I assume there comes a time in everyone's life when you think that you are out of options, out of luck, staring at potentially life-altering uncertainties. You wish, you hope, and you pray harder than you have ever prayed, that you get an answer, any answer that will provide some clarity and direction.
Days drag on, weeks turn into endless months building anxiety that I never really felt before.
Then one day, you wake up and find yourself with an unexplainable stroke of good luck. An event that has never happened, only that it happens to you and miraculously, happens for you.
Let me explain.
The year is 2020 and the back-story goes as far back as 2016. Yes, the year, we came back to Chicago.
As a person from India, working in the US requires you to be on a non-immigrant visa, of which there are several types. Without going into the complexities of the US visa system, let's say for the purposes of this story, all we need to know is the term "H-1B".
In late 2019, I go to Canada for my short term work visa stamping and by God's grace, all goes to plan and I am back in Chicago. Knowing all too well the limits of my current visa (until Jan 2021) is limited (no pun intended), my then-employer files for my H-1B in the 2020 lottery. For the uninformed, the H-1B visa lottery is a mad scramble by companies of all sizes and nationalities, for their preferred employees to get a coveted spot out of 65,000 available visas, and for those with a US Master's or Ph.D., 20,000 additional visas. To make matters more interesting (or chaotic - whoever you want to believe), the USCIS initiates a new type of registration system that allows anyone and everyone with $10 to put an applicant in the lottery pool.
March 2020 - the month when the pandemic hits and the month when the above mentioned lottery happens. My name gets added to the list of applicants and the waiting game begins. A month goes by and I get the horrific news that I wasn't picked in the lottery and subsequently, my chance at the visa ends, just like that.
As an employer, you take your shot and when it doesn't work out, you move on. But what about the employee? What happens to them? On to Plan B - Can I try going to Canada ('no' says the company) or India, leaving Kirti and the kids behind - and retry a year later? The morale crushing news along with the onset of Covid was one of the most challenging times of my life.
All this while the drama unfolded, my parents, who are ardent devotees of Shree Swami Samarth, meet with our Guru, to tell him about my visa situation. Our Guru, without possibly knowing how the US visa system works, calmly tells them not to worry and that it will be taken care of by Swami. I get the same message relayed to me by my parents, who while worried also have no other option but to keep faith.
I know and I accept that this will not resonate with all of you, and skepticism may be warranted.
Spring turns to summer and I have come to accept my current situation without knowing what I will do come January 2021.
Then, the Tuesday after labor day weekend in the US. I check my Outlook and there is an email stating I have been picked for the lottery. Surely, there has to be some type of mistake. I read the email once more. To my absolute surprise, there was a second lottery conducted in August 2020 and all those who did not get picked the first time around in March, got automatically pooled into the second round and some of us got selected!
Never in the history of the H-1B visa has a second lottery round ever happened, but it did in 2020.
We can thank the dreaded Corona Virus for this unbelievable turn of events! Can you believe that I just credited a God-awful, people-killing virus for my luck!
Due to the pandemic and the uncertain near-term future, companies whose candidates got picked for the 1st lottery just did not file the paperwork necessary to get the actual H-1B visa and as a result, the USCIS had to pick additional people to make up the 85,000 available visas.
Between September and December 2020, the processing finally goes through successfully for me (and by the way, these three months too had its own shitshow that Netflix could have made a movie about) and in January 2021, yes, the month I was supposed to be wrapping things up, I get a fresh start! Due to paperwork transition, I got a week off and I ended up watching the swearing-in ceremony of Joe Biden as the 46th POTUS (totally had this planned since the November 2020 election).
One cannot script this. Looking back, virus or no virus, our Guru did know something - way before it actually happened, and that a higher (Divine?) power was somehow involved. Did I believe things would work out for me? Not a chance.
Do I now believe? Wholeheartedly. For those who understand Marathi, Swami is attributed with a saying, "Bhiu nakos, mi tujhya pathishi aahe" meaning, "Fear not, I am behind you".
He indeed is and I am living proof that miracles happen!
Happy 4th of July folks!!
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