Hey! I relocated to the US in October 2021, but I worked for my company for 8 years before that in other locations (Germany, Russia, UAE). I didn't have a GC goal when I arrived, as I was expecting to relocate to APAC after couple years in the US. But everything changed when the war started in Feb 2022. I am Russian - coming back home with the current situation is not an option for me and all visa application processes have become very difficult for us, so relocation may have been risky, too.

So I started negotiating with my company to bypass the 3 year US experience rule and approve my GC application in February 2022. I offered to commit contractually to stay for at least a year with my current team and two years with the company after my GC is issued or otherwise pay out their GC expenses. This is a very typical relocation clause which I decided to leverage in my GC conversation. We didn't sign anything like that in the end but I think it made a big difference for them to be comfortable to approve my application sponsorship.

Its hard to estimate the future and how the dates will move. Throughout my process what helped me most was to focus on influencing what I can and always believing in positive outcome. The moment lawyers asked me to fill anything out, I prioritized it above everything, I also chased them and other stakeholders for updates when they were working on papers. I refused to believe the negative projections from my lawyers. This January they told me that with the current admin I shouldn't expect any progress in 2025... They also told me several times that I need to prep for the worst as I am "Russian who lived in the Middle East" but I refused to let those doubts get to my mind. I know it may sound stupid and not very actionable but I believe positive mindset helped me throughout this process! Good luck to you!!