My EB1 Journey

My name is "Ankit Agarwal". I am a Stanford and Wharton Graduate with a degree in Computer Engineer and MBA in International Business.  I had grown up in India during dot.com bubble in early 90s, where every tech student use to dream to do something major and transform the universe.  When I came to United States, My plan was to never apply for a green card and an end of H1B would be a great forcing function to go back to India. Therefore, I never bothered to learn about the green card application process. Terms like priority dates, backlog, reading the visa bulletin, rest of the world, etc. meant little to me.

By the time I applied for the Permanent Residency, the wait time for an Indian national to achieve a green card in the EB2/EB3 Category for the highly skilled individuals were somewhere between 8-10 years. This did not seem that bad at all.

I continued my immigration journey for many more years until the covid pandemic hit and the priority dates became current for most Indian Nationals. Just like any other individual, I was also very excited and applied for the Permant Residency, only to realize that the priority dates retrogressed and, in the post, pandemic world the US immigration reality set in, where a report from the Cato institute (https://www.cato.org/blog/150-year-wait-indian-immigrants-advanced-degrees) mentioned that it may take up to 150+ years for an Indian citizen to achieve the permanent residency dream.

Fast forward to 2023, I applied for EB1-A (extraordinary ability) green card. Earlier this year, I received my green card.

All of us have a dream and we are left with only two options. Option#1: To give up on your dreams and let it go as it is. Option#2: To dream big and put in all the hard miles to achieve it, and destiny will be yours.