Topic: How long it takes after medical for ppr at buffalo office
"as a hindu" ... such divisive rhetoric and totally irrelevant to u r pr application.
cheers,
a.
ps: i am a hindu too. |
Topic: PLZ Advise!!!!!Is it necessary to have a machine readable passport for getting visa stamped???
This is actually not true for an US Visa as well. I know people from countries like Nepal which does not have the traditional MRP and have an US visa. |
Topic: What does a Green Card mean to you?
I will share my story with y'all. It is strictly my story and perhaps it will resonate with some of you.
I left India in 1996 to come to the U.S. for college and beyond. Initially, like many other foreign students, I had the idealistic notion of going back soon after graduation. I remember transitting through LHR and having an old lady say that her son said the same thing and never went back. Since college, I have held amazing jobs and have gone on to do a graduate degree in Economics from the top university in the country. Each time I go back to India, I have seen it change. My little sister got accepted to the top MBA program in the U.S., but stayed in India, and after a year has a disposable income far greater than most on this board would dream of.
Everytime I came back to the U.S., I had a harder time justifying why I was here. Sure it is extremely comfortable and I am used to the American way of life. Sure, my career was going places and my employer began my GC process, and I had been getting promotions pretty much every year. However, I felt stagnated in life. I felt I was just floating without a moral compass and all I seemed to seek was stability. I had forgotten that perhaps more than stability, what I really seeked was a direction to be happy.
Going back to India has been the scariest and biggest risk I ever took. I used to wake up with nightmares of becoming some unsuccesful depressed maniac confined to his ancestral homes with no opportunity and just a visceral image of the past. I remember some of my Indian friends in the U.S. being aghast at my intentions. Why the hell would I want to go back? Why go back when the GC is right here in the pipleline? You can be a citizen and then you will have a passport of USA, bla bla bla.
But then again, what does the GC really mean? Stability? Security? Comfort? But at what expense? I had hit my limit and was tired of wasting my life away. Having been in India for the past year, I can tell you that it is difficult as shit ... especially the first 6 months. Frustrating. However, it is also immensely rewarding both spiritually and surprisingly monetarily. I have been here and I feel part of something. In America, no matter what happened, it would have been hard for me to have broken out of the status quo. In India, I am part of a country on the move ... and my disposable standard of living is far higher than I ever had in the U.S. I am part of my friends life events and am there with my parents closeby.
The GC is meant to give you ultimate freedom, security, and stability. However, the cost of it was too high for me. And the myth the GC is the only way to all this is just a myth - with an Indian passport, I have been to over 100 countries and continue getting multiple entry visas issued here in Delhi with ease (sure, sometimes its annoying ... but life is a trade off and I rather have to stand in a visa line than squander my life). I am stable with family and friends here, secure in my job and wealth, and free to do what I want to do ... vote, protest, and have my head held high that I am not some minority to be distrusted. |
