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Tears, Dreams, And Goodbye: How Ananya Joshi's American Dream Slipped Away
Times of India ^ | 10/3/2025 | Education Desk

Posted on 10/05/2025 8:35:39 AM PDT by marcusmaximus

The United States has long been seen as a land of opportunity, where ambition and hard work promise professional growth and personal freedom. But for international students and professionals, that promise can be fragile, shaped by visa rules, corporate decisions, and global economic uncertainty.

Ananya Joshi, an Indian biotechnology graduate, recently became the human face of this precarious reality. After earning her master’s degree at Northwestern University in 2024, she began her career under the F-1 Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme at a biotech start-up. But a sudden company-wide downsizing left her unemployed, and with her OPT period nearing its end, she faced a stark choice: Find a new role quickly or leave the US.

In a tearful Instagram video documenting her departure, Joshi described the experience as “by far the hardest step in this journey” and admitted, “Even though I seemed to have accepted my reality, nothing could have prepared me for this day.”

(Excerpt) Read more at timesofindia.indiatimes.com ...


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To: kiryandil

Great point! Americans are illegitimate by definition— unlike everyone Elsa in the world


41 posted on 10/05/2025 10:36:09 AM PDT by ckilmer
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To: rlmorel; AppyPappy; Kleon; Ghost of Philip Marlowe
A very thoughtful post, and I agree with it completely.

You wrote: There are plenty of people who have a valid axe to grind with the H-1B process and how it has been used in the American economy.

And of the people I have worked with over the years in technology, I have worked with excellent people of Indian extraction, but it is true, I have also worked with some real duds.

Same can be said of whites, blacks, men, women, Russians, Vietnamese, Filipinos, the list goes on. I never asked their status, so I don’t know. But I will say I worked with a database engineer of Indian extraction who was the best I ever encountered. I would work with or for him any day, any time. Knowledgeable, hard working, congenial, sense of humor-saved my bacon more times than I can count.

Therefore, I am not willing to paint all people of Indian extraction with that same brush some people are, but then again, I have never been victimized by the terrible and anti-American abuses surrounding the use of H-1B visas. I have not walked in those shoes. But I am an American, and I abhor these abuses which must be rectified. And I can fully accept the assertion that these abuses have been used both to reduce IT costs at the expense of American workers AND have been used to fill the upper echelon ranks by Indians who preferentially hire other Indians.

My feeling is, if they are not American Citizens, I have no problem with these H-1B changes. It is all part of re-shoring American expertise and jobs.

We need a thoughtful national conversation on this issue and other related issues - not jingoistic bumper sticker slogans from instigating trolls like marcusmaximus, who is trying to get Free Republic to present itself in a bad light, like the old Democrat Know-Nothing Party.

And doing a good job of it, too...

42 posted on 10/05/2025 10:41:10 AM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: ckilmer
Great point! Americans are illegitimate by definition— unlike everyone Elsa in the world

You forgot the /s. 😉😂😂

43 posted on 10/05/2025 10:43:33 AM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: Steely Tom
Since India has aligned itself with China, surely China will line up to hire Indian tech workers, yes?
44 posted on 10/05/2025 10:52:35 AM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: kiryandil

I did that for 44 years and I have a horrible memory. I had to tell people “I don’t know the answer but I know where to look it up”. Retiring helped tremendously.


45 posted on 10/05/2025 11:40:56 AM PDT by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: Steely Tom

It is in a way a land of opportunities.

I visited there in the early 90s then in 2006, then 2017. It us changing.

The dirt poor in the villages have improved their lives. They have more opportunities.

The thing is that the next level up to super wealthy status is easier in the US due to flexible laws, etc


46 posted on 10/05/2025 12:48:51 PM PDT by Cronos
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To: faucetman

She came on an opt student visa which then allows you to wirk fir 18 months. Then she has to get an h1-b visa. Only after a few years after studying, but while working and living in the USA only then can she apply for a green card.

Citizenship takes even longer


47 posted on 10/05/2025 12:51:00 PM PDT by Cronos
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To: kiryandil

A troll is a ‘sh*t poster’ who attempts to engage others by first offending them.


48 posted on 10/05/2025 1:23:28 PM PDT by dadgum (Fight to WIN or do not fight at At )
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To: marcusmaximus

49 posted on 10/05/2025 2:00:56 PM PDT by 55Ford (https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%2Fid%2FOIP.Xy4oYwb)
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To: marcusmaximus

Nothing against her but the American Dream is for Americans. We have plenty of unemployed and underemployed Americans who could fill these roles. We never should have had a program that allowed companies to import hordes of cheap labor to undercut Americans’ wages. Indians in particular did not help themselves by being so clannish in hiring only other Indians and they made it very politically easy for Republicans to effectively end the H1B program the way its been by so consistently and overwhelmingly voting Democrat. Neither party wants to import hordes of voters for the other party.


50 posted on 10/05/2025 2:02:12 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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