DM Submission – 14 Years in Limbo: Our Story as a Family in the Green Card Backlog. This story is really painful. HORRIBLE Hello, My name is Dinesh, and my family and I have been living in the United States for over 14 years on an H-1B visa. We came here with hope, integrity, and the deep belief that if we followed the rules, worked hard, and built a life here, we’d eventually find a place to call home — officially. We came here legally, through H1b visa. We’ve never overstayed a visa, never broken a law, and we have contributed to this country in every way we could. I work in the AI sector and have paid my taxes year after year, contributed to Social Security (even though I may never benefit from it), and have worked tirelessly to support innovation, the economy, and my company’s mission. Yet despite doing everything right, we are still in limbo — stuck in a green card backlog that has robbed us of peace, stability, and a future we can plan for. Living on an H-1B visa sounds manageable from the outside, but most people have no idea what it’s like to build your entire adult life under constant restriction. We cannot switch jobs freely , every move requires complex documentation, legal fees, and the anxiety of possible denial. We can’t start a business, even if we have the skills and ideas to create jobs. Our spouses , often just as talented and educated are dependent on our status and have long waits to even receive work authorization. Every decision from where we live, to whether we can attend a funeral back home, to how we raise our kids is shadowed by visa uncertainty. If we leave the country for an emergency, there’s a chance we may not be able to come back, especially during periods of administrative delays or travel bans. We live every day knowing that our ability to remain here is not in our hands, but in the hands of policies, backlogs, and lotteries. But the hardest part , the part that keeps me up at night is what this system does to our children. Our child came here when they were very young. They grew up in this country. This is the only home they’ve ever known. Their dreams, their identity, their community — it’s all here. They pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag at school, they speak English better than any Indian language, and they think of this country as their country. But because of the broken system, they are now at risk of aging out of the immigration system entirely. Soon , they will no longer qualify as my dependent. That means they lose legal status unless they can find an entirely separate path for themselves. And even that is not guaranteed. Can you imagine what it’s like, as a parent, to tell your child that after living here all their life despite doing nothing wrong they may have to leave the only country they’ve ever known? Can you imagine the anxiety of watching the clock run down on your family’s unity, knowing that unless Congress acts, your child might be forced to self-deport? It is cruel. It is dehumanizing. And it is entirely preventable. There are over 1 million people in the employment-based green card backlog, with a large majority of us from India — simply because of the per-country cap that limits how many green cards can go to individuals from a single country each year. People who applied a decade after us — but are from different countries already have their green cards, while we’ve been waiting for over a decade and a half. What hurts even more is that unused green cards from previous years go wasted. Every year, thousands of green cards are “lost” because of administrative inefficiencies, even as families like ours wait endlessly and children age out of status. Why can’t those visas be recaptured and used to reduce the backlog? We’re not asking for amnesty. We’re not undocumented. We’ve done everything by the book. We’re simply asking for fairness, relief, and the dignity of knowing that our children won’t be punished for our decision to chase a better life. The backlog has caused immeasurable mental, emotional, and financial strain. We’ve put our lives on hold. We’ve missed opportunities. We’ve dealt with years of visa stress, job restrictions, and personal sacrifice — all while trying to stay strong for our children, who did not choose this uncertainty. We are Americans in every way that matters , except on paper. Our kids are as American as any other. They deserve a pathway to stay. Families like ours deserve to stay together. @DOGE @elonmusk @HouseGOP @MikeJohnson , We NEED to fix this.