On Sept. 14, Emily Chen and David Yang boarded a 14-hour flight from Seattle to Shanghai. Software engineers in the United States on H-1B work visas, they’d spent months planning their wedding back home: interviewing emcees, choosing flowers, drawing up seating charts and preparing for family reunions long delayed by pandemic travel bans and visa paperwork. Now the big day drew near.

Yang hadn’t been back for a year. For Chen, it had been five. Chen’s grandparents had died during her time abroad. In addition to getting married, she planned to visit their graves — to burn incense and whisper belated goodbyes. The wedding would be in Jiangsu, Yang’s hometown, on Sept. 23, followed by a return banquet in Zhejiang, where Chen is from. (The visa holders in this column asked to be identified by

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