The Indian-origin tech expert shares her story of being rejected in the H-1B visa lottery seven times and later getting a green card through the EB-1 program.
Ishani B, a Microsoft technologist of Indian origin, shared her story of becoming a permanent resident of the US after trying to get an H-1B visa for years. In a post on LinkedIn, Aishani shared how she kept trying to get a work visa every year between 2019 and 2025 and was not selected in the lottery once.Aishani, who shared her feelings of repeated rejection, said that the first rejection was difficult, while the second came with rational ideas but after that, there was nothing new to say. Meanwhile, she moved from the US to Canada in 2022 and returned to the US in 2023 on an L1 visa.“People ask me what it’s like. Honestly? The first rejection hurts. The second, you rationalize. By the third, fourth, fifth – you stop telling people.
Not because you are ashamed. But because there is nothing new to say. What no one tells you about losing over and over again: It’s not a single moment of disappointment. “It is a slow and quiet erosion of certainty,” she wrote.“Am I good enough to be here? Was someone else going to find out about this by now? How long am I going to keep trying?” She addedBy 2025, you will receive a green card through EB1, which is reserved for individuals with exceptional abilities. Aishani said she never thought she would qualify for this, especially after seven rejections, but she did.
“Because the version where I lost lottery after lottery was not unusual. I just felt exhausted. What kept her going? A quiet belief that there is a reason for this. And the stubbornness that refused to know what it felt like to quit smoking. 7 losses don’t mean no. And they meant: not this way. If you’re counting your rejections now, the number isn’t the story. “What you build between them,” Aishani wrote.The technical expert often shares information about migration on her LinkedIn. In a previous post, I talked about how immigrants are always in the middle. In India, they are the ones who left; “In the United States they are the immigrant engineers, and in Canada they are starting over,” she wrote.
reconnaissance
How would you describe the emotional impact of repeated job application rejections?
