Indian techie gets permanent residency in US after 3,505 days

“After 3505 days in this country, I’m finally a ‘permanent resident’. I can travel without constantly having to worry about my visa stamp or my I-94 date or a million other things,” the X user, who works in the artificial intelligence (AI) unit of the multinational, wrote in a now-deleted post.

In the following posts, which too have been deleted, the user posted, “A H-1B visa is incredibly restrictive. You need a new visa stamp every few years from the US consulate outside the country. If you don’t have one, you cannot enter the US. I have never been able to attend a single conference because of this.”

The post had accumulated more than 3.8 lakh views. The share has further collected close to 2,400 likes. People posted varied comments while reacting to the video.

A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.

In March, prominent US lawmakers Democratic and Republican parties called for urgently addressing the Green Card backlog, an issue that is majorly impacting Indian professionals and the issues related to the H-1B visa.

The lawmakers pushed for removing the seven per cent country quota when it comes to issuing Green Card or legal permanent residency to foreign guest workers in specialised categories.

In the absence of such a move, the Green Card waiting period for Indian immigrants would be more than 20 years and over 70 years in many cases.