That is the story of an Indian lady with massive American desires. For Shreya Mishra Reddy (34), her American sojourn started in 2021 when she left India to pursue a grasp’s diploma at Duke College, in Durham, North Carolina. Then, she didn’t know, 4 years later, she’ll have to depart America, not as a result of she failed however as a result of a visa lottery would resolve how lengthy she might keep within the nation. She shared her story in a Linkdin put up and it is fairly optimistic.For quite a lot of Indians, travelling to the USA is greater than boarding a long-haul flight and reaching the nation. For a lot of, it could imply abandoning their complete household, consolation, acquainted meals, and a whole lifestyle, all for the promise of a unique future.Shreya’s story can be a reminder that worldwide journey can typically turn out to be way more than sightseeing. For college students, crossing a border can imply constructing a short lived house 1000’s of kilometres away, solely to find that staying there will be tougher than getting there.Her Visa story
Exterior Harvard (PC: Instagram)
Shreya mirrored on that journey in a broadly shared LinkedIn put up. She wrote that after 4 years within the US, three H-1B rejections, three years at Visa, levels from Duke College and Harvard Enterprise Faculty, and the creation of a non-profit for worldwide college students, she is leaving the nation.From India To North Carolina
Shreya Mishra (Linkedin )
Shreya got here to America in 2021 to review engineering administration at Duke College in Durham, North Carolina. However her journey was not easy.As per her account, she arrived with round six years of labor expertise in India. She ultimately graduated from Duke in 2022 and commenced in search of alternatives in America. Her first main breakthrough got here with Visa, the place she secured a job. For her, it was a minimum of a miracle.The Visa issuesNonetheless, like many worldwide graduates, she wanted a longer-term work visa to proceed her skilled life in America. She entered the H-1B lottery not as soon as however thrice.3 times, in hope3 times, no luckRegardless of having levels from prestigious establishments, skilled expertise and a job at a significant worldwide agency. But the H-1B cap course of nonetheless left a component of her future to a lottery.In her put up, she additionally remembers crying in her workplace after receiving her third rejection. It was not merely the lack of a visa but in addition meant leaving the nation which she known as house for 4 years.Shreya ultimately left the US in January 2026 after her pupil work authorisation expired.An evaluation of US State Division information discovered that 41% of F-1 pupil visa purposes have been refused within the 2023-24 fiscal yr. Newer stories recommend a pointy decline in F-1 visa issuance to Indian college students throughout components of 2025.Vacationers expertise international locations by way of inns, sights, and pictures. College students expertise them by way of strange life. Over 4 years, these strange experiences can turn out to be the strongest reminiscences.A brand new chapter in TorontoAmerica, nevertheless, was not the top of Shreya’s journey.She is now in Toronto on a vacationer visa, the place she is contemplating whether or not Canada might turn out to be her subsequent house or whether or not she’s going to ultimately return to India.Toronto subsequently represents one thing completely different from her first arrival in America. She just isn’t travelling there as a pupil chasing a college admission. She is taking a look at one other nation with the attitude of somebody who has already skilled the highs and uncertainties of constructing a life overseas.And maybe that’s the most optimistic a part of her story.Returning to India, she has mentioned, wouldn’t signify failure. She has seen the expansion of India’s startup ecosystem and alternatives in cities resembling Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.The journey was larger than a VisaShreya’s American chapter didn’t finish with the H-1B lottery entering into her favour. However neither did the rejection erase what she achieved there. Her story is neither an anti-America nor a easy success story. It’s extra of a journey story about motion, ambition and beginning once more.She arrived in America as an Indian pupil wanting. She left as an expert with a world training and work expertise. As she put it, if one door didn’t open due to luck, she would construct new ones.
