Many Indians, both students and professionals, travel to the US with cheap flight tickets, two checked bags, dreams, aspirations, and a common goal – the most coveted Green Card. Their ‘American Dream is synonymous with achieving lawful permanent residency in the US. But not everyone has good luck with it despite taking calculated steps and offering prayers to visa temples. Over 1 million Indians, a majority being from the employment-based visa categories, are still stuck in the Green Card backlog, as per the USCIS stats.
However, “the American Dream – whatever it truly means – stays alive,” says Rajavasanth Rajasegar, who recently shared his 14-year-journey from F1 visa to Green Card on LinkedIn intending to rekindle hopes with the underlying message, “There is delay but no denial”. Like many others, he had had a fair share of uncertainty and anxiety while navigating the US immigration system until the “visa clock” stopped ticking for him.
Rajavasanth Rajasegar, an Assistant Professor at Colorado School of Mines, boarded a flight to Chicago in 2011 with the F1 visa stamp on his dreams. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In the pre-Trump era, his transition from the US student visa to OPT (STEM) to an H-1B visa was smooth and streamlined. There was no looking back after he became a faculty at his alma mater in 2013. “I have been fortunate to have a privileged path,” he wrote in his success story of receiving a US Green Card.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) was like home to him as a graduate research and teaching assistance for almost 8 years. He had a fully-funded tenure at UIUC. Thereafter, he spent five years of postdoctoral research at Sandia National Laboratories, America’s premier DOE science & engineering lab for national security and technology innovation. It broadened his first-hand knowledge of mechanical engineering and helped him get a tenure-track position of assistant professor in the same discipline at Colorado School of Mines in January 2024.
He credits his alma maters, mentors, and family for their “incredible support” throughout his journey from an F1 visa to becoming a permanent US resident. Despite the smooth transition, he was not immune to usual US visa worries. “The visa clock always loomed in the background. I still remember asking my manager in FEB 2020 – Can we start H1B just in case?” he wrote in the LinkedIn post.
Like HiCounselor CEO Aditya Sharma who got his Green Card faster in the EB1A category, Rajavasanth Rajasegar chose the EB1A path hoping for the best and the worst at the same time. His Green Card petition in the EB1A category (for foreign nationals of extraordinary ability or international acclaims in science, arts, education, business, or athletics) stumbled over few bumps, including a surprise RFE (request for evidence) questioning the merit of his work.
Two years of adjustment, patience, and paperwork for additional documentation supported by his mentors put an end to his wait for Green Card. “Finally, I became a permanent resident. That visa clock does not exist today,” he wrote. He concluded his ‘Green Card journey’ story from a non-immigrant to an immigrant, wishing “the American Dream stays alive and accessible for the students and professionals who, like me, come here not just for themselves, but to contribute to the future of USA.”
