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Ex-Google techie who quit $300,000 job after repeated H-1B rejections shares green card journey: 'Full story, no BS'
Pratik Karki reflected on his family’s struggles and the uncertainty that followed repeated H-1B lottery rejections while working at Google.
A Nepal-born engineer and former Google employee has shared an emotional account of his long US immigration journey, revealing how he walked away from a nearly $300,000 salary after repeatedly missing out on the H-1B visa lottery. Two years later, he and his wife finally received their green cards, and he is also running his own company.
Taking to X, San Francisco-based techie, Pratik Karki, reflected on his family’s struggles, his father’s sacrifices and the uncertainty that followed repeated H-1B lottery rejections while working at Google. “GOT OUR GREEN CARDS TODAY! Here's the full story, no BS, and a special thank you to my dad,” Karki wrote in an X post.
The techie shared that his father had earlier worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard and Berkeley when he was a toddler. However, after his parents’ marriage ended, his father returned to Nepal to raise him and his brother alone. “Going back to Nepal was the only way. He walked away from everything he had built in America for us. We moved to my grandparent's house in a small room in the attic,” he said.
Years later, Karki said that he moved to the US and eventually joined Google. But despite multiple attempts, he said he failed to secure an H-1B visa through the lottery system. “Two years ago I got rejected from the H1B lottery at Google for the fourth time. I sat with the email for a long time before I told anyone,” he shared.
Recalling the moment, Karki said that he feared losing the life he had built in the US with his wife and their pets. “I was looking at having to pack everything up. Try Canada, or go back to Nepal, and live thousands of miles away from the person I love,” he said.
(Also Read: Indian-origin techie-doctor couple planning to move to Dubai amid Green Card struggles, 'We're just exhausted')
From quitting Google to building a startup
The techie further revealed that after a long conversation with his wife at their kitchen table, he decided to take a major career risk. “She told me we had enough saved to stay afloat, and that this was my dream after all,” he wrote.
Soon after, Karki said that he quit Google despite earning close to $300,000 annually at the age of 27. “I left Google. Walked away from close to $300K in yearly comp at age of 27,” he wrote.
The techie then spent his time in San Francisco testing startup ideas with friends, mentors and other founders, trying to find something worth building. “Somewhere in that haze, I figured out what I actually wanted to build. The definitive human data layer for frontier labs and enterprise AI teams,” he shared.
Karki eventually co-founded Anthromind. He said that the idea emerged from his observations of failed AI pilots during his time at Google.
He also revealed that at the same time, he secured an O-1 visa. “I did all the groundwork myself, through my Google career, judging hackathons, and published writing,” he shared.
“The case went got approved! And the green card followed from there,” he wrote.
Concluding the post, Karki shared that he is dedicating his achievement to his father. “Today my wife and I are both holding our green cards. I keep looking down at mine and feeling exuberant. Two immigrants, one company, one kitchen table conversation that changed everything. Baba, this one is for you, thanks to all your sacrifices and lessons. The immigration journey is over, but Anthromind is just getting started,” he said.
