Amid US President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 fee on fresh H-1B visas, an Indian-born researcher’s LinkedIn post about finally becoming a permanent resident of the States is striking a chord online. Rajavasanth Rajasegar, who first came to the US in 2011 on an F-1 visa to study mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), shared a candid look at his 14-year immigration journey.

“Since then, I’ve been fortunate to have a privileged, streamlined path: F-1 renewals, OPT + STEM, a cap-gap exempt H-1B during the pandemic, and eventually a transition into faculty,” he wrote, crediting the “tremendous investment” in his education and career.

Rajasegar completed seven years of fully funded graduate work at UIUC followed by five years of postdoctoral research at S

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