Aboard The Immigrant

My sympathies lie with my co-passengers. Our ship, The Immigrant, is at mid-sea with no green pastures visible on the horizon. Everywhere I look, I see the sea… the deep dark blue sea.

I’ve been been in this country for the past 4 years. Looking back, I realize that almost 60% of my time has been spent dealing with my visa issues. It all began when I walked into the Consulate in my home country to get a student visa.
A few days after landing here, I remember walking into a bank and asking for information to open an account. I was asked for my SSN. I had no clue what that was. I trudged back to school to meet my adviser and she gave me a “bonafide” as proof of my legal presence. Armed with it, I went to the bank again. I had to wait 90 mins and explain my “SSN” less situation to 3 people before I could open an account and deposit a check I had brought from home.
I heard that for the past 2 years, SSN’s are not issued to immigrants on an F1 visa. One would need to have a “job offer” letter in order to apply for an SSN while on an F1. I was probably among the last few to get my SSN before this rule came into effect. The government may have its reasons for bringing in this rule, what concerns me is “were the repercussions completely thought through?” Be it a credit card, electricity signup, bank account, apartment rental … almost anything and everything requires one to have an SSN. So, if it’s not issued to “certain” immigrants, what’s their alternative? Why aren’t these institutions aware of the alternatives?

Years have passed since that day at the bank but my sense of insecurity as an immigrant hasn’t reduced an iota.

Every time I hear a layoff is due, I fear so much. I know everyone does. But it’s the fact that it’s just not my finances but my very “remaining in the US” that I fear for the most! I have been asking around and I still do not have a concrete reply to “how many days do I have to both find another job and file for an H1 or leave the country, from the day I AM FIRED?” So when need to cross that bridge, it looks like I would have to deal with all these immigration issues and its different interpretations in addition to what any other person will be facing: Unemployment!

I can’t make any long term plans like buying a house without facing a 15% more on the risk factor than a citizen peer would face.

I’m not the first person on this well trodden path, its just that I loathe being here at this point where I’ve traveled too far to go back but too less to reach my destination.

It may just be my Capricornian self searching for a sure foot while scaling a steep slope but isn’t it what we all strive for, security, peace and contentment?