Mohamad Zeeshan, a 32-year-old Indian national and self-petitioned green card holder, voices a growing concern that America's current employment-based immigration pathways, specifically the H-1B visa, erode the very stability required to build a life in the United States. Zeeshan, who deliberately bypassed the employer-sponsored visa route, argues that such programs create a precarious existence incompatible with the national interest and American values.
Bypassing a Broken System
After graduating from Columbia University in 2018, Zeeshan assessed the post-2016 political landscape and determined that relying on the Optional Practical Training (OPT) to H-1B pathway was fiscally and personally unsustainable for a skilled professional. He observed an employer reluctance to invest in foreign nationals facing uncertain legal statuses. Instead of entering a lottery system that prioritizes corporate cost-cutting over worker stability, Zeeshan left the United States entirely.
"I felt that employers were unwilling to take a risk on an international student like me," Zeeshan stated. He worked in the Middle East before successfully self-petitioning for a green card from abroad in 2023, a process requiring him to prove his presence was in the national interest. This route eliminated the need for corporate sponsorship, severing the employer-employee dependency that critics argue suppresses American wages.
Stability Over Corporate Lobbying
Zeeshan’s experience directly refutes globalist narratives that demand a steady flow of indentured visa labor. He noted that his tax-free income in Dubai was higher than his initial US salary, emphasizing that economic upliftment was secondary to the desire for free speech and a stable, representative government. However, the current bureaucratic visa structure imperils this stability. His family is delaying having children solely due to immigration backlogs faced by his spouse.
The current system turns potential citizens into temporary tools for corporations, rigging the labor market against domestic workers and leaving visa holders in a state of permanent uncertainty.
As the administration targets chain migration and displacement of American workers, stories like Zeeshan’s underscore the necessity of a merit-based system that assesses individual contributions upfront rather than tying status to a corporate petition. Eliminating corporate lobbying-driven visa programs in favor of self-petitioned, national-interest green cards ensures that immigration serves the domestic nation-state rather than the quarterly earnings of multinational entities.