Getting my H-1B on the first try felt like 'pure luck.' 4 years later, a layoff meant I had to leave the US.

• Soumi Chanda moved from Kolkata to the US for graduate school and spent 13 years building a career and life there.
• She was picked for an H-1B visa on her first try and later moved to Seattle after Amazon acquired her visa sponsorship.
• After she got laid off last year, Chanda returned to India with her two cats.

I spent almost 13 years building a life in the United States, and then I had 60 days to pack up and leave it all behind.

I was raised in Kolkata and never lived anywhere else until 19. I'd never visited the US as a child, but felt oddly close to it — my aunt and uncle, both professors, lived in Spokane, Washington, and my aunt's stories made me curious about American life long before I saw it myself.

I started working at 17 out of necessity, kept working while pursuing my bachelor's degree in business administration at Calcutta University, and after graduation landed a role as a business developer for a startup exporting handwoven bags.

Encouraged by my aunt and uncle to consider a master's abroad, I took the GMAT almost on a whim. I was offered a scholarship from Gonzaga University in Spokane. At 20, I arrived in Washington in December 2013 on an F-1 visa. It was freezing and silent, nothing like the loud city I'd known back home.

Once I adjusted, it became home

The university's community felt refreshingly different from the hierarchy I'd grown up with, and I found my footing through the international student network. My MBA took two years.

As an international student, I had a limited window after graduation to find qualifying work. I couldn't find a paid job, so I took an unpaid marketing role at a nonprofit to build experience. I eventually landed a leadership rotational program at US Bank, and went back to my university for a second master's in organizational leadership tied directly to that job.

When my program at US Bank ended, I asked them to sponsor an H-1B. They said no. The city had few employers experienced with international hiring, and I often found myself explaining the rules.

I joined a small genetic-testing startup that did DNA testing for dogs and cats. The CEO took an interest in my career and promoted me within months. When Neogen acquired the company, she pushed for me to be retained and hoped it would sponsor my H-1B. Neogen ultimately sponsored my H-1B visa.

I was picked in the lottery on my first attempt in 2021 — pure luck. A few years later, Amazon acquired my H-1B sponsorship, and I moved about 280 miles west from Spokane to Seattle to work there.

By then, the US wasn't just where I lived — it was home.

Then, in 2025, I was laid off

The conversation was calm and professional. We discussed severance, and I signed without negotiating. Sixty days sounded impossible from the start. Then, just as I was laid off, the public debate over the proposed $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions exploded.

Even with Amazon on my résumé, I didn't get a single interview the following month.

Once 30 days had passed with nothing lined up, I started preparing to leave the country entirely. My only non-negotiable was my two cats. I spent roughly $5,000 on paperwork to fly them internationally, plus $6,000 to break my lease early.

I sold what I could — a couch and a TV — and paid extra to dispose of everything else. Finding a flight where I could travel with my cats took days of research and cost thousands more in agent fees and last-minute airfare.

All told, the move cost an estimated $18,000. That included vet visits, USDA and Indian customs paperwork for my cats, my own flight, and flights for a friend who came from India to help me move.

But the cost wasn't only financial: My father had died suddenly when I was 17, and I'd effectively supported my mother and sister ever since. Losing everything wasn't just about furniture and leases. It was the security I'd worked so long to build for people who depended on me.

Settling back in India

I returned to India last September. It was disorienting; unlike my past short visits, there was no return flight waiting this time. Caring for my cats, finding the right food and litter, kept me grounded through the hardest weeks.

My confidence took a hit when I compared myself to friends whose lives looked stable. But a couple of months ago, I started actively building Puchki, a pet-sitting brand inspired by my own difficulty finding in Kolkata the kind of reliable, loving care I had for my two cats in the US. Throwing myself back into work pulled me out of the worst of it.

I'd still love to visit the US, mostly to see my aunt, uncle, and friends. But I don't want to live there again — the uncertainty was constant, and even setting the visa aside, the broader political climate was distressing.

Staying in India long-term is something I'm still working out — there's plenty here I value, and other things, as a feminist, I find harder to reconcile. Europe feels like the version of "somewhere else" that appeals to me most.

If I could tell other international students and workers one thing: Get involved in everything your university offers — that kind of community gets rarer once you're working. And if you come from a culture that prizes humility, especially at work, that instinct can work against you in the US. You have to learn to speak plainly about what you've accomplished, because no one else is going to do it for you.

Business Insider confirmed she was employed by US Bank, Neogen, and Amazon. US Bank and Neogen declined to respond to a request for comment. Amazon did not reply to a request for comment.

Lisa Shaffer, the former CEO of the genetic-testing startup where Chanda worked, confirmed that Chanda was promoted within months. Shaffer told Business Insider that she advocated for Chanda to be retained when the startup was acquired. "She was immediately found to be head and shoulders above anyone else in her department," Shaffer said.

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