We have a quick announcement about the season 2 release. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/we-the-legal/message ..read more

Season 1 was a conversation on the pathway from coming to the US as an international student and going on to navigate the employment-based immigration pipeline to Permanent Residence. It was a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of the employment-based immigration processes- work visas, student work authorizations, application for permanent residence etc. We talked about the various unseen struggles in that pathway through the voices of guests who had experienced them. In Season 2, we start with asking a larger question. How did we get to the system we now have? What came before it? What is its ..read more

When we started We, The Legal we did so with the aim of defining the problem. Indeed, that was the name of the introduction episode! Now, 4 episodes down the road we hope that we have conveyed the details, depth and disruption behind some of the most common issues in the employment-based legal immigration system that we have today. We chose to be vulnerable, open, transparent. We picked guests who could provide a wide lens on the issues behind their professional facades and often significant accomplishments. But, while the series of four episodes concludes with us tying up the loose ends, the ..read more

When Lisa arrived in the US in 2012, for a Masters' program, immigration was far from her mind. As the urgent knock of the real world intensified around graduation, it appeared that there would be a few steps in this process and by as long as the rules were followed, immigration would be mostly procedural. Nearly 8 years after she first arrived, we talk to Lisa about the emotional toll of a turbulent immigration journey. We reconcile who she was, who she has become and what parts of herself seem to have been lost to this stressful path and what a threshold of tolerance might look like for her ..read more

What happens to you, if you came to the US as a kid, along with your parents on a visa who decide to pursue life in the US long term? The typical happy ending would be that you and your parents, become legal permanent residents and eventually, citizens by naturalization. This idyllic happy ending though, is not the reality for applicants who are caught in the gauntlet of the Green Card backlog. For the children in these families that grew up with a sense of belonging to the US, the reality is more than just disappointing- it is destabilizing to the point of ripping families apart and utterly c ..read more

Sandhya came to the US as a student, pursuing a non-STEM degree, not realizing the unfavourable immigration path this decision would put her on. The limited conversation around legal immigration, tends to be slanted wholly towards tech and tech-allied sectors, with immigrants in non-STEM sectors largely forgotten even in their own communities. Later in life, Sandhya obtained a Green Card by marriage, a path that is considered almost a "shortcut" to American Permanent Residency, with those on this path subject to some poorly concealed prejudices. She shares her journey on the two unusual paths ..read more

Sumit is the quintessential legal immigrant — a Silicon Valley techie. We talk to him about where the line is between immigration regulations governing the activities of foreign nationals like him, and life itself, being constrained by those very regulations. He tells us his thoughts behind career choices, furniture purchases, and indeed, buying a car and home. In doing so, he shows us the many unintended consequences that current legal immigration policy can have in the lives of those that walk this path. References: For green card backlog- https://www.cato.org/blog/150-year-wait-indian-immi ..read more

It's hard to picture the extent to which government agencies and policies can pull the strings of life, until you lead the immigrant existence. Immigration policies, some of them archaic and clunky, often end up impacting every aspect of an immigrant's life- from the roles one is employed in, travel plans and even something as mundane as renewing a driver's license. So, what is living life in this framework like? What is the good, what's the bad? We sit down with Arjun, a young tech professional and a friend from graduate school, to pull back the curtain on why he's here and what keeps him goi ..read more

We have a quick announcement about the season 2 release. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/we-the-legal/message ..read more

Season 1 was a conversation on the pathway from coming to the US as an international student and going on to navigate the employment-based immigration pipeline to Permanent Residence. It was a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of the employment-based immigration processes- work visas, student work authorizations, application for permanent residence etc. We talked about the various unseen struggles in that pathway through the voices of guests who had experienced them. In Season 2, we start with asking a larger question. How did we get to the system we now have? What came before it? What is its ..read more