These Four Walls

It is interesting how our lives weave together networks and coincidences.

These last two years I have been a part of a program called Leadership Eastside.  The first year I attended class with 40 other people learning about adaptive leadership.  The second year my team of 6 needed to pick a project that impacted the eastside, (of Seattle). We selected community for our project and specifically, isolation.  After months of doing research we were all very interested in working with a group of people who are here on an H4 Visa.  Without going into too much detail - our tech companies hire many talented people for IT positions that are unable to be filled by US citizens.  Unable, because we have not yet created the talent pool to fill those positions.  When they hire someone who is not a citizen, that person receives an H1 visa, their spouse and families have an H4 visa.  H4 Visa holders are not allowed to work in the US. These wonderful people, mostly women, had careers before coming to the US, they are highly educated, almost all have a masters degree plus experience.  Even though they knew they couldn't work they figured that if a company would sponsor their spouse, plus pay for moving costs, it wouldn't be that hard to find a company who would sponsor them since they were already here.  They found out this is almost never the case.

As luck would have it congress is currently trying to solve this issue, which is a part of the immigration bill, HR15. Finishing up our project we set up meetings with Congressman Reichert and Congresswomen DelBene so that they could meet with people in our community that are affected by this law.  The meetings were very emotional for us and for the people that attended. Several of the women talked about being "stuck in these four walls" with nothing to do, no where to go, nobody to talk to. The pain and loneliness they have gone through of being away from their families and unable to work concerns me.  My daughter went through the same thing when she moved to Bali.  I am nervous about how this will affect me.

 I shared with one of the women, Nayda from Russia, that I would soon be in the same situation - moving to Vietnam where I will not have a work visa,and with an uncertain career path.  After we wrapped up the meetings Nayda came to me with tears in her eyes and a big hug, wishing me the best for our move.

I know it will be easier for me to get a work permit in Vietnam than for people that come to the US.  Just like in the US, they have to look first for a Vietnamese national to fill the role first, if they can't find anyone with the right qualifications they can hire foreigners.I know if I am not doing something where I can have an impact I start to lose my feelings of self worth.  I hope I am prepared for this part of our journey.

With Congressman Reichert

Below is a fact sheet we put together about this issue.

H4 Visa Fact Sheet 

With Congresswomen DelBene