I came to this country to pursue my Master's in Electrical Engineering a decade back and after graduating from one of the best schools in the specialized area of Solid State Electronics i landed up with one of the best semiconductor companies in the world who change lives of every single person in the planet today by making technology more accessible to every common man. While i am presently in the forefront of technology and innovation in the professional front, i am way behind in the personal front with respect to having a family and thrive in that prosperity. Like every high skilled engineer who dreams of coming from another country to the United States and working on the latest technology and living the american dream, i was fortunate enough to become a Legal Permanent Resident in 2010 after a wait of 4.5yrs. I use the word fortunate because i have friends who are still waiting in the Employment based Category and haven't been lucky enough to see their Priority dates become current in the VISA bulletin that is released every month by the Department of State.
Even though i was happy at first and felt like i won a lottery when i got my green card since it opened quite a few avenues for me to think about different ideas/Start up's in the United States, my joy was short lived when i came to know that if i marry my fiance who is in India today it will take at least 2.5yrs or even more to bring her to the United States as a spouse in the F2A category. I have made my allegiance to this country by becoming a permanent resident but i wonder why is the government punishing me by separating loved ones on the basis of Immigration?
It makes no sense to differentiate the definition of a spouse of a U.S citizen or a permanent resident and while the U.S citizen can call his/her spouse as an Immediate Relative and bring them over to the United States immediately, a spouse of a legal permanent resident is not an immediate relative and has to wait at least 2.5yrs to be together. Even a person on a Non immigrant Visa like H-1 can bring his/her spouse on H-4. Its totally unfair and makes absolutely no sense why spouses of green card holders need to be separated for so long.
I have been living in this country for the past 13yrs. I have paid my taxes, been a law abiding person and don't even have a driving ticket to my name and infact have helped grow the economy by bringing the most advanced technological products to the market. I wonder the use of doing all this when the government does not care about legal permanent residents and want them to be separated from their spouse for 2.5yrs or more just because they were born in India/China/Mexico/Philippines.
I am sure every human being's utmost priority in life is family and i won't be surprised if the Legal permanent residents leave United states and go back to their country to create the Startup's of tomorrow just because the Legislators are not helping these permanent residents to be with their spouses and I am sure it will be a major loss to the community and economy of United States.
I am planning to head back and take my start up ideas to the country where i came from to be with my spouse if immigration reform does not consider spouses of green card holders as immediate relatives and remove them from any cap on VISA's and allow them to be together immediately.
Even though i was happy at first and felt like i won a lottery when i got my green card since it opened quite a few avenues for me to think about different ideas/Start up's in the United States, my joy was short lived when i came to know that if i marry my fiance who is in India today it will take at least 2.5yrs or even more to bring her to the United States as a spouse in the F2A category. I have made my allegiance to this country by becoming a permanent resident but i wonder why is the government punishing me by separating loved ones on the basis of Immigration?
It makes no sense to differentiate the definition of a spouse of a U.S citizen or a permanent resident and while the U.S citizen can call his/her spouse as an Immediate Relative and bring them over to the United States immediately, a spouse of a legal permanent resident is not an immediate relative and has to wait at least 2.5yrs to be together. Even a person on a Non immigrant Visa like H-1 can bring his/her spouse on H-4. Its totally unfair and makes absolutely no sense why spouses of green card holders need to be separated for so long.
I have been living in this country for the past 13yrs. I have paid my taxes, been a law abiding person and don't even have a driving ticket to my name and infact have helped grow the economy by bringing the most advanced technological products to the market. I wonder the use of doing all this when the government does not care about legal permanent residents and want them to be separated from their spouse for 2.5yrs or more just because they were born in India/China/Mexico/Philippines.
I am sure every human being's utmost priority in life is family and i won't be surprised if the Legal permanent residents leave United states and go back to their country to create the Startup's of tomorrow just because the Legislators are not helping these permanent residents to be with their spouses and I am sure it will be a major loss to the community and economy of United States.
I am planning to head back and take my start up ideas to the country where i came from to be with my spouse if immigration reform does not consider spouses of green card holders as immediate relatives and remove them from any cap on VISA's and allow them to be together immediately.
