Ask HN: H1/L1 folks, how are you coping with the hostile visa environment? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: H1/L1 folks, how are you coping with the hostile visa environment?

23 pointsdmode5 comments

I am contemplating moving out of the US even though I have been here for 12 years and have an I-140 as my wife's visa transfer got denied and my transfer is in trouble. We both work with leading tech companies but in non tech roles.

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how are you coping with the hostile visa environment?

I have stopped caring. I too work for a leading tech company. The way I see is that if the US doesn't value my expertise or experience, there are plenty of other countries that will. For e.g., I should be able to find opportunities in Canada, Europe or Singapore. Of course, the pay there won't be as high as that in the US. There could be racism too against me, but I guess that's not so important because I've faced racial discrimination as a North Indian living in South India! On the upside though, I'll have more peace of mind and possibly better healthcare.

I know that moving to some other country from US isn't for everyone. It is doable for me though, because I was recently married and don't have a lot of responsibilities.

I’m a US citizen/resident and just wanted to say—despite what some people believe a lot of us are really happy to have you here! With people like you we wouldn’t have Silicon Valley, Google, Apple, etc. please stay :) if you like it here.

I got a job in another country.

which one?

There are many perspectives to deal with this situation or any other situation in life. Here are a few. Simple/Practical take – Answer why staying or leaving matters? Leaving a country after living for a decade can causes many headaches; financial hardships (outstanding loans), logistic hardships (Selling assets such as car or house) or disrupts your children’s or spouse’s education or it significantly changes the work profile you get outside your current role and social hardships (lower your status among your relatives because you are back in your home country). There can be many such reasons but I think these can be broadly classified into two buckets – type-1 – reasons of habit – we get habituated to a certain lifestyle and friends that changes with the move and type-2 – it causes certain unavoidable hardships. Bucket the reasons. Try to proactively mitigate the ones that may cause hardships and worry little about type-1 reasons – we form new habits and get a new lifestyle. Historical take – If you read some good history books you will realize that political and social turbulence in human life is a norm rather than an exception. Everyone who lives through an elongated period of peaceful time takes stability for granted. You can consider this as realism or pessimism but the reality is that things change and we have to accept it. In Czeslaw Miloszs’ words – “Let us admit that man is no more than an instrument in an orchestra directed by the muse of History. It is only in this context that the notes he produces have any significance. Otherwise even his most brilliant solos become simply a highbrow's of diversions.” It is not a stretch to always remember the provisional nature of the world. Comparative take – I am not a big fan of comparing one life with another to lower the gravity of one’s situation, but I am putting it here if it may help. People go through hardships and come out better at the other end of it. Read Dostoevsky’s biography. He was put through a fake execution and sent to exile and he is still remembered decades after his death. Victor Frankel lived through a holocaust. Put things in perspective – is moving between countries that bad? Philosophical take – In Victor Frankel’s (Man’s search for meaning) words – “They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms— to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” In Albert Camus’ opinion (The Myth of Sisyphus) – Know that life is absurd, remember that absurd cannot be reconciled, living with the absurd is a matter of facing the fundamental contradiction and maintaining an awareness of it, trying to escape it is struggling against it. Read Mahabharata or The difficult of being good. This epic is very good in reminding us that human life is vulnerable. Anxiety, despair, courage, envy etc. are a part of life. Upholding a balance to be happy is one’s own responsibility. My choice – I like Camus’/Eastern philosophical take on dealing with hardships. Consciousness does not form the object of its understanding, it merely focuses on it. Consciousness is what defines our world and controlling it is the answer. All this can be condensed into one simple answer – read books and broaden the perspective of life.

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