put in.
Once applied, the person has to wait and keep renewing their visa until their green card is approved. How long is this wait? According to Forbes, the wait for a green card right now is up to 195 years. Why is the wait that long? The answer lies in a flawed immigration system.
In 2019, former President Donald Trump passed a new restriction that said any green card applicant that used public benefits would be ineligible for permanent residency. These public benefits include Medicaid, food stamps and public housing assistance. This new restriction makes an already long process to get a green card longer, as it requires officials to closely evaluate each and every family before granting them permanent residency.
These laws have impacted thousands of families, but have especially hit close to home as my family awaits our green card approval.
We first moved to the United States from India in 2013, thinking we would only stay there for three years or so. We did live here for almost four years when we realized we wanted to live here permanently for a better education and standard of living.
Back in India, there was a lot of competition, and it was hard to shine as a student in such heavily populated classes. The education system was a different case here. Everybody learns at their own pace and it is much easier to stand out and receive individualized help. My family decided that an education here would help me excel more than an education back in India.
We applied for a green card in 2018 and have been waiting for one ever since. My family has seen its fair share of green card rejections, but we remain cautiously optimistic. Although we do not need to use any public benefits, we have always been a bit apprehensive when it comes to making big decisions, like buying a house. We simply do not know where we will be in the next couple of years to risk that big of an investment.
Another problem is that I cannot legally work for money with my H-4 visa status, unlike my peers. It holds me back, as I will not be able to earn money and get work experience. This rule does not make sense considering the time we are in. The US is facing a labor shortage in all sectors, and nonimmigrant teenagers like myself can help fill the spots to help the toppled country get back on its feet again.
College education is also a looming challenge. As having one of the best college education systems around the world, America’s is also one of the most expensive, even for an American citizen. As a nonimmigrant without permanent residency, colleges would consider me an international student. This means that I will not be entitled to the FAFSA and federal aid that all my peers would get when they go to college.
This is particularly unfair considering my family pays taxes just like every other family in the US.
Former PV student Soham Datta patiently waits for his dad’s employer to petition for their green cards. “It’s really frustrating because I’ve lived in America for almost half my life. My family pays taxes and I want to study here without leaving a dent in my family’s bank account,” Datta says.
PV alum Ranai Srivastav has to live this reality as he attends Iowa State University. “It was annoying because not only was I not eligible for federal aid, but also I couldn’t apply to a lot of scholarships because a lot of them require you to file a FAFSA,” Srivastav shares.
Along with no federal aid, kids like Datta, Srivastav and I will also not be eligible for most big scholarships, meaning we would have to stick to small, local scholarships. This limits our options and opportunities right after high school.
In addition to the socioeconomic insecurities of waiting for a green card, we also have to face other struggles, such as family separation. My brother and I are considered “legal dreamers.” That means that we will be deported when we are 21 if we do not get our green card. Although my brother, who is 12, still has nine more years until this time, I only have four more years before I reach this date.
A possible solution to this would be for me to switch to an F-1 student visa when I go to college. When switching to a different visa, I cannot be in the green card pool with my parents, meaning that I have to apply for a green card all over again and be at the end of the ever-growing pool of green card applicants.
All of these problems are shared with those on the green card waitlist in one way or another. However, these nonimmigrants are not the only ones to face the effects of this backlog.
The American economy runs on these skilled workers. Immigrants made up 25% of the IT workforce in the US in 2019. Now, in 2021, the US does not have enough high-skilled workers to meet its demand for jobs in the IT sector. These statistics only prove how much America relies on these workers.
Making the green card process long and tedious makes waiting for a green card very stressful. This causes low productivity and motivation at work and families to consider other options, like repatriation and emigration. A study showed that 70% of the total Indian nonimmigrant population in the US are seriously considering moving out of the US due to the stress induced by the green card process.
If all 70% were to leave the country, the US economy could face a loss of up to $60 billion. While all 70% leaving the country at the same time is unlikely, these kinds of studies show much America could lose by not remediating its flawed immigration system.
Despite all the hardships involved in the green card process, there is still hope for the future. President Joe Biden has quickly undone many of Trump’s policies on immigration. He reversed the public benefits rule that Trump put into place, effectively putting the process back to normal speed again. However, this has not cleared up the backlog caused by Trump’s policies.
A clearer solution lies in the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021. With this act, any child can apply for permanent residency as long as they meet two requirements: they have arrived in the US before they turned 18 and have continuously resided here since then and they have been continuously physically present in the United States since January 1, 2021. This bill has recently passed the House and is awaiting approval from the Senate before going to the President. The bill gives many students and families, including mine, hope as they have a shot at permanent residency.
“My family has put a lot of hope on the Dream and Promise Act. If this bill gets passed, I can finally be at peace of mind, considering my future and education would be more secure,” Datta says.
There’s so much needed change and attention to make this defective system functional again. Although immigration policies are low priorities for politicians amidst the pandemic, my family and thousands of other families in the world aspire that Washington devotes more awareness to immigrant and green card policies, as families like mine keep waiting for permanent residency.
