Lay and Khushi Patel grew up in America. They attended Lebanon Middle School and Lebanon Senior High School in Indiana. They’ve made friends here, become part of their community and now attend IU.
But despite living most of their lives in the U.S., they could be forced to leave.
The Patels are part of more than 200,000 “documented Dreamers” living in the states, children who enter the country on legal status with their parents who are long-term visa holders. There’s no clear path to citizenship for these documented Dreamers; when they turn 21, they “age out” of the system and can no longer be listed as dependents on their parents’ visa.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA), issued in 2012, protects people brought into the country as children by undocumented parents. DACA didn’t grant citizenship, but it did allow undocumented Dreamers a work permit and some protection from deportation. But because they have lawful status until 21, documented Dreamers were left out of this program.
This leaves them with limited options to remain in legal status in the U.S. This forces them to transition to a new temporary visa or try to find a way to citizenship, options for which are limited.
If they don’t, they must return to their home countries or risk remaining here on unlawful status. While they’re in the U.S., they also face obstacles like barriers to work authorization and limited eligibility for things like social security and financial aid.
The Patels have lived in America for more than a decade. For many people like them, their true home is where they are now, the place they’ve known since childhood. Going back to where they were born would mean uprooting the lives they’ve built.
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The Patels came to the U.S. in 2012.
Lay, now a senior at IU, was 12 years old; his younger sister Khushi, a rising sophomore, was just 8. They moved with their parents from Brampton, Ontario in Canada to Lebanon, Indiana, under a visa that allows them to live in the U.S. for their business.
Although it was their first time living in the U.S., Lay said his childhood was spent trekking between Canada and the U.S. to visit family. Aside from a bit of culture shock, Lay said moving to the U.S. felt relatively normal.
But even as a child, Patel said, he understood he wasn’t an American citizen. In high school, his friends would often ask him why he wasn’t a citizen. He would have to say there was no pathway for him.
He remembers having questions about his future, too, but assumed the answers would eventually come.
“I always thought, ‘What am I going to do?’” Lay said. “‘Will I have to go back to Canada?’ But I always thought, at the end of the day, I’ll be able to figure it out.”
He remembers writing essays about the American Dream during sixth grade, back in Canada — “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But Lay said he doesn’t feel so free when that freedom is in the hands of employers and immigration services.
Most people assume that if you grow up in the U.S. legally, you are automatically eligible for a green card, Lay said. However, obtaining citizenship is a lengthy, complicated process with no clear path to follow and nothing guaranteed. It’s not as easy as simply “getting in line.”
The transient status of his visa hit him hardest when he came to college, he said. His parents’ E-2 investor visas allowed them to live in the U.S. to operate the hotel business they'd purchased. It wasn't an immigrant visa or a green card, but it can be renewed indefinitely; he didn’t grow up worrying about his ability to stay. But as the end of his college career nears, he now worries about his future.
Lay, who is studying economics and media, switched from his dependent visa to an F-1 student visa before coming to IU. A senior at IU, he’s taking an extra semester in the fall to retake classes he couldn’t finish due to a concussion last semester.
F-1 student visas allow noncitizens to stay in the U.S. for the duration of their studies. Lay said maintaining F-1 legal status comes with requirements that are restrictive for many students like him.
For example, under federal regulations, any jobs or internships he pursues while at IU first must be authorized by the Office of International Services. Those on F-1 visas are eligible for Curricular Practical Training (CPT), which allows them practical experience in their field of study during their time at school.
Lay said he’d like to pursue the IU Summer in Los Angeles or Washington, D.C. program. However, CPT work must be considered integral to a student’s studies to be approved. Neither of Lay' majors require an internship to graduate, he said, so his applications for CPT so far have been denied. F-1 visa students are also required to be on-campus for at least one course during their final semester.
If a student does unauthorized work or violates certain rules, they are at risk of having their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) record terminated, which in most cases means a student must make plans to leave the U.S. Hypothetically taking the internship, if OIS were to approve it, would interrupt Lay’s time on campus. Lay said this would mean he would have to take yet another semester in Bloomington after the internship in order to avoid having his SEVIS record terminated.
“If they terminate my SEVIS record, all the credit hours I’ve put into IU, everything I’ve done — it goes awash,” Lay said.
Although doing an internship now could jeopardize his status, he worries he won’t have enough work experience after he graduates. Statistics show internships boost college students’ chances of finding jobs and gaining experience. The National Association of Colleges and Employers reported in a 2019 study that 56 percent of college students who interned while pursuing a degree were hired full-time by the company, and even students who weren’t offered positions had valuable real-world training.
Once Lay graduates with an F-1 visa, he’ll be given a year of work authorization in the U.S. known as Optional Practical Training (OPT). After his year of OPT, he must find another way to remain in the U.S. or depart.
Lay could switch to an H-1B visa, another temporary status that allows holders to stay and work in the U.S. with a bachelor’s degree. Since H-1B visa holders cannot apply for a green card themselves, he would have to find an employer willing to sponsor him and apply on his behalf.
But Lay wonders who would hire him under a temporary status and with limited work experience. It’s also costly and competitive to sponsor an employee: employers typically must pay thousands of dollars, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services caps the number of H-1B visas at 85,000 each year. This, combined with chronic green card backlogs, means it could still be years before he could obtain a green card.
Lay said he’s worried about his ability to find a job he enjoys as someone who’s not a citizen. After graduation, Lay said he’d like to work in media in D.C. covering immigration issues. But if he doesn’t get an H-1B visa, he’s not sure what his future holds. The only other options that could possibly lead to a green card, he said, are to obtain an E-5 visa — which would require him to invest at least a million dollars into an American business — or marrying a U.S. citizen.
“We have to just keep jumping through hoops just to remain here,” Lay said. “Our status is still temporary even though this is our home, this is where we want to remain.”
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Khushi is a human biology major. She says watching her brother struggle and applying to college herself made her worry about what she'll face in two years.
"You don't realize how much you're struggling until you can't do what you need to do or get what you're qualified for," she said.
People on non-immigrant student visas, like the Patels, also face limitations on financial aid. While IU offers a limited number of competitive scholarships to incoming freshmen each year, people on F-1 visas aren’t eligible for federal financial aid or state financial aid in Indiana.
Khushi remembers trying to fill out scholarship applications, but the last question always asked if she was a U.S. citizen. Checking ‘no’ made her efforts feel invalidated, she said.
“All the work you did, all the academics, they can be pristine,” she said. “You can have a 4.0 GPA and a perfect SAT, but since you’re not a citizen, you can’t apply.”
Khushi, who switched to an F-1 visa in January in order to try to work during college, dreams of becoming a dermatologist. She said she particularly wanted to apply to the BS/MD program at University of Evansville, which would allow her to earn a Bachelor’s of Science degree and move directly into a medical program for a Doctor of Medicine after her undergraduate schooling.
She believes she was eligible for the highly-competitive program; however, she was only able to apply to the few schools that accept international students, since most BS/MD programs, like University of Evansville, do not.
IU guidelines state that CPT, which can be experiences like jobs or internships, is not supposed to be used solely to gain work experience. However, Khushi said she’s still concerned about how she will get adequate training for medical school without it. She found jobs tutoring and scribing and tried applying for CPT to be approved to work, but the Office of International Services determined the positions did not qualify.
Jenny Bowen, Director of International Student Advising at OIS, told the IDS that CPT must tie into a student’s actual curriculum, such as an internship program or course requirement in their major. She said OIS evaluates what the experience would consist of and how a student could apply their learning from it to their academics.
Khushi said she thinks it’s unfair that international students are limited in the opportunities they can pursue while non-international students can work anywhere. She understands these rules aren’t made by IU, but still wishes it was different.
It would be beneficial, Khushi said, if the rules were changed to allow students to apply for jobs outside of their major that still benefited their studies. It could also help to allow documented Dreamers to work starting at 16 years old, she said, rather than only in college.
“It’s really hard because we can qualify for all these jobs, we can qualify for all these internships, but we’re not given the opportunity,” she said.
Like her brother, Khushi will have a year of OPT after she graduates. But she doesn’t want to take a gap year — instead, she’s planning to apply to medical schools during her senior year in hopes of working under another student visa starting after graduation. If she doesn’t get in, she plans to work for a year and try to reapply.
Khushi said she and Lay have nothing waiting for them back in Canada — no family, no home and likely no friends who could take them in.
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In May, Lay and Khushi traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for students like them. They’re members of Improve the Dream, an organization that supports people who, like the Patels, have grown up in the U.S. as child dependents of visa holders.
The group met with lawmakers in support of the America’s Children Act, which would provide a path to permanent residency for children who were brought to the U.S. as dependents and protect them from aging out of the system. It would also provide work authorization to children at least 16 years old of long-term visa holders whose green card applications are pending.
Dip Patel, founder of Improve the Dream, is also a documented Dreamer. He believes that when DACA was created, lawmakers never considered children raised and educated here on a legal status.
Improve the Dream recently succeeded in having a modified version of the America’s Children Act offered to be added as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA is legislation that Congress passes each year. If the House and Senate approve the amendment, there’s a high likelihood it will become law by the end of the year when the NDAA passes. The amendment went to the House floor for a vote July 14.
While there’s still a long road to go, Dip said, this strategy is likely the best shot at having protections against aging out become law by the end of the year.
Dip said that, while the ultimate goal is a pathway to American citizenship, he’s most focused for now on helping others like him stay in the country they grew up in.
“I consider myself an American, whether it’s on paper or not,” Dip said. “We do want to become American citizens, but most importantly and most immediately is just not being forced to leave.”
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For his last semester at IU, Lay plans to keep grinding out his classes, advocating for Improve the Dream and trying to find a job. He’s excited to take more media classes and become more independent.
But as graduation nears, fears about his future loom over him. He believes he can succeed on his own, but knows there are heavier worries to consider.
“When I think about graduating, I think about finally becoming independent for myself and just moving on from IU,” Lay said. “I definitely think I have the tools to do well after I graduate, but having a limbo of visas I have to consider, I have to think about more than just graduation. I have to think about, after I graduate, how will I stay here?”
