Overview
- Aishani B, a senior engineer at Microsoft, said she entered the H‑1B visa lottery seven times from 2019 to 2025 and was never picked, a story she shared in a LinkedIn and X post that drew wide attention.
- She left the United States for Canada in 2022 to keep working, then returned in 2023 on an L‑1 intracompany transfer while Microsoft continued submitting H‑1B filings.
- Her U.S. permanent residency arrived in 2025 through the EB‑1 category, a green card path for people with exceptional records, which differs from the temporary H‑1B work visa.
- She described how repeated rejections wore down her confidence, then urged others to focus on skills and progress built between setbacks rather than the rejection count.
- Financial Express reports recent H‑1B policy shifts that favor weighted selection and add higher fees for some overseas hires, highlighting why workers and employers look to options like L‑1 transfers and EB‑1.