For Indian students in the West, a souring of dreams

However, as Indian students who will soon leave for American shores await receiving their I-20s and the coveted F-1 visa stamp from a US consulate, things are not so sweet in the land of milk and honey. Several studies have shown that US companies, especially staffing firms, exploit OPT students to force work for low wages under stressful, enslaved conditions. The number of OPT visas issued is unlimited, making it an employer’s market. The government refuses to regulate employment conditions and bring the bad guys to justice.

H-1B math doesn’t work. To apply for a Green Card (immigrant visa), Indian OPT students have to convince employers to hire them on dual-intent H-1B visas. The law authorises 85,000 new H-1Bs to be granted yearly, of which 20,000 are reserved for applicants who earned a Master’s degree or higher from a US educational institution. The competition for H-1B visas is so intense that the American government resorts to a lottery, which, for this fiscal year, concluded on April 1. The lottery is held just once a year, so a STEM OPT student technically has three chances of winning it.

An Indian student is not restricted to only the 20,000 reserved quota, however. The 65,000 general H-1B visa pool, which attracts applications from every aspirant worldwide, including professionals from Indian tech majors, welcomes Indian student applications too. But the students are up against stiff competition and hefty corporate law budgets. Students failing to win the H-1B are forced to return to India.

The wait for a Green Card could exceed a lifetime. Even if a student wins an H-1B visa, a significant milestone in an Indian student’s journey in the US, not everything is green on the green card front. It is, again, a matter of supply and demand.

US law grants 140,000 green cards annually for employment-based applicants but stipulates that these be distributed across all countries, with no country receiving more than 7% of the allotment. So India gets 9,800 green cards a year, a pittance. With nearly 60,000 new Indian H-1Bs entering the line annually, the backlog is so long that it currently takes about 80 years to get a green card. During the wait, Indians have to seek H-1B transfer approvals when they switch jobs or get laid off.

That apart, a Goldman Sachs report said last March that generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) could impact 300 million jobs globally, with 37% of US jobs in architecture and engineering, the kind that Indian students seek, at risk. According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks tech industry layoffs, 1,185 tech companies laid off 262,582 employees in 2023. The lower demand for employment hurts Indian OPT and H-1B employees even as more Indian students flock to America.

The situation in Canada is similarly glum. A YouTube short documentary called Borrowed Dreams: The Canadian Experience, highlighting housing, health care, education, and employment issues, has garnered over 200K views. Indian students in the United Kingdom continue to struggle with that country’s strict rules for post-graduate employment and its terrible economy.

Diaspora Indians contribute immensely to India’s foreign exchange reserves, and Indian students are the seed that breeds that proud diaspora. India remains the source of the globe’s human capital, and the Modi government has aggressively promoted this fact as a competitive advantage.

But when the western dream fails to materialise, Indian students should reconsider whether they are better off at home in one of the world’s fastest- growing economies.

Rajkamal Rao is managing director, Rao Advisors LLC. The views expressed are personal