H1B denial and stuff

Hey guys!

Been a relatively long time since my last post. I have been a bit busy – moved to a new city and a new team at NetApp. Why did I do that? I had to since USCIS denied my H1B visa for my last role at NetApp. Why did they do that? My theory is that it’s mostly random. Two people at my company with the exact same job profile and the exact same lawyers – one person gets their H1B approved while the other person gets their H1B denied. You can probably guess that I am the person whose H1B got denied in the above story. My thoughts around all this is that USCIS doesn’t really follow any strict set criteria for approving or denying H1Bs. A lot depends on who the officer is processing your application. This is not ideal but I got no say in this! Anyway, I got my H1B approved this time with my new job profile.

I was going to join MongoDB when I got my H1B denial but later decided to stay back at NetApp. That was mostly because of my wonderful ex manger Jeff, who was super helpful and understanding and found me an equally good position within NetApp. Now I work on a data migration tool called XCP – think of it as rsync on steroids. I live in Santa Clara and my office is not too far either.

But the worst part of living in the bay area is the rent you end up paying! My rent shot up by almost 2.5x compared to what I was paying in NC. So, that kind of sucks but otherwise, I am still exploring the bay area and it isn’t too bad 🙂

More later! I am at a coffee house writing this post and just drank some really good coffee!

p.s. Anyone got questions around H1B denials and stuff, I am your man!