Saurabh & I became US citizens on September 9, 2022. Lot’s of people congratulated me & asked me how I felt about becoming an American. Their questions made me think about the entire journey that ended in us embracing a new nationality.
I moved to the US in July 2008 to get my MBA at UNC, Chapel Hill. At that time, I knew that I was borrowing upwards of $100K and hence knew that I would have to work in the US for a few years to pay off the student loans. Once the loan is repaid, I thought, I can come back to India with a US MBA and US work experience.
Come September 2008, the housing market crashed, and the US economy saw a recession that it had never seen before. Investment Banks rescinded offers, Consulting firms reduced hiring and corporate jobs disappeared. Foreign students(like myself) who would need VISA sponsorship were really caught in a fix since companies became even more reluctant to take a chance on sponsoring work VISAs.
For people like me who had come to B school with less than 3 years of experience and were looking to switch careers (Software engineer to Marketing/ Analytics in my case) it really spelled doom. I remember B school being a 2 year long job search. I must have written thousands of emails to alumni, made hundreds of calls and done at least 70 interviews before landing a full time job at a small company as a pricing analyst. While the job brought financial security and relief at not being evicted from the country for not having a job, the company had never sponsored an H1B visa before so I had to keep looking for jobs in case they changed their mind about filing one in April (annual H1B filing deadline). Thus began round 2 of continued outreach, emails and phone interviews, until an alum from Dell responded about an open position. This opportunity was extra special since Saurabh had just been accepted to UT, Austin for an MBA and if I was able to secure the job at Dell, we could finally be together after 3 years of being in a long distance relationship. I just had to get this job ( no pressure 😊).
As luck would have it, I did get the job at Dell and it was the start of our happily ever after. Dell filed for my Green card and we made our peace about being in an endless queue and were prepared for regular H1B renewals every 3 years, when things changed for us again. Dell went private in 2014 and Michael was expanding Dell’s product portfolio by buying many software companies. I was picked to lead business development for the EMEA Software business and was contemplating becoming an immigrant for the 2nd time in my life, since the role required relocating to London. For most people, interviewing and being offered an assignment abroad is an exciting thing but for most immigrants it opens a pandora’s box of uncertainties which makes taking such decisions even harder. I was wrought with worry- what would happen to our green card applications? Would we lose our place in the queue? Worse still, what if I took the role and then couldn’t find a way of relocating to the US? With no job, and no sponsorship I would have to return to India, while my husband & home were in Austin, Texas.
As I mentioned, I have been asked many times about the decision of becoming an American citizen… It really is not as much a decision as it is a natural progression from getting one’s Green Card. Some people choose to become American citizens, others continue with original citizenship + US Permanent residence. The choice(really need) of getting a Green Card is most certainly a deliberate & DIRE one largely for the reasons I listed above. Any sudden change in one’s employment status can lead to a COMPLETE upheaval of one’s life. Most folks want a Green card primarily for the peace of mind of not losing the world they have built in a foreign country. A Green card also opens a plethora of opportunities even with companies that don’t traditionally sponsor work VISAs such as start-ups. For me, it just meant securing the life we had so painstaking built, so far away from India.
Luckily, the assignment in London was a blessing in disguise since it allowed me to file my Green card in a faster “queue” and we got our Green cards in 9 months – while I was 4 months pregnant with Reeth. A few months later, when we received Reeth’s US passport in the mail, I signed it on her behalf as her parent and for the first time it dawned on me that a very precious part of me was already American. By the time, I repeated this same process for Aranya’s passport, 4 years later, 50% of our family held American citizenships and I knew we would be applying for US Naturalization once we were eligible in a few months.
On the day of our swearing in ceremony, we found envelopes with a message from President Biden. The message told us that we shared a trait with all immigrants who have come to the US before us and also with the countless others who will come after us – “Courage”. Courage to leave behind a life we know, courage to leave behind homes and loved ones….. As I sat in the court room waiting for the Judge to swear us in, I kept thinking about these words from President Biden and couldn’t help but think about our parents and the courage they have shown in having their children be so far away from them.
The other thing that I share with all other immigrants is this perpetual feeling of being divided between two worlds. For me, it is India & the US… it is between the land where I spent my past & the land where I will spend my future… the land of my parents & the land of my children.
Being a Hindu, I identify with the notion of “Janm Bhoomi” which is “your motherland – where you are born & raised” and “Karm Bhoomi” which is “the land of your deeds & actions”. While India is my motherland, the place filled with childhood memories, the place of carefree times spent with school friends & grandparents, the place where I was educated and trained to become the person I was meant to be, America is what shaped me into the person I am and truly allowed me to soar as a professional. The star spangled banner might not evoke the same emotion in my heart as Jana Gana Man does, but I wholeheartedly agree with USA being the land of the free & the home of the brave. I may not understand all American popular culture, but I understand her values of hard work, perseverance and equal opportunities for all. These are values I believe in with all my might and the very first values I intend to pass down to my kids – kids with Indian names & American accents ❤
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