A Nepal-born software engineer who once walked away from a nearly $300,000 compensation package at Google after repeated H-1B visa lottery rejections says he and his wife have finally received their U.S. green cards, ending what he described as a long and emotional immigration journey.
San Francisco-based founder Pratik Karki shared the news in a viral post on X on Wednesday, calling the milestone deeply personal and dedicating it to his father, who gave up his own American dream years ago to raise his children in Nepal.
“GOT OUR GREEN CARDS TODAY! Here’s the full story, no BS, and a special thank you to my dad,” Karki wrote.
Karki said his connection to the United States began long before his career in tech. His father had once worked in the U.S. as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. But after Karki’s parents separated, his father chose to return to Nepal to raise him and his brother.
According to Karki, his father gave up the life he had built in America so the family could stay together. The family later moved into a small attic room at his grandparents’ house in Nepal, where Karki spent much of his childhood.
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“Going back to Nepal was the only way. He walked away from everything he had built in America for us,” Karki wrote. “We moved to my grandparent’s house in a small room in the attic.”
Years later, Karki returned to the United States and landed a lucrative engineering role at Google.
Despite the high-paying job and stable career, his future in the country depended on the H-1B visa lottery, which randomly selects applicants for work authorization each year.
“Two years ago I got rejected from the H1B lottery at Google for the fourth time,” he wrote. “I sat with the email for a long time before I told anyone.”
Karki described the uncertainty and fear that followed, saying he faced the possibility of leaving behind his wife, pets, and the life they had built together in San Francisco.
“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 wrote.
According to Karki, a late-night conversation with his wife became the turning point in his life and career.
“She told me we had enough saved to stay afloat, and that this was my dream after all,” he said. “That was all the conviction I needed.”
Soon after, Karki left Google at age 27, giving up what he described as “close to $300K in yearly comp.” He then began exploring startup ideas with founders and mentors across San Francisco.
During that period, he said he identified what he believed was a major opportunity in the artificial intelligence space after seeing failed AI pilots during his time at Google.
“What had been an intuition from failed AI pilots at Google turned into a real product opportunity,” he wrote.
Karki later met his co-founder Mannat at a founders event in San Francisco. The two eventually launched Anthromind, a startup focused on building what Karki called “the definitive human data layer for frontier labs and enterprise AI teams.”
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He also revealed that he pursued an O-1 visa, which is granted to individuals with extraordinary ability, and handled much of the groundwork himself by building a portfolio through his Google career, hackathon judging, and published writing.
“The case got approved,” he wrote.
Karki said the green card approval followed afterward, bringing an end to years of uncertainty tied to the U.S. immigration system.
“Today my wife and I are both holding our green cards,” he wrote. “Two immigrants, one company, one kitchen table conversation that changed everything.”
He ended the post with a message to his father: “Baba, this one is for you, thanks to all your sacrifices and lessons.”
While Karki said “the immigration journey is over,” he added that “Anthromind is just getting started.”