"Wanted bride for green card holder. Girl should be fair, slim, tall and H-1B visa holder."
This, in sum, is the new-age matrimonial ad being taken out by an increasing number of US-based NRIs.
It’s a need born out of compulsion. Green card holders, until now the most sought-after grooms in the marriage market, are increasingly finding brides hard to come by.
For, thanks to US immigration laws, it is difficult for them to take their brides home—if they do not come packaged with an H1B of their own—and parents are averse to keeping the bride at home and risking longterm abandonment.
There have been many cases of brides being left behind for five years or longer as a visa could not be processed because she is dependent on her husband’s green card. "
It is getting difficult to find matches for men with green cards.
No parent wants to risk keeping the bride at home as the groom cannot take her with him. Girls’ parents are all asking for more stable matches," said D V Koti Reddy, who runs a marriage bureau in Banjara Hills. And so, out-of-demand green card holders are searching for girls with credentials enough to get themselves an H-1B that will guarantee her entry into the US— with or without a husband.
A person can stay in the US for six years on an H-1B visa and in the meantime apply for a green card—which takes up to five years to process.
If not an H-1B visa holder, the green card hordes are also looking for girls with F-1 or student visas, who can be taken to the far shore in a shorter time.
Or they have the option of looking for someone with a K-visa, or fiance visa. If the girl’s parents are willing, the marriage takes place in the US instead of India. The engaged couple can enter the US with the girl carrying the K-1 visa and marry within 90 days. After the wedding, they can apply for a green card. But most girls’ parents are averse to the idea of sending their daughter to the US with a stranger without getting them married first, said a marriage consultant.
So, if green card holder is not no. 1, who is? For girls the best bet is someone who is working on an H-1B, but is already a year or so into processing his green card. This will enable the girl to go to the US on an H-4 visa as a dependent on a H-1B.
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