IN NOVEMBER OF 2018, Usha and her husband Sudhir received the news they never expected: the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to extend Usha's work visa, meaning the couple and their daughter would have 180 days to leave the country before the US government would consider their presence to be unlawful.
The notice hit the whole family like a punch to the gut. Eight years before, Usha and her daughter had moved from India to New Jersey to join Sudhir, who was already living in the United States, pursuing a master's degree in computer science. Both Usha and Sudhir landed jobs as quality assurance analysts for IT outsourcing firms, relying on so-called H-1B visas, which are reserved for specialty occupations. Before coming to the US, Usha had earned a bachelor's in math and physics, and a master's in political science. They'd bought a home, paid their taxes, and enrolled their daughter, who's now 16, in school. Usha had been approved in the early stages of the green card process, and had successfully extended her H-1B visa twice before.
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