‘You don’t live here’: Google engineer shares H-1B woes, says she’s anxious about making mistakes

Indian-origin Google employee shares how H-1B, despite giving the cushion of good bank balance, always makes her life in the US feel temporary.

A 30-year-old Google software engineer, Surbhi Madan, shared her experience of being on an H-1B visa, though she calls the US her home since 2013, when she came to the country for her bachelor’s at Brown University. In an interview with Business Insider on the highs and the lows of the big tech visa which is a bone of contention in the US politics now, the Indian-origin Google employee said how H-1B gave her so many opportunities in life but still her life in the US feels temporary — because of H-1B. Madan was one of the luckiest to have received her H-1B visa in the lottery on her first try in 2017, but it was a different time, she said. Companies were hiring and willing to sponsor H-1B applications. Since then, Madan has been with Google and is now a senior software engineer. Now she want to pivot her career into teaching but H-1B does not allow her to do that. “I’m anxious about making mistakes when I drive or file taxes because I don’t want anything to threaten my stay in the country. Because of the visa, my life in the US feels temporary,” Madan said. “I have an option to renew my apartment lease for one or two years, and I always choose one year because I never know how long I’ll be allowed to live in the US,” she said. Sharing an experience of how US officials see legal immigrants, Madan said, once she was returning to the US after traveling abroad. At immigration, she was asked about her purpose of visit. “I live here,” she told the officer. “You don’t live here; you work here,” the officer said, leaving an impact on her mind. The Trump administration is aiming to overhaul the H-1B system as the MAGA activists are advocating for scrapping of it. The new proposed rule will allow tech companies to hire foreign talents only for higher, high-wage positions.